CMI Orchards’ Rochelle Bohm Discusses First-Of-Its-Kind Apple Crush® Offering

WENATCHEE, WA - Today’s shoppers don’t just speak with words—they speak in swipes. Over half of consumers are fluent in Digital Interaction, their true second language. Now, an innovation looks to make an expert match between consumers and their new favorite apples.

CMI Orchards’ Rochelle Bohm, Vice President of Marketing, broke the numbers down for me on how roughly 56 percent of today’s marketplace was born after 1980, growing up alongside the normalization of computers and in-home internet access:

• Millennials: 21.71 percent of the market
• Gen Z: 20.69 percent of the market
• Gen Alpha: 12.76 percent of the market

And now, CMI is stepping up with a breakthrough solution that allows retailers to turn industry expertise into consumer connection, spoken fluently in the language today’s shoppers know best.

“Retailers are serving a consumer base that is digitally fluent, social-media driven, and eager for personalization. These generations care deeply about brand values and prefer experiences that feel tailored to them,” Rochelle said. “Apple Crush® is a first-of-its-kind digital engagement tool built to help retailers attract, educate, and excite today’s younger shoppers. We’ve all heard of dating apps where you swipe left, swipe right—so we created a matchmaking platform that pairs consumers with the perfect apple variety based on their personal flavor and texture preferences.”

An interactive platform, Apple Crush curates apple recommendations, with fun facts, flavor notes, personality match highlights, and suggested best uses for each variety the same way many fashion, exercise, and dating applications have begun to dominate the buying experience. Asking a few quick questions to personalize the experience, it’s a playful, low-effort way for consumers to engage with apples, discover something new, increase category confidence, and drive trial varietal trial and trade-ups.

“For retailers, Apple Crush offers customization opportunities that align the platform with their specific category set, branding, and promotional priorities. Even more valuable, the tool can capture real-time consumer preference data, helping retailers understand which attributes resonate most with their audience, informing smarter assortment, merchandising, and promotional decisions,” Rochelle pointed out.

The demand behind Apple Crush, she shared, is rooted in a simple but powerful consumer truth: shoppers are faced with an ever-expanding, even overwhelming, range of apple choices.

“The platform features high-flavor, premium varieties, like Cosmic Crisp®, Ambrosia Gold®, Kanzi®, KIKU®, EverCrisp®, Jazz™, Envy™, and SugarBee®, as well as beloved category staples such as Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Pink Lady®, Gala, and Honeycrisp. This balanced approach ensures that every shopper, from adventurous foodies to traditionalists, can find their perfect match,” Rochelle said.

Meanwhile, the grower is supporting adoption with a suite of in-store and online activation components. CMI’s retail partners can leverage display bins, QR codes, and digital assets to seamlessly guide shoppers into the experience at the point of purchase or through their ecommerce and social platforms.

Fun identifiers like Star Gazer (Cosmic Crisp®), Vibe Seeker (Kanzi®), Original Gangster (Red Delicious), and more, make variety assignments a personality trait consumers can wear proudly in their fresh foodie journey. And retailers can have confidence in Apple Crush not just as a standalone tech offering, but a natural next step in CMI’s long-standing commitment to building excitement in the apple category while educating consumers.

“An extension of CMI’s proprietary flavor tool, Flavogram®, Apple Crush helps shoppers visualize and compare apple flavor profiles, from sweet to tart and across flavor nuances, throughout every stage of the eating experience. Building on the same concepts, data, and decision trees that power Flavogram, we’ve created a platform that flips the script. Instead of simply showing consumers where each apple sits on the flavor spectrum, Apple Crush invites consumers to share personal preferences before matching them with the variety that best fits their taste, texture, and usage needs,” Rochelle concluded.

Personalization, a fun quiz, and easy features that lay an established map of digital success across the fresh produce landscape. I, for one, cannot wait to see what direction Apple Crush points me toward!