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Josh Sebak
UWRT 1102-092
Debra Dagher
April 20, 2015

Red Bull Marketing

At the age of 6 I purchased my first skateboard, it was at this moment I became hooked
into action sports. Every time I watched an action sports event on television I noticed one thing
in common, the Red Bull logo was everywhere. Being a business major at UNC Charlotte has
changed my perspective on how I view marketing, I now understand that every business invests a
great deal of time and money in developing a successful marketing strategy. This brought my
attention back to Red Bull. I wanted to know how their strategy differed from others and why it
was so successful, leading to my ultimate question for inquiry. What is the relationship between
Red Bulls marketing strategy and their market share?
In the mid 1980s an Austrian entrepreneur named Dietrich Mateschitz founded Red Bull.
Mateschitz got his inspiration from an existing Thai energy drink named Krating Daeng. He took
this vision, and partnered Chaleo Yoovidhya to form Red Bull GmbH. Red Bull Energy Drink
was first sold in its home market of Austria on April 1st, 1987. Mateschitzs sole purpose was to
create a completely new energy beverage within the consumer beverage market place (Who
Makes Red Bull? Red Bull Company). Red Bull is dedicated to upholding the highest industry
standards while maintaining leadership position in the energy drink industry. This desire to
maintain leadership is demonstrated in their mission statement To Spread Our Wings Over The
World. Since their start in 1987, Red Bull has sold over 45 billion cans, and can be bought in

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budgets. For instance, BP and Nissan occupy 77th and 81st respectively. This brand strength allows Red Bull to punch
above its weight 167
in terms
of recognition.
different
countries

around the world (Who Makes Red Bull? Red Bull Company). Due to

Red Bull has achieved a very unique position in the global energy drinks market. Its current market share is estimated to

strategic marketing analysis and execution, Red Bull currently dominates the energy drink

be 43%, while its nearest competitor holds a share estimated to be 16%. Due to its remarkable recognition strategy, the
company is able to hold off the advances of some of the largest drinks manufacturers and corporations in the world, such

market in terms of market share (see fig. 1).

as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

Figure 5: Leading energy drinks players' market shares

Figure 1: Leading energy drinks players market share

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Red Bull as a product has become the primary name for the energy drinks sector; for instance, a popular alcoholic drink

You may be wondering what strategic marketing is and why this particular inquiry question is

in the UK is a measurement of vodka mixed with an energy drink, but the drink is referred to and advertised as Vodka
Red Bull even when a different energy drink brand is being used. The benefit of this is enormous, as the company is the

important. Marketing is a process by which a product or service is introduced and promoted to

primary consideration when a consumer chooses an energy drink, in a similar way to Coca-Cola within the soft drinks
industry.

potential customers. Without marketing, your business may offer the best products or services in

Red Bull achieved 4 billion can sales in 160 countries in 2011. In comparison with its major competitors, the Red Bull
serving is much smaller,
yet the product
is charged
at the
same price
and sells would
in higherknow
volumes.
It is it
likely
that Red
Bull
your industry,
but none
of your
potential
customers
about
(The
Importance

of

is viewed by the consumer as a higher end product, and yet sells in the quantities of a lower end product. Red Bull can
also charge more
than its competitors,
despite of
theafact
that the standard
serving
of Reddrink
Bull iscompanies
a 250ml (8.3oz)
can,
Marketing
for the Success
Business).
Each year
energy
spend
hundreds
whereas all other competitors offer larger (often double the size) cans for the same price.

millions of dollars on advertising alone. In 2010, energy drink companies spent more on

Red Bull's product range is not huge, and currently consists of Red Bull Energy Drink, Red Bull Sugar Free, Red Bull

Energy Shot, and Red Bull Cola. The company has spread all over the world, and has achieved higher than expected

advertising than all other sugar drink brands except soda, totaling $165 million between the top

success in markets that are already well-developed, such as Japan and Turkey.

The company grew by roughly 700 employees in 2011 to reach 8,294 employees. This rate of growth shows the
confidence that consistently growing revenues have brought the company.

The product takes on a secondary role

Unusually, the Red Bull product is a secondary consideration on the company's website, which is devoted to the myriad
Red Bull: A trailblazer in marketing strategy

ML00007-012 /Published 07/2012

of

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three companies (Energy Drinks). Every successful business must have a strategic marketing
strategy in order to establish sustainable competitive advantage.
Red Bulls way of showing off its products and becoming recognized by its target
audience is unusual but hugely successful. In terms of their marketing strategy, Red Bull has
decided to ignore traditional media advertising and marketing. Instead the company has focused
channeling its money into sporting, music, and cultural events. Their efforts have been so
extensive that the number of events and people sponsored total in the hundreds (Red Bull). By
ignoring the traditional advertising methods used by most companies and focusing on the
cultural aspects of the industry, Red Bull has essentially forged an entirely new market segment
with its own unique product. Using this strategy has not only gained Red Bull the top spot in
market share but has also created an exceedingly powerful brand image. During my research I
found a peer reviewed article that focused on the impact of this brand image on consumer
expectations and performance. The article talked about a laboratory study that was conducted
using a racing video game called Forza 2 played on the Xbox 360. Participants were asked to
race a series of cars that were functionally identical but covered in branded paint jobs including:
Coca-Cola, Guinness, Tropicana, and Red Bull. Consumers racing a car with a Red Bull paint
job performed either considerably faster or slower than they did in other branded cars. Red Bull's
personality associations of speed, power, aggressiveness, and recklessness either pushed
consumers to the edge of their ability, leading to very fast races overall, or pushed them beyond
their ability, leading to higher off-track times and slower races overall. Indeed, Red Bull was
the only brand with a significantly uneven race speed distribution, showing a strong U-shaped
effect on race time; Red Bull was most commonly a participant's fastest or slowest car (Brasel,

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S.A, and J Gips). This provides further evidence that Red Bulls focus on brand image, a major
part of their marketing strategy, has had an impact on consumers expectations.
When it comes to the relationship between Red Bulls marketing strategy and their
market share, the main reason for their dominating success is because of the dedication to their

metimes easier to access information on than its own products.

he numbers brand image and the extensive amount of money invested in it. By being a private company,

Red Bull
gure 3: Red Bull revenues

is able to invest more into its marketing strategy without concerns over maintaining

shareholder profits. Even though Red Bull spends considerably more on marketing than its
competitors, it is actually more economical than most traditional advertising methods (Red Bull).
Along side sponsoring athletes, Red Bull spends a considerable amount of time and money
investing in individual sporting, music, and cultural events. Although other companies use this

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same strategy, Red Bull has taken it to a new level. Due to their brand being linked with the

positivesaw
events
host and
invest in, growth
they focus
less on
selling
their
product
seen above, the company
somethey
fluctuation
in year-on-year
rates during
thehard
economic
crash
in 2008
and

09, but the company has since returned to strong double digit growth. Red Bulls closest competitor is Monster Energy,

or

discounting
it. This
enables
them
to retain
volume
their competitors
ich has been showing
good revenue
growth,
but Red
Bulls
annual higher
growth sales
is higher
despitethan
its already
dominant

rket share.

while

maintaining the top spot in market share (see fig. 2).

gure 4: Red Bull and Monster revenues

Figure 2: Red Bull and Monster revenues

Source: Red Bull: A Trailblazer in Marketing Strategy. S.l.: MarketLine, a Datamonitor business,
2012. Internet resource.

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rength within the market

d Bulls strengths extend beyond its annual turnover and include some unusual elements not commonly seen in other

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In conclusion, there are a lot of factors that impact a marketing strategies overall success.
Red Bulls dedication to its brand image and its extensive investment towards it has enabled
them to become the overall leader in the energy drink industry. Understanding the significance of
strategic marketing is very important to any company or business owner. Without it, the chance
of being discovered by potential customers drops and your business may not be given the
opportunity it deserves to progress and succeed.

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Works Cited
Red Bull: A Trailblazer in Marketing Strategy. S.l.: MarketLine, a Datamonitor business, 2012.
Internet resource.
Energy Drinks: Exploring Concerns About Marketing to Youth : Hearing Before the Committee
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Thirteenth
Congress, First Session, July 31, 2013. , 2014. Internet resource.
Brasel, S.A, and J Gips. "Red Bull ''gives You Wings'' for Better or Worse: a Double-Edged
Impact of Brand Exposure on Consumer Performance." Journal of Consumer Psychology. 21.1
(2011): 57-64. Print.
Who Makes Red Bull? Red Bull Company - Origin & Founder:: Energy Drink:: Red Bull
USA. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
Jessop, Alicia. The Secret Behind Red Bulls Rise As An Action Sports Leader. Forbes. N.p.,
7 Dec. 2012. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
The Importance of Marketing for the Success of a Business. Small Business - Chron.com.
N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2015.

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Peer-Review
I believe that overall the peer review process was helpful. One suggestion I received was
to provide more explanation and examples. I incorporated this in my paper to help the reader
better understand what I was trying to say. I used all of the feedback I received; I believe that all
of the feedback I received was very useful in developing my essay.
The feedback that I provided was mainly to help my peers clarify what they were trying
to say. For both of the papers I reviewed I identified the areas in the paper that needed more
elaboration, and the areas that needed less. I also suggested that they give more examples on
certain subjects that may be misunderstood by readers. Last, I suggested using quantitative data
in the areas that could help paint a better picture for readers.