A Lemon Grower Emphasizes Uses for Citrus Outside the Kitchen
AMERICANS on average consume only three pounds of fresh lemons annually — the equivalent of about a dozen medium lemons — compared with the 6.2 pounds Europeans consume, according to data from the Agriculture Department.
Limoneira’s campaign highlights the way lemons can be applied to beauty, health, lifestyle and cleaning.
Now Limoneira, a California grower that dates back to 1893, is introducing an advertising and marketing campaign to increase consumption that has, befitting a lemon producer, a twist.
Much of the effort, called “Unleash the Natural Power of Lemons,” highlights the fruit not merely as an ingredient in recipes but also for its uses in household and personal care.
When scanned by smartphones, QR codes printed on bags of the lemons, as well as on advertisements and store displays, take users to a Web site that has uses for lemons in categories including health, lifestyle, beauty and cleaning.
Under beauty, for example, the site suggests using lemons to create blonde highlights and as a somewhat complicated treatment for dry elbows. (“Place a few drops of baby oil into two lemon halves. Stick elbows in the lemon, tape in place and leave for up to 30 minutes.”) For the home, it suggests placing a lemon half in the refrigerator to fight odors, or using half of a lemon, gutted, as a tea light candleholder.
The goal of the campaign is to “build awareness for the Limoneira brand in a way that’s interesting and innovative” and “to grow our per-capita consumption,” said John Chamberlain, the company’s director of marketing.
Ads, which were produced internally, will begin appearing on Los Angeles magazine’s Web site Monday. Initially focusing on California, where Limoneira lemons are most common in supermarkets, the campaign will be introduced in Chicago in October and in New York early in 2013, Mr. Chamberlain said.
Since January, ads have also appeared in the print and online versions of produce trade publications including The Packer and Produce News.
About 75 percent of the company’s lemons are sold to food-service customers, and the intent of the trade ads is to bolster the consumer business by first persuading supermarket executives to carry Limoneira lemons, whose packaging and store displays highlight noncooking uses.
One such ad claims the strategy will help sell the fruit beyond its seasonal lift in the summer lemonade months: “Grow your lemon sales year-round.”
To increase what food marketers call “usage occasions,” food brands develop recipes not only to gain customers but also to entice existing ones to buy more frequently.
Pioneers of the strategy are cereal brands, which are typically consumed only in the morning but have grown as ingredients in popular recipes like Chex Mix and Rice Krispies Treats.
In a document promoting its new campaign, Limoneira said it aspired to “do for lemons what Arm & Hammer does for baking soda.”
Shortly after its introduction in 1846, consumers began writing to Arm & Hammer, a Church & Dwight brand, about the uses beyond leavening, including cleaning laundry and floors and brushing teeth. Eventually, the company introduced lines including Arm & Hammer laundry detergent (1970), toothpaste (1988) and deodorant (1994).
David Cohen, a vice president for marketing at Church & Dwight, said that today about 75 percent of American households have a box of the baking soda on hand.
While consumers most often use the product for baking, they do so using only about a teaspoon at a time, Mr. Cohen said. Far more of the product by volume goes to cleaning and other purposes, and “that’s where the revenue stream changes,” he added.
Today the brand promotes numerous household and hygiene applications for baking soda and solicits new uses on its Web site and Facebook page.
As with baking soda, alternative uses for lemons may appeal to consumers looking for more natural and safe products.
“If people have lemons in the home and you can get them to consume them in ways other than as a garnish or a food ingredient,” said Mr. Cohen of Limoneira’s approach, “and if you can translate that into a usage experience that’s safe, natural and cost-effective, I think there’s certainly an opportunity there.”
A 2005 feature on household uses for lemons in the magazine Real Simple quoted the food scientist and author Robert L. Wolke, who said, “Lemon juice is the strongest food acid in our kitchens, strong enough to make life unbearable for most bacteria.”
Citrus holds olfactory appeal for consumers, with 13 percent of air freshener users choosing orange scents and 18 percent selecting other citrus scents, including lemon, according to data from Mintel, a market research firm. Among scented candle users, 35 percent over all prefer citrus scents.
Sunkist, the cooperative of Arizona and California citrus growers, also promotes alternate uses for lemons, with a section of its Web site called Lemon-Aids making suggestions like taking a bath with slices in the water and adding peels to firewood in fireplaces. (Limoneira sold most of its lemons under the Sunkist brand until 2010 and now markets them under its own label.)
Along with its online suggestions, Limoneira is also working with what it calls “opinion leaders” to help cultivate alternative uses for lemons.
This summer, for example, the company is supplying free lemons to the Yamaguchi Salon at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village, Calif., where guests can opt for a Lemon Cooler pedicure.
“This refreshing treatment uses the natural citric acid of the fruit to help slough off dry, flaky skin while vodka is applied to act as a natural antiseptic to help cleanse the feet,” according to a promotional description. The price, $80 for a 50-minute treatment, includes a glass of lemonade.
