MARKETING STRATEGIES
SPREADING THE BUZZ
TARGETING YOUTH
Red Bull first marketing technique was to distribute and target the teenagers and college goers. They went where these guys goes. Then Red Bull went around the cities full of Red Bull cars and distributed the drinks to anybody who need energy- Free, the construction workers, Athletes EVRYONE.
TARGETING PUBS AND CLUBS
Bars initially refused to stock it, seeing it as more of a medicinal drink than a mixer. However snowboarders and clubbers soon recognized. The boost it gave them. They started to bring it with them to non – alcohol bars and pubs.
SUSTAINING THE BUZZ
Red Bull has mastered the buzz marketing. In the 8 sales area in US, the representative scouts for the hot spot. They distributed their branded refrigerator and some goodies to the bars and clubs.
If other conventional establishments ask for Red Bull, they refuse them to retain the credibility and uniqueness of their community and clubbers. To connect this community, Red Bull use to organize a two – week annual music festival. Red Bull sponsors some 500 athletes around the world, the type who will surf in Nova Scotia in January or jump out of a plane to "fly" across the English Channel.
Every year the company stages dozens of extreme sporting events, like the climbing of iced-down silos in Iowa or kite sailing in Hawaii, as well as cultural events like break-dancing contests and rock music jam sessions.
Then there is Hangar-7, an eye-popping structure of glass and steel that Mateschitz erected next to the airport in Salzburg, Austria. The building serves as a chic eatery for club crawlers and provides shelter for the Flying Bulls, a fleet of 15 show planes that appear at air shows around the world.
Mateschitz's latest indulgence: the purchase of a Formula One racing team, an extravagance that will absorb $100 million a year to keep on the track while generating only $70 million in revenue.
All these activities are geared to one objective: to expand Red Bull's presence amid a deluge of new energy drinks being introduced by upstarts and beverage behemoths like Pepsi and Coke
VISIBLITY
Red Bull then worked to ensure that their brand was visible on the street:
Using pick-up trucks as mobile displays, painted blue and silver with a giant can of the drink mounted on top of the vehicle
Designed to be eye-catching, these devices were aimed at promoting the red bull brand as youthful and slightly 'off-the-wall'
Cans of the drink were also given out free to people on the street who had been identified as being in need of energy
Red Bull was given to club DJs, empty cans would also be left on tables in hot spots such as trendy bars, clubs and pubs
GEN Y-STUDENT BRAND MANAGERS
The company also set about promoting the Red Bull brand directly to Generation Y, the so-called 'millennials': people born after 1981 who were believed to be cynical of traditional marketing strategies. Part of this idea involved recruiting 'student brand managers' who would be used to promote Red Bull on university campuses.
These students would be encouraged to throw parties (as if encouragement was needed!) at which cases of Red Bull would be distributed. The brand managers would then report back to the company, giving the firm a low cost form of market research data.
RED BULL EXTRA
When Red Bull decided to launch a high-caffeine variant of Red Bull, called Red Bull Extra, targeted very clearly to youth, it was decided that traditional communications channels alone would not suit. An analysis of the target audience's hobbies and past-times revealed an interest in extreme sports such as skateboarding and stunt-biking, and a desire to hang out in a place where they could feel free to express themselves. The target does not seek a neutral existence, but rather increasingly seeks the razor's edge of extreme sports.
What resulted is a Red Bull skate park designed to be a "brand space" where the target audience can skate or simply hang out. For the opening ceremony, the Red Bull visual equity was also extended through "brand graffiti", which provided an outlet for individual expression, since the skaters themselves provided their own signature touches on the graffiti.
The skate park, as a "live" expression of the brand, reinforces the brand's values of "edgy, urban and energy" each time the target audience visits and uses the skate park. Thus the notion of frequency extends beyond impressions to consumer involvement.
RESULTS
The use of this kind of marketing strategy has become known as 'viral' marketing. It is as if a company sees no need for traditional informative or persuasive communications, rather in Red Bull's case it used the youth 'underground' to spread the popularity of the drink.
So the firm would rather restrict the drink's supply and not advertise it, expecting that growing numbers of target consumers 'catch the bug' and its reputation spreads. Red Bull was a spectacularly successful example of the strategy working even though as we see later, its branding was aided by state intervention in countries like France and Denmark.
By 2004, the worldwide energy drinks market was worth an estimated £1.6 billion; Red Bull had achieved a clear market leading position, with a 70% market share. The lure of fast-growing profits in this market brought many competitors into the functional foods sector, where health and energy drinks have seen sales double every year since their introduction.
Many competitors have tried to employ similar marketing strategies and tactics in order to grab sales from the market leader. Not all have been successful, of course.
SPREADING THE BUZZ
TARGETING YOUTH
Red Bull first marketing technique was to distribute and target the teenagers and college goers. They went where these guys goes. Then Red Bull went around the cities full of Red Bull cars and distributed the drinks to anybody who need energy- Free, the construction workers, Athletes EVRYONE.
TARGETING PUBS AND CLUBS
Bars initially refused to stock it, seeing it as more of a medicinal drink than a mixer. However snowboarders and clubbers soon recognized. The boost it gave them. They started to bring it with them to non – alcohol bars and pubs.
SUSTAINING THE BUZZ
Red Bull has mastered the buzz marketing. In the 8 sales area in US, the representative scouts for the hot spot. They distributed their branded refrigerator and some goodies to the bars and clubs.
If other conventional establishments ask for Red Bull, they refuse them to retain the credibility and uniqueness of their community and clubbers. To connect this community, Red Bull use to organize a two – week annual music festival. Red Bull sponsors some 500 athletes around the world, the type who will surf in Nova Scotia in January or jump out of a plane to "fly" across the English Channel.
Every year the company stages dozens of extreme sporting events, like the climbing of iced-down silos in Iowa or kite sailing in Hawaii, as well as cultural events like break-dancing contests and rock music jam sessions.
Then there is Hangar-7, an eye-popping structure of glass and steel that Mateschitz erected next to the airport in Salzburg, Austria. The building serves as a chic eatery for club crawlers and provides shelter for the Flying Bulls, a fleet of 15 show planes that appear at air shows around the world.
Mateschitz's latest indulgence: the purchase of a Formula One racing team, an extravagance that will absorb $100 million a year to keep on the track while generating only $70 million in revenue.
All these activities are geared to one objective: to expand Red Bull's presence amid a deluge of new energy drinks being introduced by upstarts and beverage behemoths like Pepsi and Coke
VISIBLITY
Red Bull then worked to ensure that their brand was visible on the street:
Using pick-up trucks as mobile displays, painted blue and silver with a giant can of the drink mounted on top of the vehicle
Designed to be eye-catching, these devices were aimed at promoting the red bull brand as youthful and slightly 'off-the-wall'
Cans of the drink were also given out free to people on the street who had been identified as being in need of energy
Red Bull was given to club DJs, empty cans would also be left on tables in hot spots such as trendy bars, clubs and pubs
GEN Y-STUDENT BRAND MANAGERS
The company also set about promoting the Red Bull brand directly to Generation Y, the so-called 'millennials': people born after 1981 who were believed to be cynical of traditional marketing strategies. Part of this idea involved recruiting 'student brand managers' who would be used to promote Red Bull on university campuses.
These students would be encouraged to throw parties (as if encouragement was needed!) at which cases of Red Bull would be distributed. The brand managers would then report back to the company, giving the firm a low cost form of market research data.
RED BULL EXTRA
When Red Bull decided to launch a high-caffeine variant of Red Bull, called Red Bull Extra, targeted very clearly to youth, it was decided that traditional communications channels alone would not suit. An analysis of the target audience's hobbies and past-times revealed an interest in extreme sports such as skateboarding and stunt-biking, and a desire to hang out in a place where they could feel free to express themselves. The target does not seek a neutral existence, but rather increasingly seeks the razor's edge of extreme sports.
What resulted is a Red Bull skate park designed to be a "brand space" where the target audience can skate or simply hang out. For the opening ceremony, the Red Bull visual equity was also extended through "brand graffiti", which provided an outlet for individual expression, since the skaters themselves provided their own signature touches on the graffiti.
The skate park, as a "live" expression of the brand, reinforces the brand's values of "edgy, urban and energy" each time the target audience visits and uses the skate park. Thus the notion of frequency extends beyond impressions to consumer involvement.
RESULTS
The use of this kind of marketing strategy has become known as 'viral' marketing. It is as if a company sees no need for traditional informative or persuasive communications, rather in Red Bull's case it used the youth 'underground' to spread the popularity of the drink.
So the firm would rather restrict the drink's supply and not advertise it, expecting that growing numbers of target consumers 'catch the bug' and its reputation spreads. Red Bull was a spectacularly successful example of the strategy working even though as we see later, its branding was aided by state intervention in countries like France and Denmark.
By 2004, the worldwide energy drinks market was worth an estimated £1.6 billion; Red Bull had achieved a clear market leading position, with a 70% market share. The lure of fast-growing profits in this market brought many competitors into the functional foods sector, where health and energy drinks have seen sales double every year since their introduction.
Many competitors have tried to employ similar marketing strategies and tactics in order to grab sales from the market leader. Not all have been successful, of course.