Pom Wonderful, the largest grower of the Wonderful variety of pomegranates, has shown what can be done with a relatively low profile fruit, by spending huge sums of money on promotional efforts to increase awareness and coverage of the fruit in the US media.
Consumption levels of pomegranates, both as fresh and in juice form as a health aid and cocktail ingredient, have gone through the roof as celebrity backers and consumers have sold the fruit to a nation. Pom Wonderful has made it its mission to educate consumers in North America about the pomegranate’s attributes. Now the international sales drive is about to kick-off and the UK has been selected as a prime target.
The variety is exclusively grown, marketed and sold by Pom Wonderful in the US and Canada, as well as in selected international markets. Produced in the San Joaquin valley, in central California, Wonderful is in season and available from October through to January.
Its versatility as well as its season makes the pomegranate an idea choice for the lucrative festive market, as does its distinctive red appearance and sweet flavour. Fresh Wonderful has established itself in the minds of US consumers with the promise of consistent quality across its now recognised season and the year-round availability of the company’s juice keeps the brand in the eyes of the consumer out-of-season too.
Pom Wonderful has been driven forward by the brains and motivation of a billionaire husband-and-wife partnership. Lynda and Stewart Resnick own the company and have wowed US consumers with proclamations such as “pomegranates are going to save the world” and “[pomegranates are] the greatest natural antioxidant you can consume”.
The US media in all its forms has lapped up the hyperbole with relish. The pomegranate has gained exposure on CNN, in the Wall Street Journal and in Time magazine. It has also made the most of almost constant exposure from the celebrity community, which consumes Pom Wonderful juice openly, adding to its kudos and giving it mountains of ostensibly free publicity.
Calista Flockhart, of TV’s Ally McBeal fame, has been reported as bathing in pomegranate juice, film megastars Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz have sung its praises and chat show queen Oprah Winfrey added it to her “O” list of must-consume foods and drinks.
The couple have built a reputation for pulling off astonishing product placement coups, pulling strings with high society friends to get Pom Wonderful juice into the glam events of the year - The Oscars and The Emmys.
Wealmoor Ltd has been appointed as exclusive UK marketing agent for POM Wonderful, and predicts the UK market is in for something special. “The work they are doing is an absolute revelation within this industry,” says Wealmoor commercial director Avnish Malde. “Pom Wonderful is part of a $3 billion business and able to feed off that. The amount of positive press coverage that has been generated across the US through the company’s PR machine is phenomenal and there is great mileage here in the UK for something similar.
“It is a marvellous product and with the innovative approach to marketing and financial backing behind it, we think it will soon build a significant following in the UK.”
In 2000, only four per cent of the US population had even tasted pomegranates. Lynda Resnick, who founded her own advertising agency when she was 19, has transformed all that with a gung-ho, in-your-face approach to vocal marketing and, with a degree more subtlety, through the introduction of the Pom nickname - with the eye-catching heart-shaped “O”.
The next few months are just the beginning of the push for the product in the UK.
It is highly unlikely that Pom Wonderful will be allowed to get away with adverts that scream “Cheat Death” and “It’s been around for 5,000 years. Drink it and you might too”. But can Resnick transfer her undoubted US marketing savvy across the pond with translated messages that make the same impression on the UK consumer? Don’t bet against it.
Pomegranates are one of the oldest cultivated fruits, brought to the new world in 1521 by Spanish missionaries. Native to Iran and the northern Himalayas, the fruit was naturalised to the Mediterranean region and parts of China.
The Wonderful variety is one of four varieties grown in California - the others are Early Wonderful, Grenada and Foothill - and was first planted in central California more than 100 years ago. The variety produces fruit that is traditionally wide in diameter. It can reach the size of a very large grapefruit, according to Pom Wonderful, but can be grown to different specifications.
In the UK, the British Medical Association and three royal colleges, the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Physicians, all feature the pomegranate in their coats of arms. The heraldic meanings of the pomegranate reflect the meanings of the fruit in the heraldic myth of Persephone - the persistence of life, fertility and regeneration.
The Greeks, the Jews, Christians, Buddhists and Islamists have all incorporated pomegranates into their beliefs and legends over the centuries, but more importantly in this day and age, the health benefits of both the fruit and its juice are well-documented.
There are six published medical research reports that document the findings of research on Wonderful. Three studies published between 2000 and 2002 reporting on the antioxidant activity of pomegranate juice and another three reported the correlation between consumption of pomegranate juice and heart health.
One study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition claiming that just 2oz of pomegranate juice a day for a week showed an increase of nine per cent in antioxidant activity.
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