MISSION, TX – With its new brand, Lone Star Citrus Growers is tackling misperceptions about grapefruit, elevating the category and educating consumers while expanding seasonality through its Winter Sweetz brand.

To find out more about Winter Sweetz, I spoke to April Flowers, Marketing Director for Lone Star Citrus, to learn more about the grapefruit category, the unique character of winter grapefruit, and the growing opportunities to turn young consumers onto the sweet citrus treat.

“When we look at seasonality, winter grapefruit has a slightly different taste profile from summer grapefruit,” April explains. “So we knew if we could take seasonality into the picture, that would be very, very helpful.”

With its new Winter Sweetz brand, Lone Star Citrus is hard at work showing consumers that grapefruit is more than pith, peel, and tang, regardless of season; it’s a sweet, flavorful citrus offering, agreeable to many different palates. And to this end, the company has integrated “segmenting” into its various consumer marketing campaigns—showing consumers that they can cut the fruit away from the albedo for a perfectly sweet bite of grapefruit.

“We have launched many many PR campaigns. We work with food bloggers; we are very active on social media and even inbound marketing to really try to feed the consumer many, many recipe options,” notes April. “We know that if we can show them segments that are outside of that pith and peel which create that tangy taste that some people don’t like, we can give them a flavor that’s going to be more agreeable to most…It’s an exciting flavor, and when it’s brought to a recipe that’s just okay, it elevates it to the next level.”

With a brand identity and consumer campaigns that appeal to grapefruit enthusiasts and skeptics alike, Winter Sweetz is primed to hook consumers on grapefruit and keep them coming back for more.

“Branding obviously helps the consumer come back and say ‘that’s the one I had last time; I know it’s going to be good again,’” April says.

For more, check out our complete video interview above.

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Lone Star Citrus Growers