The Blueberry Spirulina Refresher

Your New Favorite Beverage

Summary

For my Capstone Project, I created a pitch for a new beverage at Starbucks Coffee that comes with a meaningful collaboration. The Blueberry Spirulina Refresher is a fruity, tart drink comprised of passionfruit tea, blueberry juice, and spirulina powder. Customers will love to drink the Refresher as they head to the pool, beach, or a corporate job. In  April, Autism Acceptance Month, 70% of the profits from the beverage will be donated to the Autism Society of America (ASA). Additionally, any donations at a Starbucks store location or online will go to the ASA. This collaboration would benefit Autism research and support for families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder. Additionally, it would raise awareness and boost solidarity for people with Autism. Starbucks would positively impact their brand loyalty by partnering with a cause that is personal to so many customers.

I would submit my newsletter to Starbucks with the goal of it being distributed to employees nationally to inform them about the campaign and to explain why it is personal to the Starbucks brand. It contains an internal story that would be interesting for workers more than outside readers. For this collaboration to work, Starbucks needs their employees to buy in to the cause.

I would submit the blog post to Starbucks bloggers and websites that promote new drinks from different coffee shops. If bloggers or influencers in the coffee community were aware of the cause and vocal about helping, it could improve sales drastically.

I would submit the press release to national news sources right before Autism Acceptance Month began. I believe since Autism will be heavily covered on mainstream media in April, this would fit perfectly as a story. Additionally, Starbucks is such a large brand that I believe CBS, Good Morning America, CNN, and Fox would all be interested in sharing developments with the company.

Finally, I would submit the tweets to Starbucks's social media team to give a mock view of the hashtags and tone we would try to accomplish with an emphasis on spring and water, as well as Autism Acceptance Month. The mock tweets set an example of how we want to reach people and what we want them to think about the new beverage and campaign.

In order to craft these pieces of media, I researched Starbucks's employee newsletter, their Twitter account, and blogs by Starbucks customers. In the tweets, I matched the casual tone by using hashtags and emoticons. In the newsletter, I focused on making the story employee-centric. In the blog post, I created a visually pleasing design that encourages website traffic. I believe that the media package in its entirety will reach many different audiences and help the campaign succeed.

---

Press Release

---

Newsletter

---

Blog Post

---

Potential Tweets

---