
Costa Coffee
Rebranding globally to drive re-appraisal and broaden appeal
- Brand Strategy
- Brand Identity
- Design
- Messaging
- Tone of Voice
- Illustration
- Store design
- Uniform and launch collateral
- Wall art
Third wave craft coffee was booming but Costa was experiencing a decline in footfall and customer satisfaction. In the UK, the brand was ubiquitous but didn’t feel special and struggled to differentiate itself from high street competition. Globally, it was only just establishing its coffee credentials. The aim: to make it a destination for coffee lovers the world over by giving Costa back its mojo.
Leveraging its heritage story for the first time, we built a distinctive new ‘store of the future’ top-to-bottom experience. Central to its success — compelling brand messaging and a confident identity. Our thinking influenced every aspect of the business, sparking a culture change across the entire organisation and reigniting the passion of internal teams. The results were immediate, with double digit uplift in sales and customer satisfaction in the first three months.

A lot of agencies will tell you they live your brand but I’ve honestly never met anyone who’s thought about my brand more than I do. ODA do that. They have a true passion for what they do – they get so into it. They’re very collaborative but not afraid to challenge when they feel it’s appropriate. It’s exactly what you want as a client.
Deb Caldow Global Head of Coffee Innovation, Costa CoffeeLONDON BORN AND BLENDED
A RE-TELLING ROOTED IN AUTHENTICITY
We dug into the brand’s history, retelling their story as ‘the original London artisan’ and uncovering the quality story behind their famous blend. This truth gave the brand credibility and a distinctive point of view, allowing us to unlock a passionate and playful personality for Costa as ‘the democratiser of craft coffee’.


SIMPLE BOLD IDENTITY
We created an ownable visual and verbal identity combining craft with distinctive character. Core strategy pillars included putting coffee back at the heart of the brand and reincorporating the word into the logo. A new stand-alone symbol of heritage and quality was created in the three-bean mark. This addition gave us the flexibility to use subtle branding throughout the experience, making the identity feel less ubiquitous and more special.


BREW BAR CREATES WOW MOMENTS OF COFFEE DISCOVERY
Wow moments can be found in unexpected places, in this case, at coffee collection, a notorious point of frustration in the customer experience. We’re proud to have conceived and created the first branded Brew Bar experience on the high street. By introducing new touchpoints with clearly defined roles to the store, we delivered an improved experience that reinforced Costa’s coffee credentials and helped open up a world of quality coffee to a broader audience.



ENCOURAGING CUSTOMERS WITH A DISTINCTIVE TONE AND EXPERIENCE
Brew Bar inspires and encourages customers to steer away from their usual order by trying a new craft coffee. We designed a space above the Brew Bar to tell the story of each coffee option in a fun, accessible way that’s distinctly Costa in tone.
We also created new low-level touchpoints to help people on their coffee journey, giving more good reasons to try a certain craft coffee and delivering great appetite appeal. Fun, informative coasters also deliver coffee facts that educate customers and position Costa as the expert in coffee.



CELEBRATING BARISTA CRAFT
We championed an ‘unchain the chain’ approach – designing a new uniform, inspiring and engaging baristas with new tools to deliver knowhow, as well as new artwork and storytelling around the Brew Bar and within the brand more broadly.


COMBINING CRAFT AND CHARACTER
Storytelling and bespoke art that amplified the coffee making process replaced corporate-looking design elements. We explored new materials – printing our stories on hessian, wrapped canvas and laser etching into wood. We also collaborated with a range of artists, spearheading a project to create unique art using Costa cups, and working with a graffiti artist to reimagine Costa’s heritage story for renewed relevance.


For the flagship twenty stores, we managed the entire production budget. Working in close collaboration with Costa’s procurement team, we ensured all our thinking could be replicated at scale and within costs. Our rationalisation of materials, as part of this process, drove down costs and improved in-store efficiency as well as use of sustainable materials.

A CONSIDERED CUSTOMER JOURNEY
Throughout, we championed a holistic approach to the brand customer journey. With Costa this meant joining up every touchpoint and actively engaging with barista teams to give them the tools to improve communication with customers. Our work integrating Costa’s Roastery stories into the brand work also forged strong new bonds and joined up ways of working between Costa marketing, Roastery and Barista teams.


DOUBLE DIGIT UPLIFT
Flagship stores saw double digit uplift in sales
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION UP
Customer satisfaction up in the first 3 months