Red Bull By Functional Beverages From The Far East

Red Bull is the pioneer in the energy drink category worldwide. Founded in 1984 by Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria, the product was formally launched in 1987. Mateschitz originally became aware of products called “tonic drinks”, which enjoyed wide popularity in Asia. He brought this effective product in Austria and developed a unique marketing strategy. The drink mainly targets young students and urban professionals. It is exclusively produced in Austria and then distributed around the world via a network of local subsidiaries and external importers and distributors.

Red bull is affordable it has a reasonable price, also very popular because Red bull is associated with extreme sports, events, artists, and some other activities. Red bull also sponsors sports, and events with high media coverage and they use videos and articles about extreme sports, and music.

"We are dedicated to uphold Red bull standards, while maintaining the leadership position I the energy drinks category when delivering superior customer service in a highly efficient and profitable manner. We create a culture where employees share best practices dedicated to coaching and developing our organization as an employer of choice"

Red Bull is a privately owned company, producing and distributing the Red Bull energy drink to more than 165 countries worldwide. The company was founded by Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria in 1984 and launched Red Bull onto the Austrian market in 1987. Since then more than 35 billion cans of Red Bull have been consumed. Red Bull employs over 8,900 people throughout the world, its corporate headquarters are located in Fuschi am See, Austria. (N/A, 2012).

Red Bull segmented the market and positioned the brand very effectively, with its controversial and anti-establishment status. Red bull is not viewed as being just a product, it is a “Way of Life” which is associated with energy, extreme sports and danger, very appealing to its core audience.

After seeing the success that Red Bull has got in the energy drinks market, new brands are entering this market. Hence, it is essential for Red Bull to make certain changes in its marketing, production and

Energy drinks were very popular in Asia long before they overtook the American and European market. In 1982, Dietrich Mateschitz tried his first tonic drink in Hong Kong and came up with the idea to introduce these drinks to Europe. In 1984, he established the Red Bull company and started selling Red Bull Energy Drink on the Austrian market in 1987. These days, Red Bull is sold in 164 countries. Since 1987, around 30 billion cans of Red Bull have been consumed, more than 4.6 billion in 2011 (RedBull). After Red Bull became very popular, other brands of energy drinks filled up the shelves of stores. These include Monster, Rockstar, Full Throttle, Amp, Sobe Adrenaline Rush, Rip it, BooKoo, Von Dutch, and No fear. Energy drink companies target mostly young consumers, and in order to gain a success, they make attractive packaging and slogans. For example, “Red Bull gives you Wings,” (Red Bull), “Unleash the Beast” (Monster,) “Go Full Throttle or Go Home” (Full Throttle,) “Party Like a Rockstar” (Rockstar,) and “More Power to You” (Amp.)

5.0 How is Red Bull Marketed? 5.1 Sponsorship 5.2 Advertising 5.3 Brand Image 5.4 Some of Red Bull’s extreme sports athletes and events in pictures 6.0 Revolutionary Marketing 7.0 Maintaining market share 8.0 Competition and Intellectual property 9.0 Discussion 9.1 Diversification of product range 9.2 Drinks for the “Health Conscious” consumer 9.3 New Marketing Ideas 9.4

Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, selling over three billion cans annually. Started in 1987 by Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull pursued an aggressive yet different marketing strategy to grow their brand globally. Red Bull met an untapped need within the beverage consumer market and the strength of their carefully cultivated brand provided them leverage to market themselves in a non-traditional manner.

1. What is the marketing mix for Red Bull? What markets does Red Bull attempt

Red Bull is not differentiated by gender, race or income, but does position itself as young, sporty and dynamic. It is also perceived as the market leader. The brand is not associated with a type of distribution channel, but does insist on usage situations – anytime, anywhere, for any situation (see advertisement A in Appendix 1).

Red Bull’s marketing strategies focused primarily on selling their energy drinks to young consumers, and extreme sports athletes. Adolescent and young adult consumers are often risk takers and are willing to consume anything that will make them feel alive and energized. “To build brand image, Mateschitz used grassroots sales tactics that got college students and night clubbers to roll over in sweet surrender, like puppies awaiting chest rubs” (Lidz). Red Bull’s sports event marketing on professional athletes created the gateway to their successful branding strategy of only allowing popular sports companies, such as Formula 1 Racing, to wear their logo as an official sponsor. This is as opposed to Monster Energy Drinks, where

Marketing Research plays an instrumental role in all three phases of the marketing management process in: planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Red Bull can be called as a pioneer in the energy drink category worldwide. In India too, Red Bull was the brand that created the energy drink category.

Initially, the company distributed free cases to college students across the country in an attempt to get their product in the hands of its consumers. This campaign became very successful and rapid proliferation of sales became the norm. The company continued to tailor their advertising to appeal to their target audience by sponsoring extreme sports, events, teams, and athletes. They sponsor athletes in the BMX, skiing, rally car, MLS Soccer, and many other sports industries (Red Bull). By sponsoring athletes such as Travis Pastrana and Shaun White, their “double bull” logo is never out of the spotlight, and constantly seen by the consumer.