Once Again, It's Pumpkin Everything in the Food World

Pumpkin everything season now begins in late summer. Starbucks showed imagination in launching its Pumpkin Spice Latte via live-streaming, building on anticipation from fans. Dunkin' Donuts is doubling down on pumpkin coffees and muffins: "We’ve seen our fans ask for pumpkin earlier and earlier each year," the company explains.

In general, pumpkin everything is turning everything orange in the food aisles and in cafes well before autumn arrives. Some marketers, like Krispy Kreme, really limit the limited-time pumpkin trend: It will offer a pumpkin-spice doughnut for one day only.

Other marketers are riding the pumpkin wave for weeks or months. How about a Kit Kat Pumpkin Pie bar? Or pumpkin spice breakfast cereals like Cheerios? Pumpkin everything reigns in food marketing for autumn.

Marketing Pumpkin Everything in Autumn

Despite the great pumpkin shortage of 2015, autumn is the time when pumpkin invades the food world. In 2003, Starbucks and its marketing muscle helped launch this now annual fad of pumpkin-inspired beverages, desserts, and other foods of the season.

The marketing approach involves generating excitement for a flavor that many love but only offering products with pumpkin for a limited time. In other words: "Hurry and buy before it's gone and you have to wait another year."

And it works: According to the NPD Group, the average transaction for a purchase involving pumpkin-seasonal food/beverage is higher than without the pumpkin. This is a powerful profit reason for many marketers to jump on the pumpkin bandwagon.

A few samples of pumpkin marketing this fall:

• Starbucks is adding real pumpkin to its Pumpkin Spice Latte, the original seasonal favorite that kicked off the pumpkin craze. 
• Pumpkin Ale is a seasonal specialty at Saint Louis Brewery and at a growing number of other breweries, including Colorado's Upslope Brewing.
• Dunkin' Donuts has gone wild with pumpkin for its 65th anniversary, offering donuts, coffees, and much more.
• M&Ms now come in a seasonal pumpkin spice latte flavor.
• Quaker Oatmeal has a seasonal pumpkin flavor too.

Scarcity Marketing for Halloween

You know it's autumn when Starbucks puts pumpkin spice lattes back on the menu. The company has sold 200 million of these lattes in nine years on the market. This year, it's got lots of competition: Panera, McDonald's, and Dunkin' Donuts are in the pumpkin spiced coffee business, as well. A quick Google search of "pumpkin coffee" brings up many other competing products from retailers like Trader Joe's and Fairway.

Halloween is also a time for unusual limited-time food and beverage treats.

• One bakery in New York is making Cheetos macarons (who could make this up?). 
• Of course Oreos are out in their Halloween finery (at right). 
• Jones Soda is bringing back its Halloween flavors. 
• Cadbury Screme Eggs are back, from Hershey. 

Scarcity marketing generally adds to the excitement of limited-time and seasonal flavors and foods, encouraging people to buy now before it's too late.