CHELAN, WA - There has been much written about windows, but how many of them were cherry-shaped? If you did a double-take, your reaction matched mine when I laid eyes on the latest cherry pouch bags rolled out by Chelan Fresh over the first half of this year.

This new take on cherry-packaging-with-a-view, as Director of Marketing Mac Riggan tells me, serves as an artful way to show the product while differentiating it from similar pack approaches.

“It is impossible to look at these new cherry designs and not quickly understand what we are selling…CHERRIES,” Mac emphasizes, telling me that customers reported having a hard time knowing when fresh cherry season starts or ends at retail. “Most consumers know they should be able to find cherries ‘around July 4th,’ but they may not be recognizing fresh cherries on the shelf the weeks prior and after the holiday.”

Cherries come into the stores seasonally, and retailers generally carve space out for them in the grape or berry category. This, the Chelan team learned, can confuse shoppers because—I can’t believe I didn’t notice this earlier—most cherry packaging is remarkably similar to that of red grapes when you’re 10 to 15 feet away.

“I do not think we will continue to have that challenge with these new designs,” Mac says confidently.

The Chelan team did not execute the design lightly, ensuring that everything from the white background of the bag frames to the cherry-shaped window draws the eye more quickly to the fruit versus the bag.

Chelan Fresh began integrating this new look at the end of the 2018 season and now has the full lineup for all its varieties going into 2019, including Dark Sweet, Rainier, and Organic Cherries. The pouch bags come in 2.25 lbs for Red Sweet cherries and 1.25 lbs for Rainier cherries, as well as the same sizes for their organic counterparts.

And the snazzy bag isn’t all retailers can look forward to.

“Additionally, we have added a pop-top messenger lid that covers the cherries while in shipping and then folds in half to become a retail-grabbing message board at store-level,” Mac says.

When I ask if this latest approach is cherry-specific, he tells me to keep my eyes peeled.

“We are constantly reviewing all of our consumer packaging to ensure we are consistent in how we present our programs holistically. You will definitely see more design and packaging updates from Chelan Fresh in near the future,” he assures me.

In addition to these new bags, Chelan Fresh will continue to have a wide variety of cherry pack options, including a 1 lb, 2 lb, 3 lb, and 4 lb clamshell that gives retailers additional options for capitalizing on cherry sales for the summer. How’s that for a window of opportunity?

Chelan Fresh