Bringing a beloved café taste and beverage into homes
Starbucks Refreshers Concentrate
For over a decade, non-coffee drinkers sprint to the café for one. Now, it's ready to be made any way at home.
In early 2026, The Starbucks at Home portfolio welcomed one highly anticipated product: Starbucks Refreshers® Concentrate. Available in three flavors, two of which originated in the café and one launching as a grocery exclusive, required expansive, high-impact programs to introduce the concentrated version of a beloved beverage to shoppers. From the get-go, my team was provided with a laundry list of communication priorities, design mandatories and shopper barriers. After multiple rounds of conceptual deliverables, I assisted in the development of three key retailer programs, all leveraging the national campaign into shopper-focused media.
Shopper background
An important lesson I learned early on while writing for NC&B, specifically Starbucks, is that Mosaic writes and creates for a specific set of Starbucks products from the lens outside of the café. Our work is not shown in cafés or on Starbucks socials however, we work on an IAT (Integrated Agency Team) to create custom shopper campaigns, tailored to retailers, based on the national look, feel, tone and voice.
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In some instances, Mosaic works on deployment guides for shopper-focused programs, such as the "Find Your Taste" campaign seen to the left. This program requires connected copy and art that encourages and supports shoppers to explore the Starbucks portfolio for a cup they love.
Shopper context
As of recent, dupe culture has become commonplace, especially as Gen Z shoppers enter and disrupt the market. From more affordable versions of favorite beauty products, to candles that mimic that one specific scent a hotel from your vacation was drenched in, consumers have always been on the hunt to create a cherished thing or experience, big and small, quickly, at low cost and at home. Starbucks has been no stranger to this phenomenon, with Pinterest boards, TikTok feeds and YouTube channels dedicated to creating the café flavors in the comfort of home for a much cheaper price tag.
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Launching a concentrated form of Starbucks Refreshers® posed a unique opportunity. Shoppers not only could achieve the taste they love at home but, they can personalize each pour exactly how they want, no app drop downs required.
Initial launch tactics
The first retailer to launch the product in stores was Target, followed by Walmart and Albertsons (and their subsidiaries). Starbucks prominence in Target stores feels like second nature to many shoppers, as the first thing many see as they walk into their stores is a café, and many Target trips become incomplete without a beverage in a cart cupholder.
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One of the many unique pieces of this product was its grocery placement. Away from the juices and iced teas it may share ingredients with, Starbucks Refreshers® Concentrate would be nearby its the family of products in the coffee aisle. Driving Gen Z shoppers to this aisle has become increasingly difficult with the rise of online shopping and other behavioral factors.
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To properly introduce, educate and intrigue shoppers to the launch, we developed a Target endcap which can now be found in stores across the United States.
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The final endcap features an eye-catching header macro image with the product name to draw in shoppers both new and familiar with the launch. Each shelf, originally stocked with all three flavors, has an individual information box with conversion-driving, product RTB language.
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Additional work in development
In the coming months, as the product continues to launch and win over Refreshers fans, more of my work will go live. This includes, but is not limited to, a multi-city Walmart sampling and shopping experience including a custom wrapped Starbucks shuttle bus, a streaming commercial featured within the Disney+, Hulu and ESPN family of shows, an internal Sizzle video highlighting the breadth of the Walmart program, adapted Target media to account for the limited supply of specific flavors, banner placements on Amazon and social media tactics for Meijer.