It’s that time of year when the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbucks and its launch season for online experts. What do the two have in common? Well, this little latte that’s grossed almost a billion dollars can teach you about building record breaking launches.
Read on to hear more about what Customer Journey Designer, Desola Davis, says about how you can use Starbuck’s launch strategy for their Pumpkin Spice Latte to garner your own record breaking launch.
Why Your Launch Should Take Notes from Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) Launch
Even though I am not a fan of PSL, as a Starbucks junkie, I do know that the PSL launch does kick off an upward tick in sales for Starbucks that continues on into the holiday season. And we’re talking 10% increase in sales week over week. You could say that their annual launch event starts right when PSL comes back. The truth is, it’s not about the latte, it’s about the customer journey, the experience, and the culture that has been built around it.
5 Lessons to Infuse the PSL Effect into your Launch Strategy
Be Exclusive
PSL isn’t for everybody, and the PSL audience is a segment within several segments. Think about it. There’s everybody, then there’s everybody who drinks coffee. Then there’s everybody who drinks Starbucks coffee. And then there’s everybody who drinks PSL at Starbucks.
Think about the PSL audience as your launch audience. You’re looking for your own PSL audience. And these are the people that you need to be radically obsessed with. You need to know everything that they know, what they like, what they don’t like, what they need from you, and how you can help them with your offers.
Invite them into a story
You spend so much time on the tactical parts of launching, like the emails, your social media posts, webinars, the full sales funnel, etc. But, this is only a part of your success. Your loyal customer doesn’t buy because it’s the logical thing to do. You’re looking for customers that are going to purchase from you over and over again. Those folks buy primarily because of how you make them feel. They buy because you give them the confidence to believe that it is possible to solve their problem with your help. These are the people you need to invite into the transformation that they already want to experience.
Use moments, like my friend Kate Doster says, to describe the transformation and get them to confirm that this transformation is actually what they want to experience. Starbucks does this with an emphasis on the fall and feelings associated with the fall. Things like color changes, falling leaves, even the colors on the packaging signify a change in season.
Raise the stakes
Your audience won’t be invested in the story without stakes. The easiest way you can do this with your launch event is by introducing a scarcity factor, meaning a limited quantity of your products, or limited spots in your program, limited time that your bonuses or offers are available for purchase.
The advantage of infusing scarcity is it also drives demand, which means you can sell at a premium. Raising the steaks also forces prioritization, and it limits inertia. You’re either ready now, or you’re okay with waiting until next year.
Become the standard
Whatever your launch event is, master it and make it better. We are so quick to switch from one thing to the next thing to the next thing without getting good at any of those things. You want your business to be known for something. So be radically obsessed with your audience and keep giving them more of what they love.
Have Fun
The best launch events are fun for the hosts. You get so caught up in the stakes of the sales that you want to make that sometimes you forget that this is a great opportunity to be yourself, make genuine connections with your customers, and have fun. My advice? If your launch strategy stresses you out that much, find another strategy. If you hate doing challenges, stop doing them. If you don’t like the way that you execute your webinar, change what you don’t like. Experts often make the mistake of choosing a strategy and then trying to bend their natural strengths and their business values to make them fit a mold. To make them fit the rules that they think that they have to follow in order to make sales.
Resources
- Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte sales graphic
- Unlock Six Figure Secrets to Supercharge Your Next Launch – desoladavis.com/launch