Examining CPG Trends: Why Pumpkin Spice Continues to Dominate Fall Flavors

Before the leaves even turned colors or the crisp autumn air arrived, fall’s most iconic flavor was everywhere. Pumpkin spice has been a blockbuster trend for CPG companies, restaurants and boutique brands for more than a decade. It’s a perfect storm of factors that help build a trend: seasonal associations, a major marketing push and the versatility to play into many different areas of product development. Let’s take a closer look at what’s driving the popularity of pumpkin spice and what brands can learn from its example.

Understanding Pumpkin Spice and the CPG Market

According to a recent report from Nielsen, consumers spent $361 million dollars on pumpkin spice flavored products in 2014. This represented a 79 percent increase from 2011. The pumpkin spice juggernaut has grown massively in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down. The three biggest CPG product categories were pumpkin pie fillings, pumpkin cream and pumpkin-flavored coffee. But a much wider range of products is marketed with the limited-edition pumpkin spice flavor set—everything ranging from yogurts to snack cakes to flavored artificial coffee creamer. The latest CPG products released in the 2015 market show a wide array of creative applications of the pumpkin spice flavor and offer insight into its sustained popularity.

The Latest Pumpkin Spice Products

The 2015 fall season has featured a whole new lineup of products, ranging from pumpkin spice Oreos to pumpkin cornbread. Instantly Product Watch? is a live, crowd-sourced insights engine that alerts you of newly launched products the moment they hit shelves. Shoppers from around the country have recently noted new pumpkin-flavored products in snacks and condiments, breakfast products, beverages, baby products, baking and even pet care. Here are a few that have recently been posted by shoppers to Product Watch:

Pumpkin O’s Breakfast Cereal, Trader Joe’s

Image source: Product Watch, submitted by a shopper at Trader Joe’s in Prescott, AZ on October 8, 2015

Ben & Jerry’s Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream

Image source: Product Watch, submitted by a shopper at a Walmart Supercenter in York, PA on September 3, 2015

Cucina Antica’s Tuscany Pumpkin

Image source: Product Watch, submitted by a shopper at a Whole Foods Market in Edgewater, NJ on October 7, 2015

Understanding Pumpkin Spice’s Popularity

It’s widely believed that Starbucks’ introduction of the pumpkin spice latte in 2003 raised the pumpkin spice trend to its current fever pitch. From a product development and merchandising standpoint, pumpkin was a great idea. Seasonality and limited edition products have been a lucrative product stream from most major CPG companies. Summer has its iconic light, fruity flavors. Candy gets a spotlight in late October for Halloween. As we move into the winter, a number of holiday and cold weather flavors take center stage. The gap between Halloween and Thanksgiving, as well as most of October before that, represents a bit of a challenge for marketers. The popularity of pumpkin spice provides an anchor flavor for experimenting with new products. Given the importance of developing new products in the CPG space, it’s easy to see why brands invested heavily in pumpkin spice from both a marketing and product development perspective.

Breaking Down the Anatomy of a CPG Trend

When you look beyond the history and specific CPG applications of pumpkin spice, you start to see some common threads that provide insight into why it’s been such an indomitable autumn trend. It’s easy to get caught up in the discussion around how brands are using pumpkin spice and what those implications are for future product development. But let’s look at some of the factors and associations that make pumpkin spice an enduring choice in the first place. Some contributing factors to pumpkin spice’s popularity include:

Versatility: Pumpkin is an incredibly dynamic base flavor. Think about how the vegetable itself is prepared: it can be served roasted to bring out complex flavors, used in soups, blended with a creamy base, integrated into smoothies and more. From a CPG standpoint, pumpkin is a flavor that can go into everything from beverages to treats in a way that’s similar to other staples like chocolate, mint or vanilla. When you’re evaluating a flavor for blockbuster potential, consider how many categories it could possibly thrive in.

Perceived healthiness: Pumpkin is a vegetable. That gives it an immediate marketing advantage in today’s heavily health-conscious market. Even if pumpkin spice products contain no actual pumpkin and are blended with high-fat ingredients like cream or sugar, there’s a psychological factor at play. Consumers want lower sugar options that have high nutritional values. Pumpkin sounds like it would be healthy and there’s an associated marketing benefit with that.

Seasonal marketing pushes: Part of the popularity of pumpkin spice can be directly attributed to the marketing efforts of CPG companies. As described above, pumpkin spice provides a valuable flavor in an industry with tremendous pressure to keep producing. When you’re evaluating a possible trend, it’s useful to ask whether it has the potential to garner significant marketing support behind associated products.

Associations: Studies have shown that consumers associate pumpkin strongly with autumn: the taste of cider, changing foliage and enjoyable times with family. It has a strong scent component that probably plays a role in triggering those associations. Does the flavor that you’re considering have a similar seasonal association? Are there scent or texture triggers that could help it be more powerful?

Pumpkin spice is an important CPG trend that’s not going away. Brands are heavily invested in its success as a fall staple and consumers love it everywhere, from the pie shop to the coffee shop. But a closer look at what makes pumpkin pie a success provides CPG marketers with valuable insights into the traits that could make other flavors blockbuster successes.