Red Bull: A Unique Marketing Strategy

Creating a Unique Marketing Strategy

Red Bull was founded in the 1980s after getting inspired from functional drink concept of the Far East. Red Bull was first launched in the year 1987 in its home town Austria, ever since Red Bull is available in over 171 countries. Red Bull is extremely cautious when it comes to marketing; the company adopts a unique marketing strategy which is progressive in nature. The company consistently works towards enhancing its brand communication and create content to engage with its target audience (Alford, Cox & Wescott, 2001)

Events have become incessantly important in the present context and it is really interesting to understand the thought process behind creating a special event. Companies partner with these special events based on relevancy and the reach of the event. Marketing and events play a very crucial role in the organization as it helps in brand recognition and reaching the target audience (Guadagnolo, 2014). Concepts like Marketing mix, STP, risk management and evaluation will also be learnt in concurrence with the event marketing.

In simple words, a special event can be described as gathering of human beings  either for a few hours or days to celebrate honour, sell, and teach or to observe human endeavours. Special events are a unique moment in time which is celebrated with ceremony and ritual to satisfy specific needs (Ford & Markwell, 2017). Events can be organized for numerous reasons, some of the prominent ones being; Political, religious, social, educational & commercial. These types of events can be further classified as:

• Meeting & Conferences- MICE sector is a fast paced event segment which is spreading its wing everywhere. Businesses, organizations, communities come together to discusses sales, strategies, annual review of the company and so on. Examples being World Bank conference, SAARC summit, World leader’s conference and many more such conferences happening across the globe (Olberding, 2016).
• Expositions and Trade shows-As the name suggests this involves various exhibitors, industry people coming together with the vision of showcasing their product to the consumers. Examples being Auto Expo held at Germany, Indian and many more places (Getz & Page, 2016).
• Celebrations, ceremonies & spectacles- This includes to a group of people coming together with a purpose of celebration and marking the journey of a special occasion. This can be both private and public in nature, example being FIFA world cup, carnivals, food festivals, entertainment night & gala dinners (Rogers & Davidson, 2015).

Since the launch of Red Bull, the company has been in the news for its amazing marketing campaigns and it’s never been used marketing strategy. The company does not focuses on traditional approach of marketing like TV advertisement, Newspaper ads, however the company uses an innovative approach which involves creating and organizing their own extreme events across the globe(Teigeler & Hahne,2014).  The marketing strategy is divided into 6 steps for Red Bull:

• Word of Mouth
• Sampling Program
• Point of Purchase
• Event sponsorship
• Athlete Endorsement (Hammond & Reid, 2018)
• Advertisement

Red bull associates with those events which have a high affinity with its target audience. Target audience relate with events based on the theme of celebration, sports, adventure, music festival & carnivals. These are the events which resonate with the boldness of Red Bull and drives feeling of adrenalin rush and energy in the participants or the audience (McCarthy, 2017)

The year 2018 sees Red Bull associating with Red bull Neptune Steps 2018(Swimming event), Red Bull Crashed Ice (Ice skating), UCI MTB World cup 2018, all these are major events happening in Glasgow, Alberta & Cape town respectively. The association with these sporting events reinstates Red Bull’s brand positioning in the market. The role of events in marketing strategy of Red bull can be summarised as:

• Reinforcing the brand positioning as an independent stimulating beverage
• Enhancing brand visibility of Red Bull
• Attractive media coverage
• Targeted reach (Caru & Cova, 2007)

The Importance of Events in Marketing

The marketing mix of Red Bull explains how the company caters to its marketing mix in order to make its product more attractive and reach its targeted audience.

Capitalizing the tagline-Before dropping the once famous tagline in the year 2014, “Red Bull gives you wings”, the tagline which was synonymous with excitement and risk taking was hugely successful for the company and pivotal in setting a strong foundation for the brand.

Consistent visual branding- The logo of Red Bull stands out in the crowd, it’s clear, precise and extremely neat.

Building strong content- Red bull focuses on building content which is highly relevant to its target audience. The content moves around the topic of adventure, sports, music, festivals and so on. Basically, whatever the youth is interested in, Red bull drives its content strategy from there.

Revamping the way they use media-Red Bull has been using even the traditional media differently, the brand creates different campaign for its online and offline medium. All the campaigns are entire different from each other and rank high in relevancy.

Loud and proud social media strategy-Red Bull’s strategy on social media is based on social listening, content creation and of participative style. The company leverages the brand value and uses to engage with the target audience.

Bringing product closer to the audience with sponsorship and events- Another great marketing strategy which Red Bull uses to associate with its audience is by being closer to them through event sponsorship. The brand association with events which resonate with the same vision as that of Red Bull helps the company in building a strong connect with its Target audience.

Red Bull is planning a music festival by bringing in Cold play to perform at open grounds in London. Coldplay is extremely popular in the UK and hence Red Bull wants to create an event which would leverage the popularity of the brand and infuse it with branding elements of Red Bull. The combined power of both Cold Play and Red Bull will help in increasing the brand awareness among its target audience and the company would also be in a position to test its new drink. STP of Red Bull explains which specific group of the population the company targets in order to sell their energy drink and do a Beta testing for its new Apple cedar flavoured energy drink. Segmentation is the process of dividing the population into groups according to certain characteristic, whereas targeting implies choosing specific group identified as a result of segmentation to sell the products. Positioning implies to selection of the best possible marketing mix to woo its audience.

Classification of Special Events

The Target market of Red Bull is 16-40 years of Male and female and the company aims to reach the market by associating with various sports adventure events. At the same time, Red Bull is coming up with low calorie drink to reach the health conscious people

The product is positioned as a premium product hence is accordingly priced. The company uses Physiological pricing to prove its superiority over its competitors. The company has also taken the advantage of being the first mover in the industry, thus has built a brand loyalty for itself amongst its consumer base.

It is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of event planning. A comprehensive risk management plan identifies all of the potential risks which may arise from holding an event, and thus event organizers have to enlist all of these risks to reduce or mitigate the chances of identified risks. For the special music event organized by Red Bull in London, where Cold play will be performing alongside three local music bands of The UK, some of the identified risks are:

Safety of the Audience and the Artist- The turn out for the event according to an early estimate is going to be around 40-50 thousand. Hence special efforts have to be taken to ensure the safety of the crowd and the artist against any possible terrorist threat, medical emergency, brawl and ogling at the venue.

Financial Risk- Although, Cold play will ensure the footfall is there at the venue, but anything can happen just few days before the event. Hence it is advised to insure the event for any unforeseen circumstances.

Mismanagement of the crowd- It becomes really a big task for the event organizers to manage such large numbers, especially when alcohol will be served during the event. A proper route has to be created, along with the entry gate, exit gates, signs for exit, toilets, food and so on. All this will ensure that the crowd is managed properly.

Conclusion

Red Bull, An Austrian Company which was the first player to launch energy drinks in the market has been hugely successful since its launch. The company has a progressive marketing strategy which allows the company to consistently focus on its branding effort round the clock. The target audience for Red Bull ranges mostly of Men in the age group of 16-40 years; the company targets them using both the traditional and contemporary tools of marketing. Red bull brilliantly executes its marketing campaign by associating itself with sports event, it also sponsors a lot of sporting events which are rich in adventure to resonate with its brand positioning and increase the brand awareness. Hosting event is fundamentally a very strong suite of Red Bull, and the company loses no opportunity on capitalizing the awareness and penetration the brand can achieve from partnering with such events.

References

Alford, C., Cox, H. and Wescott, R., 2001. The effects of red bull energy drink on human performance and mood. Amino acids, 21(2), pp.139-150.

Carù, A. and Cova, B., 2007. Consuming experiences. Consuming experience, pp.34-47.

Ford, A. and Markwell, K., 2017. Special Events and Social Reform: The Case of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade and the Australian Marriage Equality Movement. Event Management, 21(6), pp.683-695.

Getz, D. and Page, S.J., 2016. Event studies: Theory, research and policy for planned events. Routledge.

Guadagnolo, F.,2014. The importance-performance analysis: An evaluation and marketing tool. Journal of park and recreation administration, 3(2), pp.13-22.

Hammond, D. and Reid, J.L., 2018. Exposure and perceptions of marketing for caffeinated energy drinks among young Canadians. Public health nutrition, 21(3), pp.535-542.

McCarthy, A.C., 2017. Reading the Red Bull Sublime. PMLA, 132(3), pp.543-557.

Olberding, J. ed., 2016. Social Enterprise and Special Events(Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.

Rogers, T. and Davidson, R., 2015. Marketing destinations and venues for conferences, conventions and business events(Vol. 14). Routledge.

Teigeler, J. and Hahne, A.K., 2014. Product and Price Analysis of Red Bull in Central Europe: Marketing Mix. GRIN Verlag.

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