Classification of Special Events
Dietrich Mateschitz founded Red Bull in mid 1980s. He was inspired by the success of functional drinks of Far East. He created formula for Red Bull along with the development of unique marketing concept in order to promote the new product in the target market efficiently. Organization sold its first drink on 1st April 1987 in the home market and from there, success story of Red Bull begins. Red Bull is available in more than 171 countries across the globe (Red Bull, 2018). This report will include the classification and definition of special events, unique marketing activities executed by Red Bull along with the basic marketing activities in order to gain better outcomes. Along with this, role of marketing mix techniques in the marketing strategies of Red Bull and significance of outdoor events to promote the brand in international market will also be covered under this report. Segmentation and positioning techniques will also be executed while evaluating appropriate outdoor event for promoting Red Bull in international market. The last part of the report will include risk management techniques through which organization will be able to execute its plan in an effective and appropriate manner.
Function, occasion or any event which is held for generating money for the community group or not for profit is known as special event. There are various types of special events exists and each event has their own specifications, complexity, and suitability for sundry groups. As per case study, management of Red Bull has decided to implement special events in their marketing strategies so as to promote their energy drink in the international markets (Alford, Cox & Wescott, 2001).
In relation with Red Bull, special events are classified into various categories such as mega events, Hallmark events, and major events and L&C events. Mega event is not a particular event; it is used to describe events such as Olympic Games, World Cup of Football, Cricket, etc. In order to promote the Red Bull with the motive of increasing its brand value, Red Bull could sponsor such events by being energy partner. This will help the organization to promote their drinks in more effective manner (Sneath, Finney & Close, 2005).
Apart from this, Hallmark event is another attractive option for Red Bull to fulfil their objectives. Cultural shows, fairs, expositions, etc. These types of events are majorly conducted for tourists and these are held on regular or on one-off basis. A primary objective of the hallmark event is to serve the host community with an opportunity to secure high importance in the tourism market place. With the help of hallmark events, Red Bull will be able to promote its energy drinks in tourism industry which will lead to enhance their customer base (Close, et. al., 2006). Further, special events also consists a broad category i.e. major events and it include national and community events, mass participation events, etc. and fairs & festivals are included in the commercial events. Another motive of major event is to generate long term economic benefits.
Marketing Activities in Red Bull’s Marketing Strategies
With the help of these events, organization will be able to promote its energy drinks in the target market with the objective of generating long term economic benefits and sustainable development in the competitive business environment.
Marketing activities has a significant role in order to promote organizational products and services in the target market. As per the case study, Red Bull is serving energy drinks since 1987 and today with the help of their effective products and effective marketing strategies, they had developed unique image in the international market. Today, organizational products are available in more than 171 countries in the globe and primary reason behind this is the effective set of marketing activities implemented by Red Bull. The first drink was sold in the home market i.e. in Austria and from then it was the birth for a new range of product in the market (Armstrong, et. al., 2015). Concept of energy drink was accepted by the international market and with the help of distinctive approach in the market; organization has developed its unique as well as effective position in the market. Management of Red Bull has adopted progressive marketing strategy in order to gain desired goals as well as to constantly progress and enhance the goodwill of the brand in domestic and international markets. In order to enhance efficiency of organizational marketing activities, management of organization has adopted event marketing. Event marketing plays crucial role in terms of building effective relationship with customers. In terms of event marketing, Red Bull could sponsor following events as these events have the capability to attract large part of audience:
- F1 Race (Formula 1), it is the most popular event of car racing and the number of participates in this event is huge. Along with large number of participants, viewers of this event are also huge.
- Red Bull Air Race will be another good and attractive option to enhance marketing strategies’ effectiveness. Under this event, Red Bull will invite efficient candidates and conduct an exclusive race. This will help them to promote their products on large scale along with the motive of building effective customer relationships (Yoo, Donthu & Lee, 2000).
- Execution of rally will also be an attractive and unique type of event. Red Bull Rally will promote a social event along with spreading awareness in relation with saving water, environment, etc. This will develop a positive image amongst the target audience and also attracts new segment of audience.
Marketing has an essential role in the marketing strategies for every organization. With the help of marketing mix technique, organization could showcase crucial elements of its products and services in the target market. Apart from this, this technique also plays crucial role in differentiating organizational products and services from its competitors. Majorly, this technique has four components i.e. product, price, place and promotion while extended marketing technique has three more components i.e. people, physical and process (Jones, Scott & Khaled, 2006). Role of marketing mix technique in Red Bull’s marketing strategy:
- Product: Red Bull is an energy drink which is a unique concept in carbonated drinks. It has the highest market share in the globe in terms of energy drinks. In 2016, company sold 6.06 billion cans across the globe.
- Price:Price factor does not impact the demand of Red Bull because it is a unique concept in the market. Thus, Red Bull is enjoying monopolistic market conditions and along with this, they had adopted advanced pricing strategies considering the future market conditions in order to rule over the international energy drinks industry (Tan, Wu & Lin, 2015).
- Promotion: This is a crucial factor in marketing technique. It includes all those strategies which are required for spreading awareness amongst the target market in relevance with the product’s specifications and its usage. As per case study, promotional strategies of Red Bull will include special event strategy under which display shows, corporate events and sponsorships of crucial events will be implemented in order to raise the demand of the product in the target market as well as to gain its desired goals and objectives (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007).
- Place: Place of distribution plays crucial role in order to raise the demand of the product as well as in acquiring adequate place in the target market. As per Red Bulls’ marketing strategy, their drinks are available at every nearby grocery shop, supermarket, retail shop, etc. The more will be availability of the product in the market, higher will be the demand for the product.
In order to conduct an outdoor event with the objective to promote Red Bull in the international market, it is necessary to analyse certain factors such as segmentation and positioning which plays crucial role in order to identify the appropriate market with the perceptive of promoting the brand in an effective manner. Red Bull has adopted progressive marketing strategies in order to promote their brand into international market along with promoting their energy drink. Outdoor event are trending these days in order to promote products and services in target market. This type of marketing strategy is bit costly but effective too. Thus, Red Bull is planning to adopt this strategy considering following two factors:
Role of Marketing Mix Technique
Segmentation: Market segmentation is the process of dividing the broad consumer market into small parts on the basis of certain factors such as their liking, characteristics, common interest, similar lifestyles, etc. In terms of Red Bull, organization will conduct market research program with the objective to identify the demand of their product in the particular market.
Positioning: After analysing the most appropriate market with the objective to promote their brand, it is necessary to develop an effective positioning statement in order to develop an effective position in the target customer’s mind-sets’. Famous tag line used by Red Bull is” Red Bull gives you wings”. Their positioning statement clearly describes the specification of their product (Huang & Sarigöllü, 2014).
While developing and executing outdoor event, it is necessary for the organizational management to consider certain risk factors so that plan could be executed in an appropriate manner.
Identify staff’s responsibilities: While allocating tasks to employees, it is required by the management to ascertain staff’s skills and knowledge so that appropriate task could be assigned to the desired candidate. This will help to avert crisis. For instance, organization is planning for a carnival ride and for setting up a stage for brand promotion, security supervisors were asked to do the same which is an inappropriate allocation of task which could extract negative outcomes for the organization.
Identification of potential hazards: It is necessary to identify all factors present in or outside the ground where outdoor event will be executed. This will help the organization to identify and fix every issue within time in order to acquire positive results (Tan, Wu & Wu, 2015).
Apart from these, there are certain other risk related factors which needs to be considered for executing the plan such as communication plan, appropriate entrance and exit plans, etc. These all factors will help the organization to execute the outdoor event plan appropriately along with acquiring desired outcomes.
Conclusion
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that special events are trending these days and these events have positive impact over brand promotion related activities. In this report, special and outdoor events and related aspects are discussed in relation with Red Bull. Organization is planning to execute special events for brand promotion as well as to progress in the industry. For the same, various factors such as segmentation, positioning, marketing mix technique, etc. have also been discussed in this report in relation with Red Bull.
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.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Close, A.G., Finney, R.Z., Lacey, R.Z. and Sneath, J.Z., 2006. Engaging the consumer through event marketing: Linking attendees with the sponsor, community, and brand. Journal of advertising research, 46(4), pp.420-433.
Huang, R. and Sarigöllü, E., 2014. How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132). Springer, New York, NY.
Jones, B., Scott, D. and Khaled, H.A., 2006. Implications of climate change for outdoor event planning: a case study of three special events in Canada’s National Capital region. Event management, 10(1), pp.63-76.
Red Bull, 2018. Events. Accessed on 12th March, 2018 from https://www.redbull.com/in-en/
Sneath, J.Z., Finney, R.Z. and Close, A.G., 2005. An IMC approach to event marketing: The effects of sponsorship and experience on customer attitudes. Journal of Advertising Research, 45(4), pp.373-381.
Stevenson, W.J. and Hojati, M., 2007. Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Tan, L., Wu, L. and Lin, H., 2015. An individual cognitive evacuation behaviour model for agent-based simulation: a case study of a large outdoor event. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 29(9), pp.1552-1568.
Yoo, B., Donthu, N. and Lee, S., 2000. An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity. Journal of the academy of marketing science, 28(2), pp.195-211.