Blog #2: Pumpkin, Pumpkin everywhere!

“Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back!” 

“Try our new pumpkin muffins!” 

These are some examples of seasonal offerings that businesses bring back year after year for the fall season. Every fall businesses take advantage of the change in season to offer a variety of seasonal pumpkin products. From pumpkin bagels to pumpkin coffee to pumpkin cookies, there isn’t a kind of food you can’t get pumpkin flavored. Take a look at these different Pepperidge Farm pumpkin products!

Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks are probably the most well known for their pumpkin lattes and coffee drink offerings.  Both also offer a variety of pumpkin flavored foods to pair with their beverages. The classic image of a “white girl” in the fall is one with a Pumpkin Spice Latte in her hand. Even restaurants, bakeries, and ice cream companies are jumping on the pumpkin flavor train by offering new desserts and delicacies in this popular flavor.

Why do people love pumpkin so much? Pumpkin officially kicks off the beginning of the holiday season. It reminds us of all the things we love about this time of the year, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. When businesses offer pumpkin products they are tapping into the consumer’s nostalgia. Consuming pumpkin products is a fall trend that many people follow. Trends are very influential on consumer's purchasing decisions. People want to follow what everyone else is doing and during the fall the flavor on everyone's mind is pumpkin!

Offering pumpkin products around this time of the year may be part of a business’ marketing plan, which is a plan that incorporates the marketing mix to provide a product or service to buyers. Let's use Starbucks for an example. 

The first of the marketing mix elements is product strategy. Starbucks’ product for this example is the Pumpkin Spice Latte. They may decide to target it towards two types of market segments: teenagers and college students and an older group of maybe 30-40-year-olds. The price would be standard for both groups and for Starbucks is $3.75 for a “tall” (which is a small at Starbucks) latte. As for place, the pumpkin spice latte is available for purchase at any Starbucks location. Also, you can purchase a blend of Starbucks Instant Pumpkin Spice Latte online at store.starbucks.com. By offering it online, they are making it more available and convenient for their customers. This would particularly appeal to people who don’t live near a Starbucks. They can quickly make their own coffee in the morning and save money, too.  Now for the last part: the promotion. Starbucks displays many posters and banners in the store windows that announce the return of the latte. I found an interesting article that announced a new ingredient in Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte. To my surprise, that new ingredient is real pumpkin! The article talks about how Starbucks is getting rid of the caramel coloring and using real pumpkin. This is a very big promotional strategy, as it will appeal to health-conscious people. I think it was a very good decision on Starbucks' part to make this switch as more and more people care about staying away from artificial flavors. 

Overall, a business' use of seasonal changes to offer specialty products can be very beneficial. Last fall, Starbucks reported a 10% sales increase in the fiscal fourth quarter, the time where the demand for the Pumpkin Spice Latte is very high. As a result, Starbucks offered the Pumpkin Spice Latte earlier this year starting in September. 

Lastly, here's a list of some very outrageous pumpkin                  flavored products. 

1. Pumpkin pie spice potato               chips

2. Pumpkin marshmallows

3. Pumpkin soy milk

4. Pumpkin spice fettuccini 

5. Pumpkin spice hummus

6. Pumpkin spice yogurt

7. Pumpkin spice gum

8. Pumpkin spice butter

9. Pumpkin spice Burnett's

10. Pumpkin spice fourLoko

             Final question: Would you eat any of these?

This is the link to the article announcing the use of real pumpkin. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte-made-actual-pumpkin-year/story?id=33140320

Sources:

http://hambycatering.com/blog/its-fall-yall/

http://www.foodbeast.com/news/pepperidge-unveils-new-pumpkin-products-at-the-eleventh-hour/

http://fortune.com/2014/10/30/starbucks-pumpkin-latte-sales/

http://totalsororitymove.com/the-29-most-ridiculous-pumpkin-spice-products-weve-seen-this-year/
https://www.pinterest.com/shuallen/e-card-laugh-hard/

Blog 1. Using apps to target consumers

The invention of the iPhone has enhanced the lives of many through its many helpful resources. It combined the functions of a music player, computer, and phone into one portable device. The reason for the iPhone’s widespread satisfaction for people of all ages is largely attributed to one key component. Apps.

The definition of an app is “a self-contained program or piece of software designed to fulfill a particular purpose”. As far as I’m concerned apps fulfill just about any purpose, want, or need imaginable. The abundance of information that apps provide us with is endless. I’m doubtful that many people have run into the problem of not being able to find an app to fulfill a particular function. There’s an app for everything.

The popularity of iPhones and the use of apps has created a wonderful marketing tool for many businesses. Since we are constantly on our phones using apps, businesses use them to target potential consumers.

One of my favorite apps that I use many times a day is Spotify. Spotify is a music app that offers every genre of music with playlists for any time of the day.  I recently “splurged” and am paying $.99 cents a month (only for the first three months) for Spotify Premium, which allows you to listen to any song, anywhere you want at any time. You can make your own playlists of favorite songs and utilize Spotify’s mood playlists as well. For me, the most noteworthy difference between the free version of Spotify and Premium is the advertisements.

Before I entered the wonderful world of Spotify Premium, my Spotify experience was bombarded with ads. Many of you who don’t have Premium probably know that familiar voice that says “watch this short video for thirty minutes of ad free music”, followed by a catchy tune and a couple of advertisements. I don’t know how many times I’ve been running on the treadmill when my music stops and is interrupted for an ad. It makes it pretty hard to have the motivation to keep running when I can hear my panting as I wait for the advertisements to finish.

Although it is an impediment to myself as well as many others, advertisements on Spotify can be a successful marketing tool for many businesses. Take, for example, graze.com, a start-up company that offers snacks by mail. They promote “a new way to snack” through healthy, low-calorie snacks sent right to your door. Graze uses Spotify to appeal to tech-savvy people with healthy lifestyles. They used a campaign based on audio messages and featured a banner offering a discount for new customers.  Graze exhibited two of the four P’s of the marketing mix; product and promotion. Their product is a box of nutritious snacks available for purchase online and they offered a promotion of a free snack box for new customers. Spotify ended up being the most cost efficient form of advertising for Graze and they continue to use it to gain more customers.

Example of the promotional banner Graze used to promote their new product.

Businesses with ads on Spotify can use different marketing techniques to reach their target market. Content targeting is used to feature ads to listeners with particular interests and tastes by tracking favorite genres and playlists. There is also demographic targeting, which targets specific locations, genders, or ages. Businesses can also choose specific times of the day to feature their ads. 

Although I prefer to listen to my music without the annoyance of interrupting ads, if I was in charge of promoting a particular product or service I’m pretty certain I would use Spotify to do so.

Sources:

https://www.spotify.com/us/brands/gallery/graze-new-way-to-snack/

http://racepacejess.com/running-app-round-up-our-running-buddies-share-what-apps-they-love-why/