SUMO CITRUS — Sign of Super-Sized Flavor?

While many other places in the country are enjoying signs of spring, here in the Twin Cities, we’re hanging on to the white stuff, for a while longer; we shoveled 22 inches worth this past weekend!

There’s something about our long winter here that makes fresh fruit in the grocery store all the more appealing, interesting, and engaging, especially when it’s an ordeal to even get to the store:

So, it’s not exactly Buddha’s Hand, but the enormous SUMO Citrus displays have caught my attention and interest this winter. This time, the brand name is actually the largest wording:

SUMO as a brand of food, has the initial challenge of overcoming the frequent “you are what you eat” admonition, and any resulting fear of the mark describing the results of over-consumption.

And, the promotion as “the sweetest citrus you’ll ever eat,” perhaps reinforces the concern, but the silly rotund shape of the fruit itself and the informative tagline helps prove a different meaning.

The combination of those additional brand elements helped convince me of its overall cleverness and suggestiveness, especially after reading the SUMO Citrus story, and seeing the “top-knot”:

“It is the biggest mandarin you’ve ever seen. It has a distinctive shape with a prominent “top-knot.” The peel is bright orange, bumpy and loose so it peels effortlessly. The delicate sections separate easily. It’s seedless, juicy without being messy, and it is quite probably the sweetest citrus you’ll ever eat.”

SUMO kudos to the creative who saw the Japanese “knot-top” (a/k/a “man bun“) in the fruit.

Less kudos for the apparent decision to only seek registration of the composite SUMO CITRUS, and not the broader and stronger SUMO mark itself without the other generic wording or man bun.

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