Pumpkin spice latte for your pup? Yes, really. Here’s the newest class of PSL-flavored natural food and beverages soon coming on the market.
The season finale of Game of Thrones may have come and gone, but culturephiles need not worry, as the United States is primed to sink deep into another annual milestone: the season of pumpkin spice everything!
Spurred by Starbuck’s now infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte (which, as it happens, has its own Twitter handle with 114,000 followers), food and beverage brands in both the natural and conventional space have embraced the warm, cozy flavors of fall.
Why the continued zeal—year after year—for pumpkin spice? Nostalgia certainly plays a part—the flavor conjures cozy memories of snuggly scarves, Pinterest-perfect autumnal strolls and holiday family gatherings. Pumpkin spice is, after all, modeled after the cinnamon-clove-ginger-nutmeg flavors of pumpkin pie, a staple food in households across the nation during Thanksgiving.
Conjuring nostalgia, as it turns out, is a time-tested marketing tactic that results in measurable sales increases. One 2014 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that nostalgia is a powerful selling tool. "We wondered why nostalgia is so commonplace in marketing. One reason could be that feeling nostalgic weakens a person's desire for money," wrote study authors Jannine D. Lasaleta, Constantine Sedikides and Kathleen D. Vohs. "In other words, someone might be more likely to buy something when they are feeling nostalgic."