Cos­ta Coffee

Repo­si­tion­ing Cos­ta Cof­fee to dri­ve growth

  • Brand Strategy
  • Visual & Verbal identity
  • Personality
  • Store design
  • Brand launch

Cos­ta was every­where, but los­ing its edge. 

As the UK’s biggest cof­fee chain, it had scale and recognition.But it was becom­ing gener­ic, trans­ac­tion­al, and dis­con­nect­ed from cof­fee cul­ture. The chal­lenge was to restore rel­e­vance and rebuild value.

Cos­ta need­ed to move from a ubiq­ui­tous chain to a brand peo­ple active­ly choose.

We repo­si­tioned Cos­ta around craft and cred­i­bil­i­ty, re-estab­lish­ing it as a des­ti­na­tion for cof­fee lovers – not just con­ve­nience. Our idea: The orig­i­nal Lon­don artisan

We reframed Cos­ta around its her­itage and exper­tise – giv­ing it a more dis­tinc­tive, own­able point of view.

Jump straight to the Impact

A CLEAR­ER, MORE DIS­TINC­TIVE IDENTITY

We sim­pli­fied the iden­ti­ty, rein­tro­duced her­itage ele­ments, and ampli­fied Costa’s most recog­nis­able asset – its red.

‘COF­FEE’ IS BACK

Putting ​“cof­fee” back at the cen­tre of the brand.

ICON­IC ​‘COS­TA COF­FEE’ RED

Cad­bury has pur­ple. Heinz has turquoise. We defined Costa’s red as a glob­al­ly con­sis­tent asset, and made it work hard­er across the entire cus­tomer experience.

THE STO­RY BEHIND EVERY CUP

We brought Costa’s ​‘Lon­don born and blend­ed’ sto­ry into the space through bold, own­able wall art.

“ODA always go beyond the brief. All the key rec­om­men­da­tions they made on our cus­tomer expe­ri­ence are now in the blue­print for our glob­al store design.”

Deb Caldow, Global Head of Coffee Innovation, Costa Coffee

LESS COR­PO­RATE
MORE INDI­VID­UAL 

We intro­duced rich­er sto­ry­telling, mate­ri­als, and craft details to cre­ate a more dis­tinc­tive in-store experience.

BARIS­TA’S BECOME CRAFTSMEN

With new uni­forms and low­er­ing the counter to hero them at work.

CRAFT­ED BRAND EXPERIENCE

Using tex­tures and sus­tain­able mate­ri­als just like independents.

FROM TRANSACTION TO EXPERIENCE

We redesigned key moments in the customer journey.

The collection point became the Brew Bar – a place to explore and discover coffee, not just pick it up.

BUILT TO SCALE

Glob­al guide­lines and toolk­its ensured con­sis­ten­cy across mar­kets – mak­ing the brand eas­i­er to roll out and manage.

IMPACT

  • Contributed to Costa’s £3.9bn acquisition by Coca-Cola

  • Double-digit sales uplift in flagship stores

  • 3 in 10 drinks sold as speciality coffee

  • NPS improved to 45 within three months

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