No Pumpkin Before Labor Day

Whether it's pumpkin beer or iced pumpkin cappuccinos, the signs are already out. While I let the beer slide, the sight of pumpkin coffee today made me stop in my tracks. It's August! Please, let us enjoy a few more days of summer.

I get it, I've done the math. As a marketer, why not beat the competition and release pumpkin flavors two weeks earlier to capitalize on at least eight weeks of seasonal traffic. Problem being that many customers are suffering fatigue from seasonal creep. You know, those Peeps that arrive as soon as Valentine's Day ends. The Christmas decorations that leapfrog Thanksgiving to appear right after Halloween. Now, apparently, Labor Day is not important enough, so we should start Halloween marketing during what has traditionally been back-to-school season?

Rather than jockeying with retail for attention and wallet-share, why not capitalize on some of the value that the end of August brings. Offer a deal like Starbucks with their treat receipts and encourage a little indulgence at the end of the summer. Instead of pumpkin, ramp up advertising for your coconut flavored beverages and tell people to enjoy the last sips of summer. Focus marketing on busy parents, telling them to relax at night with a tasty summer adult beverage.

Americans love pumpkin flavored anything. I'm not sure about other countries. But I can tell you that we will purchase tons of pumpkin flavored coffees, beers, foods, and more and will be hastened by knowing that they will soon disappear come November. So give us these last few weeks of summer and keep pumpkin under wraps for a few more weeks.