National Fruit was looking to expand their shelf footprint while responding to trends in the packaged fruit category. Trading on nearly a century’s worth of brand recognition in the apple sauce and apple cider vinegar categories, White House has a strong showing in the southern and eastern seaboard states. Consumers are turning towards products that are low in sugar as healthy alternatives for lunch and snacks.

Water Street worked with closely with the brand team at National Fruit to develop a new product line, Fruit-in-Juice, to be sold under their flagship brand.

Starting with focus groups and market research, our team helped the product development team with flavor identities, packaging structure, and portion size. Over several roundtable discussions, we gathered information by observing shoppers interact with the brand and describe their experience with buying and serving both apple sauce and other snack-sized fruit products.

Despite heavy competition from other global food manufacturers in the fruit category, brand recognition for White House remained strong in the market test regions. Because of this strong brand loyalty to White House, it was not surprising that the more literal description of “fruit in juice” was the winning product name for this line extension. Shoppers responded to the brand name first, and the product descriptor was incentive enough to try something new.

Capitalizing on high consumer interest in healthier snack foods, Water Street developed aisle and endcap graphics, tasting table materials, as well as advertising and coupon programs that reflected a fresh, exciting image that delivered a strong story to reinforced that fruit cups were not sauces, but chunks of real fruit packed in one hundred percent fruit juice.

Readily accepted by National Fruit’s existing merchant relationships, Fruit-in-Juice rolled out to grocery stores in Florida, Georgia, and parts of Alabama with the first of four flavors, Apple and Apple-Peach.