Extended seasonal promotions: Pumpkin Spice Latte and “Summerween”

You can now get your Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks. Is this a good thing? Can’t we wait until fall for pumpkins (and Halloween)? While most of us associate pumpkin spice with autumn and changing leaves, Starbucks has a bit of a gold mine in its seasonal lattes. I was shocked to read that 10% of Starbucks annual revenue comes from seasonal beverages.

So why not start the trend even earlier–this year the sales promotional beverages (Chapter 15) launched August 22 (two days earlier than last year)? While the coffee giant is struggling, and recently hired a new CEO to fix things, it appears that turning to an old favorite might be a quick hitter to boost the bottom line.

Starbucks is not alone in extending a promotional season. “Summerween” is taking over retail, with retailers from Home Depot to Target pushing Halloween merchandise as early as April. Halloween sales are important to retailers and getting displays and revenue early is driving the strategy. It can also drive traffic and sales of other products for retailers (Chapter 12).

Besides making relatable examples you can add to your lectures on consumer behavior (Chapter 5), product lines (Chapter 8), retailing (Chapter 12), and sales promotion (Chapter 15), you can use questions like the following to stimulate critical thinking and discussion. Full disclosure, the list below was initially suggested by the Claude AI tool, and was subsequently heavily edited.

1. Consumer Behavior:
   • How might the early introduction of seasonal products like the Pumpkin Spice Latte affect consumer perceptions and buying habits?
   • Discuss the psychological factors that make consumers eager to purchase seasonal items even when they’re out of season. How can marketers leverage these factors?
   • Key concepts from these questions could include:
     • The concept of cannibalization (not covered in Essentials of Marketing, but fairly easily introduced in this context), as well as brand loyalty and consumer anticipation and excitement.
     • Those pumpkin spice lattes certainly foster identity and self-expression and carrying one to class or posting it on Instagram likely leads to social influence.
     • Of course fans (and detractors) may have strong attitudes and beliefs about pumpkin spice.
2. Product Line Management:
   • What are the potential risks and benefits of extending a product’s seasonal availability, as Starbucks has done with the Pumpkin Spice Latte?
   • How can companies balance their core product offerings with seasonal items to maximize overall profitability?
   • Key discussion points from these questions might include:
     • Benefits: increased revenue, better brand awareness, and brand recognition (even moving customers up to brand insistence and brand evangelism).
     • Risks should also be considered: product fatigue, dilution of seasonal appeal, and possibly even that the season products overshadow Starbucks own brand (while not specific concepts from our textbook, they should be intuitive to students).
3. Retailing:
   • Analyze the potential impact of “Summerween” on different retail sectors. Are there some that benefit more than others? For example, does this trend favor brick-and-mortar or online retailers?
     • It seems that stores like Walmart, Target, and Michaels are promoting Halloween particularly early (more so than online retailers). This may be in an effort to foster impulse purchases (Chapter 8).
4. Sales Promotions:
   • Evaluate the effectiveness of using seasonal products as a sales promotion strategy. How does it compare to other promotional tactics?
     • Seasonal products and promotions tend to promote a sense of urgency, may accelerate consumer purchasing, and foster more frequent store visits. It also generates buzz and excitement and often nostalgia and tradition.

Overall, there are lots of fun class discussions that can be stimulated by throwing an image of Summerween or a Pumpkin Spice Latte into your lecture PowerPoints and then asking a few questions. If you need more help, consider asking ChatGPT or Claude for their ideas.