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Pumpkin Spice Tampons?!

Can it be?
Joining us in the season of foliage and halloween--more than pumpkins themselves, are pumpkin spice flavors. We have the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes, various Pumpkin Spice flavored ice-creams and other food products, and even Pumpkin Spice pedicures at some spas. Regardless of how popular the flavor is around this time of the year, Pumpkin Spice tampons are ridiculous! 

Unfortunately, for those who love the ridicules of our consumerist society, Tampax did not actually come out with this product. The image above is from a Buzzfeed article on 16 Pumpkin Spice Products That Don't Exist and Should Never Exist. The article was written in September, but the groundswell  has picked up this image and been laughing at it in October.

 According to Li and Bernoff, along with listen and talk to the groundswell, the organization must energize them aswell. "Energizing the groundswell means tapping into the power of word of mouth by connecting with, and turning on, your most committed customers..." If Tampax had come out with this product, it could have been an excellent method of energizing its most committed customers. 

Here are reasons why: 
  1. Tampax's customer demographic consists of females (for obvious reasons). Specifically, it consists girls and young women. Having Demi Lovato be their main endorser says enough about who they are targeting with their marketing: the female youth.  The craze of pumpkin spice is popular amongst these youth, along with others. Li and Bernoff tell us to check on the social technographics profile of customers; it is not a wild guess to say that many of Tampax's customers are also talking about Pumpkin Spice. It would make sense for them to use the flavor to market to this group. 
  2. Tampax would also be follow the current trend of talking about the flavor on social media and making fun of the craze around it as well; the product could make a humorous commentary on the craze of the flavor while demonstrating that the company is listening to the groundswell and engaging its customers. 
  3. Whether people take the product seriously, think it is ridiculous, or understand the humor and connect with the product, Tampax would get attention. After all, the receipt of attention is ultimately the purpose of Energizing.  
Let's look at the various forms of Pumpkin Spice commentary within the groundswell on Twitter and Blogs:

And of course Jay Pharoah reading "Basic Pumpkin Spice Latte Tweets"


The funny thing is that with just the rumor of an energizing product, Tampax has already gotten a lot of attention. The reason: the rumor made them a part of a trending conversation. 
Having said so, I don't believe Tampax made the best use of this rumor, which could have favored them greatly. If you go on to their Twitter page, you will see that the company has not made a single comment about their fake Pumpkin Spice product. According to Groundswell, people have the natural desire to share their experiences. I believe, this is a golden opportunity for Tampax to build upon this desire. A statement from them that is humorous and endearing would drive committed customers and others to share it with their friends and family, laugh about it, and most likely, go on to choose a Tampax product the next time mother nature calls. The rumor itself could be an energizer. 


Another "victim" of the same rumor was Durex. Unlike, Tampax, this company has been successful in tapping into the groundswell's conversations. 



Bernoff and Li tell us that energizing is a risky technique, because companies are dealing with people who are going to talk about their brand; this is a challenge. However, they would not write a whole chapter on the benefits of energizing, if silence was the better option. In my opinion, Tampax should have made a comment. 
Before I show you John Oliver's hilarious take on the Pumpkin Spice craze, I want you to think about and answer this: 

What do you think is the smartest thing Tampax can say about the rumor? 



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