I have been hired by my clients Starbucks to showcase an online portfolio built around a creative concept that I have created. They have appointed me with the task of creating at least three pieces of content in which will be a part of the online portfolio. I have also been tasked to conduct some secondary research on my clients and adhere to the creative brief and the brand guidelines that they have given if needed. The first piece that Starbucks want me to create is a social media mock-up in which I created 3 different designs on the app Instagram. The second piece consist of me writing my own blog, accompanied by pictures and designs that link to my creative concept. The third and finally piece involves me creating an influencer video in which you can expect engagement with the creative concept.

My creative concept which was created with Canva (Canva.com) and Media Modifier (mediamodifier.com) is to do with Black History Month, in which I will present a limited-edition cup with faces of people who play a vital part in Black History and a customized straw with the message ‘Black Lives Matter’. The targeted audience that has been specified in the Starbucks brief that they want to attract is ages between 28-40 with the focus and key message being that they “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time” (Bergstrom, n.d.).  This concept will be used in support and to spread awareness of the movement Black lives and show that the clients, stand strong with this message. In creating this concept, I focused on product rather than service, this is due to the fact that within the Starbucks brief it indicates that they want to “revitalise their mission statement and bring people back to their stores after the hard hitting and on-going Pandemic”(Creative brief, 2022) . By creating this product this will help to create a concept that will communicate with Starbuck’s customer ethos and then encourage them to regularly visit.  

The media that I have chosen to use to get my creative concept across is the platform Instagram, according to the Global State of Digital report 2022 it shows that from ages 25–34-year-olds are the most active on Instagram with a total of “31.5%” (McLachlan, 2022) and based on the brief this is the audience that Starbucks want to attract. I will also be using my video skills as videos have a better chance of keeping the viewer’s attention compared to them reading an article. In my Video you can expect an influencer who has been asked a question ‘What it means to be black?’. This video will help to create engagement for the target audience and was edited on the app InShot (Inshot.com). To optimize the SEO on this platform I must use hashtags that Starbucks intended audience might think to use and engage with. The Video transcript will help to reach a larger audience and will read ‘Starbucks BLM – Be at the Heart of What Matters’. The Blog writing can also offer a great deal to the intended Starbucks audience and to gain an organic traffic, I will need to write the blog very detailed in which it will inform the audience about the brand and the product as well. Including various sections within my Blog can help create opportunities for gaining inbound links which play a vital role in helping with the SEO and traffic growth.

For my social media mock-up, the first design I decided to keep It very simple, simply getting the point across with the heading. My heading ‘Be at the Heart of What Matters’ has been created to instantly grab the audience’s attention with the bold font ‘Horizon’. This method of using a bold font can have an SEO benefit as it will help to make my content “more accessible for Google to understand” which will result in improvement of Starbucks Instagram page SEO. This also will occur with the bold font I used for the word ‘BLM’. The Starbucks logo situated in the centre of the image draws the audience’s attention and reminds them that the brand stands strong but also refocuses the audience on the main topic at hand, which is the words ‘BLM’. In the caption that can be found underneath the Instagram post I decided to use the hashtags ‘#BLM and #Black History Month’. These key words also known as tags serve an importance as they can help the targeted audience understand what is important on the post. The emojis that I used in the caption are “the raised first emoji” (Dicitionary , 2020) as the clench fist has a symbolic meaning. If you swipe right in the first design, you will see that I have also created the limited-edition cups that customers at Starbucks would get. One picture being Nelson Mandela face and another of Martin Luther King’s. When creating the faces, I decided to change the colour of them from black to green so that it could be unique to the brand, Starbucks. I especially went for the iconic green on the client’s logo and aprons.

For the second design for my social media mock-up, I decided to do an Instagram story, in which I used the same heading ‘Be at the Heart of What Matters’ but this time I chose a different font, ‘lovelo’. For the heading in this design, I decided that it should have a background and the colour of the background should be green which would help to make the heading stand out more than it already does. Within this design I reinforced the distinctive Starbucks colours as there is a lot of green and white in the Instagram story. The ‘Tap to order’ which relates to the SEO can be found underneath the hand, allowing consumers to purchase the item. Right there and then.

And finally for my third design for my social media mock-up, I designed an Instagram ad. In which I used the same heading ‘Be at the Heart of What Matters’ but this time a different font, ‘lovelo’. For the heading in this design, I decided that it should have a background and the colour of the background should be green which would help make the heading stand out more than it already does. To the left of the ad customers and the targeted audience would be able to see the limited-edition cup and for the first time ever the customized straw on display as well as the words ‘BLM’. The reason why I had decided to finally display the straw for the first time is due to the fact that I believe it may be able to draw more people to Starbucks Instagram page as more people are more likely to see the Instagram ad. As the ad would pop up for consumers that have had some activity with pages like the clients.

My first piece of my content which is the social media mock-up links to the AIDA Model and is owned media. As the target audience for the Instagram post are 28–40-year-olds. My Mock-ups manage to raise awareness through advertisements in which will lead to Starbucks gaining and capturing their audience with eye catching graphics which is done by the fonts that I used giving the mock-ups a more bold and expressive feeling. The second stage that consumers undergo is interest in which increases the engagement that they have with the mock-ups and boost the SEO of them as well. This stage is very important as the customer must feel the attraction to my product, which will provide value to them for them to reach the purchasing stage. The heading ‘Be at the Heart of What Matters’ along with the picture of the Martin Luther King cup and Nelson Mandela offer to attract the audience that are fond to the movement and people. Once the customers increasing likeability of the product increases the next stage is desire in which I will have to present to the audience the significance of this product and its features. I have marketed this by telling everyone about how they can enjoy a nice drink from Starbucks while helping support Black Lives Matter with the customised straw and cup. Finally, the last stage, which is being the customers having to make the purchase, which can be done online or in store. To prevent customers scrolling for other products I decided to make the cups and straw limited edition, meaning that it will be available to purchase for a certain period.

My second piece which is the blog is paid media and links to the RACE model. As I am aiming to build awareness and visibility of my product that I have created and engage customers the first step is reach this can be measured by Starbucks as they will be able to view the number of impressions they have got. The next step is act which is short for interact and the aim in this step is to generate the online leads that will guide the customer to the path to purchase this can be done by customers clicking the ‘here’ in the blog underneath the designs.

My third piece which is the Influencer Video is earned media and like the blog links to the RACE Model. In the Influencer video the reach is aimed at building awareness as well and to let people know about the message of the product. The next step is act in which it encourages participation which can be customers sharing the content amongst there friends. In the next step it involves the customers taking that vital step either with online or offline channels and this step is called convert.

References

Bergstrom, B., n.d. Starbucks Marketing Startegy: Create Remarkable Brand. [Online]
Available at: https://coschedule.com/blog/starbucks-marketing-strategy
[Accessed 7 April 2022].

Canva - https://www.canva.com

Dicitionary , 2020. Raised Fist emoji. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/e/emoji/raised-fist-emoji/
[Accessed 7 April 2021].

Mediamodifier - http://mediamodifer.com

McLachlan, S., 2022. Instagram Demographics in 2022. [Online]
Available at: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/
[Accessed 7 April 2022].

Inshot - www.inshot.com