Latest news with #TressieLieberman
Black America Web
23-07-2025
- Business
- Black America Web
Starbucks Brings Back Pumpkin Spice Latte and Unveils New Fall 2025 Menu
Source: UCG / Getty Autumn may still be weeks away, but for Starbucks fans, fall is already on the horizon. The coffee giant announced Monday that its beloved Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) will return to stores nationwide on August 26. While that's slightly later than last year's release, it still arrives earlier than the company's traditional September launch, and nearly a month ahead of the official start of fall on September 22. The PSL, first introduced in 2003, is crafted with espresso, milk, pumpkin spice syrup, whipped cream, and a dusting of pumpkin pie spices. In 2015, Starbucks began using real pumpkin in the recipe, cementing its reputation as a fall staple and cultural phenomenon. This year's launch comes at a pivotal moment for Starbucks, which is working to reinvigorate customer traffic and sales after U.S. same-store sales slipped 2% last year. The company hopes the nostalgic appeal of its fall menu can help turn things around. 'These seasonal offerings are cultural touchstones that spark connection, nostalgia, and excitement,' said Tressie Lieberman, Starbucks global chief brand officer, in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. What's on Starbucks' Fall 2025 Menu? In addition to the PSL, Starbucks is bringing back several fan favorites: Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Pecan Crunch Oatmilk Latte There's also a brand-new drink debuting this year: the Pecan Oatmilk Cortado, which Starbucks describes as pairing bold espresso with warm fall flavors. On the food side, the chain is introducing Italian Sausage Egg Bites as part of its seasonal offerings. The fall menu rollout supports Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's Back to Starbucks initiative, launched in 2024 to revive in-store visits and boost sales. How the Pumpkin Spice Latte Became a Legend The Pumpkin Spice Latte was born out of a 2003 brainstorming session led by Starbucks product manager Peter Dukes, who sought to replicate the success of the chain's winter hit, the Peppermint Mocha. Originally considered for the name Fall Harvest Latte, the team settled on Pumpkin Spice Latte to emphasize the spice-forward flavor profile. 'Nobody knew at the beginning what it would grow to be,' Dukes reflected in a 20th-anniversary post on the Starbucks website. 'Twenty years later, it's taken on a life of its own.' Since its debut, the PSL has become Starbucks' most successful seasonal beverage, selling hundreds of millions of cups and inspiring countless imitators. Competitors like Dunkin' and McDonald's rolled out their own pumpkin-flavored drinks in 2007 and 2013, respectively. The pumpkin spice craze even made its way into the dictionary, with pumpkin spice added to Merriam-Webster in 2022. Mentions of pumpkin spice on U.S. restaurant menus have jumped nearly 34% between 2014 and 2024, according to menu analytics firm Technomic. SEE ALSO Starbucks Brings Back Pumpkin Spice Latte and Unveils New Fall 2025 Menu was originally published on
Fast Company
14-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Starbucks's new Secret Menu is a perfect strategy to tap TikTok
Starbucks has been in a bit of a slump, facing stagnant growth as it awaits its new CEO Brian Niccol's turnaround. His strategy? Nicer stores you want to sit in. Protein-loaded coffee. And now . . . turning every day at Starbucks into a viral drop. The company is launching a 'secret menu' in its app today, building off the momentum of its 'not-so-secret menu' broadcast channel on Instagram. Secret menus, of course, are irresistible to the fleshy consumer brain. A mystery and treat in one! But in the case of Starbucks, it's part of a brilliant promotional strategy by its new chief brand officer Tressie Lieberman. How will Starbucks's Secret Menu work? The menu will contain rotating offers for drinks. But instead of being born inside its Seattle headquarters coffee lab, these drinks are created by fans on social media who use Starbucks's customization options to create particularly alluring beverages. 'That's what people do today: create their own Starbucks order,' says Lieberman. 'And so how do we tap into that?' Indeed, customization is a big part of Starbucks's appeal; you can order a drink just as you like it. But its menu has become so sprawling and complicated for baristas to produce that Niccol has actually cut it back by nearly a third to simplify production. What's brilliant about the Starbucks Secret Menu—which is launching with a $25,000 prize to stoke interest—is twofold: Instead of creating a TikTok trend, it can simply ride a TikTok trend, since people are already promoting their own custom drinks on the service. But the second component is just as important for a company with tens of thousands of locations worldwide. These glitzy, viral drinks are being made with the ingredients Starbucks already has lying around. In other words, it's all turnkey. Starbucks doesn't need to spin up a whole production supply chain to sell the equivalent of a McRib. It can just rearrange its food stuffs to make something novel, a lot like Taco Bell combines its shells and sauces to make something new—but crowdsourced. This strategy is a far cry from how Starbucks used to look at viral creations: as operational headaches that were at odds with its own business model. Instead, Starbucks can analyze a viral menu item, decide if it needs to be tweaked for scale, and then share it back with its audience in a way that can work. 'Some of the best ideas are coming from customers. Customers decide what's in; customers decide what's cool,' says Lieberman. '[With the Secret Menu] We're really just working to help put media behind [fans] and get more reach around new ideas. It's a lot about being visible, visible to our audience, and being really strategic about how we approach these different trends as well,' says Lieberman. She points to a recent viral drink called the Gummy Shark, where TikTokers took the Summer Berry Refresher and added cold foam so it would taste like the popular candy, as a recent proof point of this strategy. 'That's a gift from our customers,' says Lieberman. 'Let's jump on that. Let's create content around it and celebrate it, instead of moving away from it.' In other words, with its new Secret Menu, Starbucks is building a workflow so that they don't need to come up with their next hit, while ensuring that you can taste the wild thing you're gawking at online easily. (Its new point-of-sale terminals will even be getting a viral drinks tab so that if you walk into a store without your phone, you can order off this menu as well.) The only question remaining is, can a secret menu stay cool when it's available to millions of customers? Anyone who's ordered a speak-easy-inspired Neapolitan shake or animal style fries from In-N-Out knows…the answer is a sad and true, 'absolutely yes.'
