North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Michael Dossett <phainopepla@yahoo.com>]

Melissa,
 
Protecting brand recognition is also part of it, though it is secondary to 
managing supply.  There are several cases where brand protection has been 
attempted in apples through the use of trademarked names rather than limiting 
supply (in addition to quality) by buying into the club.  For example, Pink 
Lady is the trademarked name for Cripp's Pink.  Pink Lady sells for a 
slightly higher price in the store because of the brand premium, but growers 
have to pay a licensing fee to be able market their fruit as Pink Lady and 
are contractually only allowed to market the high quality product that way.  
Lower quality apples may still be sold, but must be sold/marketed as Cripp's 
Pink.  This protects the brand, but does little to manage supply and demand 
when people realize that they are the same variety.  There is even an 
instance of rebranding where an apple was sold under one trademarked name and 
was a flop because of poor quality in the marketplace, so
 they trademarked a second name and began marketing fruit under the new name, 
where it was slightly more successful but still never really took off.  Wish 
I could remember what it was off the top of my head - I may have to do some 
digging to figure it out.
 
I guess for home gardeners the net result is the same, and it is an 
unfortunate trend. The days of publically released varieties are quickly 
coming to an end and even non club cultivars of a variety of fruits are often 
difficult to obtain because of license restrictions.  I suppose the only 
consolation is that if it is truly a fantastic variety, it will have staying 
power and will still be around and will be more available after the patent 
has expired.
 
Michael
 

Michael Dossett
Mission, British Columbia
www.Mdossettphoto.com
phainopepla@yahoo.com 


On Wednesday, August 20, 2014 1:06 PM, Melissa Kacalanos via nafex 
<nafex@lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:
  


It was my understanding that the club varieties are about protecting the 
brand name recognition of certain apple varieties. To qualify as a member of 
the club, apple farmers don't just pay a licensing fee, but commit to selling 
fruit only of a high enough quality to keep the public convinced that apples 
of that variety are worth their premium price. The farmers have to meet some 
standards of thinning, picking only when actually ripe, proper storage, and 
so on. 

Since protecting the perception of their brand name is a major goal, I can 
understand why breeders don't want just anyone selling apples by these 
trademarked names. It only takes a few badly-grown apples for consumers to 
lose faith in the superiority of these trademarked names. And I'm sure they 
don't want any wormy backyard amateur apples sullying the good names of these 
carefully megafarmed varieties. 

But don't worry, I'm sure these varieties will become available to everyone 
as soon as the breeders come up with the latest varieties to replace them 
with.

Melissa

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>From mdemmon@gmail.com  Wed Aug 20 17:10:41 2014
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That is very interesting about Pink Lady. No restrictions on growing, but
having to meet certain quality standards to buy into the brand. I would
like that if it actually guaranteed good apples.

I bought some Pink Lady from a small grocer last week that were terrible,
truly distinctly awful, mushy and flavorless. I wonder if they paid their
license fee. Generally they are quite good for a grocery store apple.

-matt
z5 SE MI


On Wed, Aug 20, 2014 at 4:55 PM, Michael Dossett via nafex <
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:

> Melissa,
>
> Protecting brand recognition is also part of it, though it is secondary to
> managing supply.  There are several cases where brand protection has been
> attempted in apples through the use of trademarked names rather than
> limiting supply (in addition to quality) by buying into the club.  For
> example, Pink Lady is the trademarked name for Cripp's Pink.  Pink Lady
> sells for a slightly higher price in the store because of the brand
> premium, but growers have to pay a licensing fee to be able market their
> fruit as Pink Lady and are contractually only allowed to market the high
> quality product that way.  Lower quality apples may still be sold, but must
> be sold/marketed as Cripp's Pink.  This protects the brand, but does little
> to manage supply and demand when people realize that they are the same
> variety.  There is even an instance of rebranding where an apple was sold
> under one trademarked name and was a flop because of poor quality in the
> marketplace, so
>  they trademarked a second name and began marketing fruit under the new
> name, where it was slightly more successful but still never really took
> off.  Wish I could remember what it was off the top of my head - I may have
> to do some digging to figure it out.
>
> I guess for home gardeners the net result is the same, and it is an
> unfortunate trend. The days of publically released varieties are quickly
> coming to an end and even non club cultivars of a variety of fruits are
> often difficult to obtain because of license restrictions.  I suppose the
> only consolation is that if it is truly a fantastic variety, it will have
> staying power and will still be around and will be more available after the
> patent has expired.
>
> Michael
>
>
> Michael Dossett
> Mission, British Columbia
> www.Mdossettphoto.com
> phainopepla@yahoo.com
>
>
> On Wednesday, August 20, 2014 1:06 PM, Melissa Kacalanos via nafex <
> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> It was my understanding that the club varieties are about protecting the
> brand name recognition of certain apple varieties. To qualify as a member
> of the club, apple farmers don't just pay a licensing fee, but commit to
> selling fruit only of a high enough quality to keep the public convinced
> that apples of that variety are worth their premium price. The farmers have
> to meet some standards of thinning, picking only when actually ripe, proper
> storage, and so on.
>
> Since protecting the perception of their brand name is a major goal, I can
> understand why breeders don't want just anyone selling apples by these
> trademarked names. It only takes a few badly-grown apples for consumers to
> lose faith in the superiority of these trademarked names. And I'm sure they
> don't want any wormy backyard amateur apples sullying the good names of
> these carefully megafarmed varieties.
>
> But don't worry, I'm sure these varieties will become available to
> everyone as soon as the breeders come up with the latest varieties to
> replace them with.
>
> Melissa
>
> __________________
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> nafex list mirror sites:
> http://groups.google.com/group/nafexlist
> https://sites.google.com/site/nafexmailinglist
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