• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

SoVerve Marketing Group

Orlando Boutique Marketing Agency, Blending Customer-Centric Marketing with Feminine Inspired Brand Messaging

  • Who We Are
    • Stephanie Rubio
    • Press & Media
    • Careers & Internships
    • SoVerve Gives Program
    • Military Discount Program
  • What We Do
    • Brand Strategy & Identity
    • Social Media Marketing
    • Content Marketing
    • Email Marketing
    • Web Design
    • Coaching
  • Who We Serve
    • Testimonials & Praises
    • Frequent Questions
  • Blog
    • Blog Archives
  • Podcast
  • Contact
    • Consultations
  • Holidays

The Marketing Behind The Pumpkin Spiced Latte

10/16/2019 by The Editorial Team

Nothing symbolizes the arrival of fall like the pumpkin spiced latte. Even if the weather is still balmy, one sip of this soothing concoction transports you to the season of golds, reds, and oranges. It’s like fall in a cup and has the amazing ability to bring back so many great memories.

With this famous seasonal drink, Starbucks has fueled a 500million dollar craze. Since it debuted in 2003, PSL has brought it about $1.4 million in sales, not to mention over 1 million hashtags; it even has its own Twitter account. It’s a real force to be reckoned with, but the marketing behind the success behind the pumpkin spiced latte is the real winner!

The Marketing Behind The Pumpkin Spiced Latte - SoVerve Marketing Group - Orlando Marketing, Orlando Marketing Agency, Orlando Branding, Orlando Web Design, Orlando Content Marketing, Orlando SEO, Orlando Email Marketing, Lake Nona Marketing, Lake Nona Marketing Agency, Lake Nona Branding, Lake Nona Web Design, Lake Nona Content Marketing, Lake Nona SEO, Lake Nona Email Marketing

For us marketers, the success story of PSL and how Starbucks infused that brand story by connecting it to the product and having consumers drive the campaign contains some valuable lessons. Here we’ve got three lessons from pumpkin spiced latte that you can utilize for your marketing.

Lesson #1: Limited availability

Pumpkin Spiced Latte is the epitome of a limited availability product. Despite customer pleas, Starbucks has not relented and agreed to sell the drink year-round: a wise marketing move. They’re here one season and gone the next. People are so aware that they might not get another chance to drink them that they’ll go out of their way to stop at Starbucks; Starbucks staff have stories about 5 or 6 being bought at once!

Apply this lesson: It’s a well-known marketing fact that scarcity increases desirability. Products feel more valuable and exclusive when they’re not always available; it creates urgency. Whether you sell products or provide a service, offer limited-time offers. The holiday season is a great time to do this, of course, but any time of year works. For example, in summer we often see a slowdown in sales, so if you make certain services and products only available over summer, you’ll see a better return. Spring is also a good time to boost those beginning-of-year sales.

Bonus tip: With short term offers, make sure you get feedback on the service or product so you can make it even better next time around. That’s what keeps people coming back for more. Who knows? They might start to anticipate your seasonal offer the same way they anticipate the return of the PSL!

Lesson #2: Focus on the experience

We touched on this above – that first sip of a pumpkin spice latte evokes your memories of falls gone by. The crispness in the air, the first emergence of seasonal decorations, the twinkling promise of the holidays. It also helps the story that pumpkin pie is a holiday tradition – most everyone will have a favorite recipe and memories associated with it.

Starbucks has strengthened this brand story by featuring PSL on engaging social media platforms that utilize user-generated content. This drives that campaign and increases people’s feeling of connection with the brand. They understand the feeling their pumpkin spiced latte gives people and effectively market that.

Apply this lesson: If you learn nothing else from the PSL marketing, learn this: brand storytelling is everything. When consumers feel a direct connection to a product or service, or the story behind it, they are more likely to buy. We find that often people will buy based on a feeling that a product gives them, rather than the product itself.

The Marketing Behind The Pumpkin Spiced Latte - SoVerve Marketing Group - Orlando Marketing, Orlando Marketing Agency, Orlando Branding, Orlando Web Design, Orlando Content Marketing, Orlando SEO, Orlando Email Marketing, Lake Nona Marketing, Lake Nona Marketing Agency, Lake Nona Branding, Lake Nona Web Design, Lake Nona Content Marketing, Lake Nona SEO, Lake Nona Email Marketing

When you’re creating a marketing campaign, always start with what drives people to make a purchase, then work backward from that point. What do you want them to feel when they’ve purchased it? Understanding that feeling is what helps you create a campaign that really resonates with people.

We know that a lot of entrepreneurs run service-based businesses. So, how do you make this PSL lesson work for you? We need to inspire that golden feeling through our interactions. This is where the onboarding process and the continuation of the client journey are so important. Through meeting expectations throughout your time with clients, you can help them feel emotionally connected to what you’re providing. It’s a little different from selling tangible goods, but referrals and praise are a sign of success.

Lesson #3: Think about what your user wants (and be careful about changing it)

Although pumpkin spiced flavor didn’t perform well during initial testing, it became very clear very quickly people loved it. Then, around 2013, Starbucks changed the flavor from something that tasted quite real to something artificial. For an expensive drink, that fake taste was not what consumers wanted. After considerable backlash, Starbucks reverted to the original drink (thankfully!). However, we’re sure it wasn’t a cheap process for them.

Apply this lesson: Naturally, when you’re creating a seasonal or short term offer, you need to think about what the user wants. After all, you’re looking to fill a gap in the market. But remember that you cannot offer something, whether it’s a service or a product, and then change it without thinking carefully about what your consumer base wants and expects from you. There’s a mutual understanding. If you want to make changes, you need to be prepared for feedback, or even for losing aspects of your customer base.

Once you give people what you want, you have to understand that if it’s popular, it’s going to be really hard to stop providing it. That’s why you should think ahead when you plan short-term offers. Can you keep providing this service or product year-in, year-out? How will you manage change? These are the kind of questions you need to ask, as we’re sure Starbucks did.

Now, go and buy yourself a pumpkin spiced latte and get working on that holiday marketing!

6 Shares
Share5
Tweet
Share
Pin1
WhatsApp

Related

Filed Under: Digital Marketing, Holiday Marketing

About The Editorial Team

A highly caffeinated team of digital marketing experts covering evergreen topics in social media marketing, email marketing, and content marketing that you can rely on!

Footer

Learn More

About • Press • Careers

Search Our Site

Contact

(800) 310-6731
hello@soverve.com
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Join Our Newsletter

  • Branding
  • Content
  • Social Media
  • Email
  • Web Design



© 2016 -2019 ·
SoVerve® Marketing Group | Terms of Use

Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Legal Notices

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Privacy Overview
SoVerve Marketing Group, Stephanie Rubio

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Additional Cookies

This website uses the following additional cookies: Facebook Pixel.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us retarget website visitors via Facebook and Instagram ads.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!

Cookie Policy

More information about our Cookie Policy

Powered by GDPR plugin