Costa Coffee: From generosity comes loyalty

Costa Coffee, a coffeehouse chain, launched a campaign in the UK to increase app penetration by 42%, increase sales by 8%, launch a loyalty scheme and drive overall market share growth.

Executive Summary

Costa Coffee has played a leading role in shaping the character of the UK café market since 1971, capturing hearts, minds and coffee habits and winning 'Nation's Favourite Coffee Shop' in 2021, for the twelfth consecutive year (Allegra Strategies 2021).

However, we had a fundamental challenge. The market was increasingly crowded, and the loved Costa Coffee brand was losing relevance. Against this backdrop, our loyalty scheme was one of the least engaging, as one tabloid liked to point out - "...a mere 27 cups of coffee needed to be bought to get one".

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