Micro-Enterprise

Red Bull Energy Drink

The product chosen by the group was the energy sports drink Red Bull. Initially from first glance the marketing mix of this product was thought customary, however as it will be shown the marketing of Red Bull is anything but standard. Red Bull was founded by Dietrich Mateschitz in Austria in 1984 and is now available in over 80 countries worldwide, including Trinidad and Tobago. With global sales surpassing 1.5 billion cans, its annual revenue exceeds $ 300 million.1Red Bull is a disruptive product that is, a product that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or product in the market2. It established a new category in the market, finally serving the need for a legal yet ‘hip’ stimulant. Its taste is slightly unappealing (it gets a D plus from BevNet4) and was a first in a broader soft drink category to place no importance on taste. It even created an ultra-premium price point (the retail price of a product, usually when viewed as one of a series of possible competitive prices) about 8 times higher than Coke without any third party efficacy endorsement to justify the steep margin.

Promotion

Red Bull belongs in the marketing hall of fame for its enigmatic miracles as they threw over board conventional marketing wisdom and developed a new powerful go-to-

market template.

The promotion of Red Bull throughout Trinidad and Tobago, has contributed to its popularity as an efficient energy drink within the party and working environment. They target mainly young adults (18-30 years old). This is shown by the strong promotion of the product on the University of the West Indies campus.

By offering sponsorships and giveaways the product’s popularity and sales has risen. Within this year (2006) alone Red Bull has hosted two competitions on the University of the West Indies campus, one being the Red Bull Paperwings competition (for the longest flying paper airplane) and the Red Bull tricycle race.

It provides sponsorship for numerous parties and social events, where they supply free and discounted Red Bull as a quick energy revitalizer and smooth chaser for alcoholic drinks (vodka or Guinness) using attractive women and sex appeal to encourage sales.

The use of a Volkswagen painted with the product’s logo is also a means of public advertisement. Promotional skills were once more displayed when the Red Bull Music Academy occurred in Trinidad on 17th May 2006, giving upcoming Djs and musicians the opportunity to showcase their skills.

Once they realized that advertising’s overarching purpose was to build awareness and likeability and not to establish and increase understanding and acceptance of the energy drink segment the job became easier for creativeness. In an infamous last ditch effort, Kastner’s team came up with the “Red Bull gives you wiiiings!!” ad campaign. Advertising was used to reinforce, not introduce, the brand experience. Red Bull only aired ads after the launch phase, and they remain a small part of the overall marketing mix. The company is also clever about the more subtle aspects of media planning. For instance, the brand stays off-air during the peak summer months, when share of voice would sink significantly anyway. Also, Red Bull doesn’t use print media to convey its brand message. The flatness of the medium doesn’t connote energy, which is the key Red Bull message

Newspaper advertisements are rarely used compared to the Internet medium. Through this source, Red Bull has used popular Trinidadian party sites (www.triniscene.com) to advertise upcoming sponsored events or past event pictures.

Their marketing training encourages employees to sell a concept (not a product).They attempt to communicate a personality and build mystique to link consumers emotionally to a concept. So important is the focus on concept and experience that Red Bull samples could never be served in cups, but only handed out as unopened cans so that consumers could decide when and how to drink it.

Also Red Bull rather than use heavy celebrity endorsements, cleverly pursued those celebrities that are fans of Red Bull already and expedited ‘voluntary’ promotions from them. Madonna has had free Red Bull on stage at quite a few concerts, but the company has never paid an endorsement fee for it!

Place and Distribution

With the mindset on social integration, rather than set up their own factory and distribution, Red bull simply utilized