Red Bull Case Study

• The Red Bull energy drink is a functional product developed especially for periods of increased mental and physical exertion.

In today's world, the name Red Bull and the slogan "Red Bull Gives You Wings has been inscribed into the minds of consumers around the globe. The popular energy drink, which seems to have sky-rocketed in US as well as world-wide sales is no miracle drug, although it does seem that way by the overflowing demand. Known to many as a coffee substitute, Red Bull is able to give its buyers that extra push or burst of energy to keep their day going due to its increased amounts of caffeine, without the nasty aftertaste of coffee. No doubt its marketing strategies have made a massive impact on its increased sales, but at its start, it is no lie to call Red Bull a self-made success. In a time where everyone is

With countless reports of people being hospitalized after chugging down a Red Bull and other energy drinks, the company fails to warn possible customers of the energy drinks potential negative side-affects. And only focus on the glamorous up-side of Red Bull. By not telling the whole story, Red Bull Corporation trick anyone viewing ads about Red Bull. Which is especially important to note when most Red Bull consumers are teens and young adults. The negative consequences of drinking to many Red Bulls, are heart attack and comas to name a

Red Bull targets only a particular segment of market and therefore makes its product only available at those places where the target can be reached. The energy drink can be bought at colleges, supermarkets and is mainly associated to extreme sports. In particular, the energy drink has also known a tremendous success in India, where the segment is the fastest growing in the category, due to India’s youth centric population and fast urbanization. Red Bull was actually the brand that created energy drink category in India (Docstoc, April 2012).

This document is part of the requirements of the Foundations of marketing course, the University of Newcastle. It is the first part of the marketing plan for Red Bull, the leader of energy drinks market.

This report was written to assess the company Red Bull and their energy drink Red Bull Energy Drink, in a manner in which the market/industry, environment, competitors, customers, and the brand were all analysed by using secondary research. A SWOT analysis was also conducted. Through this research and analysing, it was found that Red Bull is the dominating leader in the energy drink market and sells the most units of its product worldwide. However the company does have close competitors in Monster Energy Drink and Rock star Energy Drink. Although Red Bull has massive internal strengths in being leader in the market share and sponsorship of events, it also has weaknesses in lack of innovation and diversity. Their

If one has to analyze the profitability scheme of Red Bull Energy Drink, perhaps it can be safely said that it is in a very uncompromising situation. First and foremost, the stiff competition have paved the way for the emergence of many small time players (Helm 2005). With every bottled drink that aims to steal the limelight nowadays, Red Bull should capitalize more on its creativity and ingenuity—this is of course, in relation to advertising and marketing. The company should never disregard that Coca Cola and Pepsi are still top competitors (Helm 2005). More so, even if the two share equally different components as with Red Bull, still, it is evident that the two continue to partake into the market share. Meanwhile, the notion that energy drinks offers no variety in taste is an important marketing aspect that the company should take into full consideration (Laing 2005). In 2001, Pepsi had already released AMP Energy Drink (“Amp Energy Drink” n.d). It is the company’s maidens venture into the energy drink arena. Evidently, AMP’s raison d’ etre is to capitalize on Mountain Dew’s established image. The concept would be to introduce something new, yet very familiar (“Amp Energy Drink” n.d).

Market share and strategy - RedBull had dominated the market of energy drinks all over the world. Its main mission is to provide an energy drink made with natural ingredients which provide energy to man, women or children in their day to day life. It provides instant energy which helps college students or working people to maintain their energy and keep doing their work with full enthusiastic way.The Red Bull brand had created a great impact on the mind of its customers by its product results and pricing strategies which make it a larger energy drink on the market.("The Top 15 Energy Drink Brands.")

Red Bull receives a lot of publicity throughout the media, mainly to do with health issues. This causes controversy over the drink, and is considered a weakness. The media often report that Red Bull is unhealthy and damages your body. The media often targets parents, telling them that it is harmful for teenagers and children. This being Red Bulls target market has a very negative impact on the company.

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

Initially the Red Bull’s slogan was “Red Bull gives you wings”. Later on as the taste changed with the change of its ingredients. Earlier it was an energy drink and later it was functional energy drink. Mateschitz devised the brand positioning that Red Bull “Revitalizes Body and Mind” This phrase conveyed the tangible benefit of the product in an easy grasping manner. It meant that Red Bull can be drunk any time whether it was morning, noon, or night. Thus Red Bulls consumption was not limited to any occasion or activities.

We evaluated the brand personality using the five dimensions sophistication, competence, sincerity, excitement, and ruggedness on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest score on that dimension. As we can see on the chart, sophistication and ruggedness have lower scores, while all other dimensions achieve high grades. Red Bull is especially perceived as exciting and competent through its sponsoring of events (see advertising B and C in Appendix 1). Red Bull does not emphasize associations to its history or the country in which it is produced.

Red Bull has been able to create and sustain a competitive advantage in the sports drink industry by setting a goal and expanding from it. Red Bull was launched in hopes of capitalizing on extreme sports such as snowboarding and

1. What segmentation base has Red Bull adopted to target customers? How should Red Bull further segment the market in the future?

1.) Why do companies like Pepsi need to globalize? What are the various ways in which foreign companies can enter a foreign market? What hurdles and problems did Pepsi Face when it tried to enter India during the 1980s?