Forbes Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte Exceeds Expectations, But Will It Turn The Tide For Sluggish Stock? Bruce Clark, a professor of marketing at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, said that sales of pumpkin spice latte have proved more popular than in the past. “When the world is crazy, a pumpkin spice latte is particularly comforting,” he observed.