Pumpkin spice, with a side of self-awareness
Every September, Starbucks and cafés around the globe pull off one of the year’s most impressive marketing stunts. They make us excited to buy something we already know exists.
The pumpkin spice latte is back.
Cue the Instagram stories, the first-sip selfies and the triumphant announcements that fall has officially begun. Somewhere between the cinnamon, the whipped cream and the familiar white cup, a coffee order becomes a cultural event.
We don’t simply drink it. We welcome it back and admittedly, I’m happy to participate.
I’m 21, in my fourth year of university and living in an apartment with four other girls. My life isn’t quite the 13 Going on 30 fantasy where Jenna Rink magically becomes a big-time editor at Poise magazine ... yet.
The kitchen gets messy, somebody is always looking for something and the academic calendar has a cruel sense of humour. But I like a pumpkin spice latte and a pumpkin cream chai. I like the smell of cinnamon when the weather turns cold. I like the idea that a new season might bring a little change, even if that change amounts to swapping my iced coffee for something warm.
I don’t think that makes me predictable. I think it makes me someone who appreciates a good seasonal moment. It’s unifying.
There’s something undeniably clever about a company turning the return of a menu into an event.
Starbucks already sells us the coffee-shop fantasy: the warm cup between your hands, the smell of espresso. It’s the beginning of a season we’ve been waiting to romanticize.
Caitlin Dutt, a marketing and communications professor at St. Thomas University, said the secret is in the story a product tells.
“Story and narrative are the strongest indicators of purchasing power,” she said.
The pumpkin spice latte has quite the story, Dutt said. She pointed to the drink’s seasonality and the coziness attached to its return, which make it part of the larger fall experience.
We’re not just buying coffee. We’re buying crisp mornings, oversized sweaters and a season that feels a little more magical than the last.
Starbucks also knows that anticipation goes a long way. Dutt said the company has far more marketing power than most.
“They occupy a bigger space in the marketing world, with a greater amount of resources,” she said.
That reach helps turn a seasonal menu into an event, and the limited run adds another layer of appeal.
“It’s not available year-round,” Dutt said.
Which, of course, is the point. The drink won’t be around forever, which somehow makes the first one taste better.
You have your coffee. The season has arrived.
Isn’t that what we’re buying into every fall? The possibility that ordinary things can feel a little more extraordinary.
The funny part is that we know the candle won’t clean the apartment and the new sweater won’t make us more productive. We’re perfectly capable of recognizing fantasy for what it is.
There’s room to be self-aware and still enjoy it. You can understand the marketing strategy and still look forward to the first sip.
The real luxury is knowing you’re being sold a feeling, not just a product.
So let Starbucks have its seasonal spectacle. Let the cinnamon-scented candles burn and the oversized sweaters make their annual return.
Until next time, you can catch me in line at Starbucks for my iced pumpkin cream chai and my warm PSL. Not because I need a seasonal personality, but because I quite like the life I’m living, and every now and then it deserves a little pumpkin cream cold foam.
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