The History of Red Bull Company
The paper is devoted to the leader of the energy drink market Red Bull Company. The work gets a brief insight into the history of the producer. The paper lists the ingredients of this successful strategy and focuses on its peculiar features. There is also an example of the extraordinary advertising campaign—the sky-dive from the stratosphere. The work highlights an original approach of the producer to advertising and reveals the tools used. Significant attention is also given to the diversification strategy with some explanation of its advantages. Moreover, the paper articulates the specific philosophy that grounds the whole marketing approach and provides long-lasting sustainability to the company.
Keywords: marketing strategy, diversification, advertising, original, philosophy, energetic drink
Red Bull Marketing Strategy
Red Bull is the producer of soft energetic drinks, which globally dominates in this industry. The creator of the company is an Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz, who was inspired by the success of a Japanese businessman Taisho, the producer of an energetic drink. Mateschits was a pioneer in the industry, as energetic drinks had been unknown in Europe and Americas. The company survived many difficulties but managed to establish itself as a leading producer in the market and won international consumers (Swallow, 2012, p.1).
The original Thai formula was modified to the tastes of European consumer. The drink was carbonated and enriched with many components: sodium, caffeine, B vitamins, and glucuronolactone and artificially synthesized taurine. The drink proves to add stamina, brand distinction and enhances the ability for mental concentration (Swallow, 2012, p.1).
Mateschitz used creative, original, and innovative approach to the promotion of the product. The first advertising companies, however, failed to be effective. Nevertheless, Mateschitz was determined to launch the product and carried on with the promotion. The company did not make the profit until 1990. (Business, 2018, p.1). Thanks to the skillful combination of word-of-mouth advertising, orientation towards target consumers and appropriate communication the company achieved the goal. The brand units the consumers with a set value: individuality, humor, vitality and progressive attitude to life (Reference for Business, 2018, p.1).
At first, the company handed out cans of the drink at students’ parties. That sampling had success and gained popularity with the lovers of sleepless nights. Further, the company made a stake at the people who lived very active lives and need extra energy. At present, the company’s marketing strategy is more sophisticated (Potterton, 2000,p.1).
Nowadays, the widespread of Social Media Marketing (SMM), companies have a unique opportunity to build up long-term relationships with consumers of their goods and services, reputation as well as increase a general demand for the brand and tackle plenty of problems. Red Bull represents one of the brightest examples of a successful marketing strategy (Reference for Business, 2018, p.1).
The marketing strategy of the company includes a variety of the sources of communication to keep in touch with the consumers via social media. The drink is associated with active lifestyle and fitness. Red Bull is given extensive coverage in social media to get a positive response from the audience (Walker, 2002, p.1). Red Bull carries out the thoughtful communication on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. The official page of Red Bull has an impressive number of followers—over 44 million. However, the company does not just post the advertisements of the drink, but it attracts the visitors with daily refreshing sportive content (Walker, 2002, p.1). The keynote of the advertisement is the promotion of the life without limits and conventionalism, breaking the barrier of human achievements. Besides sportive events, Red Bull sponsors different musical festivals (Walker, 2002, p.1).
The marketing strategy involves the association with a sports club and makes the company recognizable and creates an image. The company usually spends vast amounts of money for its logo to be used in sportive paraphernalia. Many producers of energetic drinks followed the example of Red Bull and made inroads into sports management for advertising (Reference for Business, 2018, p.1).The dominance of Red Bull in the market is achieved with the help of diversification into the sports industry. Besides sponsoring sportive events, Red Bull is the owner of football and hockey clubs, two F1 teams and several companies from musical and mass-media industries (Reference for Business, 2018, p.1).
Red Bull invests in its branches and brands the goods and services: the recognizable logo is used on T-shirts, uniforms, accessories and racing bolides. The advantage of diversification is apparent: customers cannot ignore the ubiquitous brand that creates a corporate image of success and strength (Reference for Business, 2018, p.1).
The case of Formula 1 illustrates how diversification in the different industry can influence the whole branding. One of the messages of Red Bull is encouraging an active and risky lifestyle. High speeds of Formula 1 and extreme danger are associated with the values promoted by the Red Bull producer (RedBull Racing, 2018, p.1). Participation in Formula 1 is not very profitable in monetary terms, but it is beneficial for the company in other ways. Formula 1 is the most popular sportive event that attracts about 450 million of spectators annually in 21 countries of the world (RedBull Racing, 2018, p.1). As the owner of an F1 team, Red Bull freely uses its logo and thus, wins millions of consumers all over the globe. Moreover, the industry of energetic drinks has been spreading over the markets of Asia (China, Bahrain, OAO), Latin America (Brasilia, Mexico), and Eastern Europe (Redbull Racing, 2018, p.1). The marketing strategy of Red Bull is complicated, multi-sided and integrated. All sectors and departments are coordinated and interweaved. All tools of marketing communication provide mutual enhancement (Redbull Racing, 2018, p.1).
The whole marketing activity of the company is transfused with synergy, which is the ground for the creation of a robust and sustainable brand. Diversification strategy provides a sustainable advantage over the other producers of energetic drinks in the market. The building of this strategy requires significant time and financial input that makes it practically impossible to be copied by the competitors (Swallow, 2012,p.1). The effect of diversification strategy into sportive industry contributes to the spread over international markets, the establishment of the entire image and brand of the company, building the system of integrated marketing (Swallow, 2012,p.1).
Red Bull has always avoided little advertising. In 2010 the company designed the most complicated and ambitious marketing project called ‘’Red Bull Stratos.’’ The project became the global sensation: an Austrian Felix Baumgartner committed the highest sky-dive on record: he jumped from the stratosphere and flew down with the speed that exceeds the speed of sound (Sinclair, 2012,p.1 ). Red Bull, as the sponsor of the project, gained sky-rocketing popularity in social media: millions of people were watching the live report of the jump. The benefits of the action were apparent the company invested about 500 million $ into the event to win 50 million consumers (RBP, 2018, p.1).Red Bull created a firm image of the brand. Red Bull has a team of professional athletes who endorse the drink: Danny Macaskill, a trial cyclist, James Bubba Stewart, a motor-cross racer, John Ollson, a freeskier and many others (Sinclair, 2012,p.1).
The fundamental principle of the company's marketing strategy sounds like this: ‘'we do not deliver the product to consumers, we deliver consumers to the product''. Mateschitz set a goal to give the product the character of the cult, to create a kind of philosophy around it, to make it an attribute of everyday life—in other words, to establish a new subculture (Reference for Business, 2018, p.1). Red Bull started to arrange extreme sports competitions; many of them are of international significance. For example, Red Bull Air Race is often visited by the leaders of states (Reference for Business, 2018, p.1).
Summing up, Mateschitz created the drink, organized its specific market, attracted consumers and promoted a new lifestyle philosophy.
Conclusion
Dietrich Mateschitz launched the global market for energy drinks. He used powerful marketing tools to promote the drink inside Austria and beyond. The successful marketing strategy is based on the detection of a target consumer, use of a diversity of communication channels, and original advertising ideas. The company created a universal marketing scheme to be applied efficiently in other countries. The companies invest in risky projects, arranges the global competition for extreme sports. Moreover, it exercises the strategy of diversification that contributes to the establishment of a sustainable and robust image of the company.
References
Potterton, L. (2000). Red Bull Gives Its Creator Financial Wings. Scotland on Sunday.
Red Bull Projects (2018). Retrieved from: https://redbullproject.wordpress.com
Reference for Business (2018). Company Profile. Retrieved from: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/94/Red-Bull-GmbH.html
Redbull Racing Formula 1 (2018). Retrieved from: http://redbullracing.redbull.com
Swallow, E. (2012). How Red Bull Content Strategy Got its Wings. Contently. Retrieved from: https://contently.com/strategist/2012/01/24/red-bull-media-house/
Sinclair, J. (2012). Skydiver breaks sound barrier: Fearless Felix Hits 833 mph. Birmingham Evening Mail.
Vickers, A. (2001). Red Bull Drink. Red Bull harnesses 'lunar energy'. The Guardian. Retrieved from:https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jul/13/marketingandpr
Walker, R. (2002), Bull Marketing, Australian Financial Review. Retrieved from: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/94/Red-Bull-GmbH.html#ixzz59zA8zpkp
