Pumpkin Spice-ing Your Launch

The latest American cultural blanket bombing is, I learn, known in the trade as PSL; Pumpkin Spice Latte. And N Hemisphere Autumn is very much its season. Which this year sees the flavour now infest all manner of other coffee shop goods.

Bizarrely, one element seldom present seems be actual pumpkin. In a tale eerily reminiscent of the famed Worcestershire Sauce crisp flavour fail, before rebrand as Thai Sweet Chili, it appears to be a plain rehash of Christmas Spice. Albeit with added nutmeg perhaps, and definitely more sugar.

Seeing reviews battering Starbuck's as merely a "painfully sweet" ★☆☆☆☆ offering, I noted a terrific local urban cafe of mine talking of popping their own but drinkable version on their menu.

Where fluoro-green matcha led, PSL follows.

In my nearby case, there's possibly been the classic friction between 'perfect' and 'good'. In essence, a ten-day lag between idea and release.

With punters coming in and asking for it, the item was created, and set up on the till. Swift action. Plenty of time in hand before the trickle became Halloween-inspired rush.

So, off and ready?

Well, not quite.

The Specials Mini Menu needed changing. And more printouts of it delivered.

Then there's the social media posts. Photo required.

Which I have to say when done, saw our hero drink beautifully be-creamed, surrounded by lovely leaf-fall, in glorious liminal lighting.

At that point, their blackboards trumpeted the new arrival.

Whether this retail example of product launch delay really mattered is not our point. Because in Enterprise settings, it most definitely does. One I sadly see all too often.

Not that we ought hurry through slapdash any precious new release. But when is anything ever absolutely perfect to Go Live? There is vast yet frequently overlooked connecting terrain.

Here's a starter trio of options.

Soft Launch. In this case, product line extension. Marketing can catch up.

Alpha Testing. A coffee shop must have regulars. Some may even have an account. Others happy to talk about issues beyond the weather. Simply mentioning there's a newbie to try will generate sales.

Not New. And one angle barely used yet can be a winner, is to not treat it like a new product at all. This prevailing counter mindset works because a majority do not care for anything framed as 'new'. What's fresh for the vendor doesn't make any difference to the buyer. So you can start without a fanfare sometimes then grow.

Footnotes:

[1] Hats off to the barista who, when receiving a PSL order, then asked if they'd like to go "full pumpkin", and couple the drink with the similarly enhanced doughnut.

[2] The Specials menu in the frame is a neat touch, coming about primarily to stop customers mistakenly taking the paper napkin dispenser apart but turned out to be a promotional winner too.