Pumpkin Spice Latte Is Canceled

As fall approaches, so too does the season of pumpkin spice—a flavor and scent that has become something of a religious obsession for many white women across the United States since Starbucks launched its iconic PSL in 2003. Pair it with an oversized flannel, Carhartt beanie and a photo shoot in a leaf pile and there you have it: culture. This year, though, personal care brand Native has had enough of the seasoned gourd madness. It's retiring its pumpkin spice latte deodorant scent this year—an oft-cited and ever-polarizing piece of the canonical pumpkin spiced product segment. Roasting pumpkin spice To mark the end of pumpkin spice latte deodorant's storied, four-year run in armpits across the country, Native is kicking off a 14-day roast of the scent with a print ad in The New York Times today. Fans are invited to participate on social media by contributing roasts of their own and opting into texts from the brand to receive daily roasts—things like "Pumpkin Spice Latte's dating app profile pic is with someone else's dog" or "Pumpkin Spice Latte is 'thinking about starting a podcast.'" The roast is also a way to attract some attention before Native unveils its next limited edition collection of scents for the fall. The seasonal drop will be "in the same family" as pumpkin spice latte, vp of marketing Meng Li told Adweek, but the brand is keeping details of the new collection under wraps until its Aug. 31 launch. Li did share that the collection will include four new scents that'll be available in Native's deodorant, both traditional packaging and plastic-free, and its body wash. News of pumpkin spice latte's cancellation runs today in the New York Times. Native finds its voice While the campaign might look like a simple stunt at first glance, it represents a shift in Native's marketing strategy away from "conversion and direct response" into more of a focus on the brand itself, Li said. "This is very much a brand awareness play," she explained. Rather than focusing on key product benefits, the campaign around pumpkin spice latte's cancellation gives Native itself more of a voice than it's had in previous campaigns. The brand's first national advertising campaign, "No Is Our Whoa," was launched in October 2020 and revolved entirely around the product itself—its lack of parabens and aluminum, for example. Now, with a more established foundation, it's able to play a little bit. Inside Native Deodorant's First Ad Campaign, Which Celebrates Saying 'No' to the Bad Stuff "We've really tried to hone in on the tone of voice, the brand voice that we want to have," Li said. "Personal care is an incredibly crowded category. There's a lot of big players to compete with, there's new entrants into the category every week—so how do we continue to stay relevant, and how do we continue to engage our consumers? I think having a distinct, unique tone of voice I think is an important way to do that." Humor-based SMS marketing The other goal of this roasting campaign is a very practical one—to get more fans signed up for Native's SMS marketing list. "[SMS] is a channel we've seen a lot of really strong success in the past year," Li said. The brand's noticed that it's a different group of consumers that open SMS versus email marketing, and wanted to approach the channel in a way that's playful enough to keep fans engaged. Roasts will be texted to anyone on Native's SMS marketing list every day for two weeks. Native developed the campaign with content agency Obedient, which prides itself on helping companies infuse humor into brand messaging. The goal was to create "educational content, entertaining content that will get people to smile, laugh, get them engaged and get them excited about the brand," Li said. While Native declined to share sales data, the personal care industry overall saw growth slow during the pandemic, according to data from Nielsen. The deodorant category, which encompasses Native's flagship product, saw growth drop from 5.6% year-over-year in 2019 to 2.2% in 2020 and -0.1% this year. Off-White Brings Its New Fall and Winter 2021 Collection to Snapchatters’ Bitmojis

CPG News

Pumpkin Spice Latte Is Canceled This Year, and Native Deodorant Is Giving It a Snarky Send-Off

The P&G-owned personal care brand is discontinuing one of its most polarizing scents

Roasting pumpkin spice

Kathryn Lundstrom

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Kathryn Lundstrom