What?! Well, this is exactly how Sheppard explains this phenomenon. She points to the fact that in the fall season – with a culmination right before Halloween – stores are offering not only all kinds of pumpkin, big an small, but also pumpkin beer, a limited edition of pumpkin latter at Starbucks, pumkin cookies and there is even pumpkin lasagne served in Italian restaurants. We can also have pumpkin seeds as a snack, pumpkin-shaped candles and mugs, and of course those spooky pumpkin heads scaring at night when you put a lit candle inside them.

Look! One pumpkin and so many possibilities. One theme in thousands of variations. This is how good old pumpkin becomes the queen of the market, reaching a wider group of consumers. You don’t like the taste of pumpkin but maybe you find those pudgy pumpkin-shaped mugs funny? You don’t? So maybe a funny pumpkin T-shirt will be just the thing for you. Slightly modified, the product is reaching more and more consumers – what’s important, very different consumers. And everyone is satisfied because they’re all “consuming” pumpkin the way they like.

Content marketing presents, promotes and sells your product/message/image in a similar way, using many methods so that everyone gets what they want. You take a pumpkin and you wrap it with a story, a context, it may be amusing, it may be touching, or even slightly cheeky, then you choose the distribution channel, maybe you use the social media, maybe you put up posters or write a book – the more channels the better because it allowes your consumers to “taste” your product in many different ways: they can read, watch, listen, comment. Everyone chooses the pumpkin they like most – and you can also take as much of it as you want, you can buy a piece of it if you don’t need a whole one, although sometimes it can be cheaper to buy a whole pumpkin than buying only a small portion. What is your pumpkin like?

PS. Aude has had this pumpkin tradition for several seasons now: when the season is coming for this nice giant vegetable, our graphic designer Joanna brings in one to the agency to distribute it among us. We cut it into pieces, bigger for those with families and smaller ones for singles:) Some of us make a soup (Bożenka i Kasia), some make pancakes (Bożenka i Paulina), some prepare a salad with stir-fried pumpkin (me:). But it’s still a pumpkin.