Red Bull Case Study

I. RED BULL'S HISTORY.

C

orporate legend has it that in the early 1980s, while traveling to Asia on business, Austrian Dietrich Mateschiz came across some very popular "energy drinks". With his (self-describe) "uncanny instinct for successful product innovations", he schlepped a small sample of energy beverages back to Europe along with a big idea. Then with a clear vision and a lot of scientific know-how, Dietrich (and what was surely several unnamed food scientists) gave birth to the Red Bull Energy Drink.

In 1997, Red Bull sold one million cans, helped no doubt by its introduction to US consumers after a decade on European shelves. In 1998, Red Bull sales mutated to over 300 million cans and last year in what at first appears to be some kind of bookkeeping typo Red Bull reported world wide sales of one billion US$.

Indisputably, the dominant energy-drink brand, Red Bull has chosen to stick with its one product beverage line, avoiding branching out into similar areas such as energy bars or other sports-related products.

Red Bull was introduced to the Lebanese market in 2001. The mother company in Austria operates directly in Lebanon through a brand manager who reports to the regional manager of the Middle East and the Far East based in Dubai. Red Bull Lebanese brand manager is Mr. Elias Hankach. Red Bull is an energetic drink that has two brand lines: Red Bull original and Red Bull sugar free. The main ingredients of Red Bull are: Taurin, caffeine and a lot of vitamins. There is only one size of Red Bull can on the market that is produced in Austria, and the product is standardized world wide.

II. BRAND ELEMENTS.

1. Brand name: Red Bull is the brand name of the product. It is a Compound, Arbitrary name, because it's a combination of two unexpected real words with no obvious tie-in to the company. Because the brand name is simple, different, distinctive unusual, easy to pronounce and spell, the company have build strong brand awareness through out the world. Whenever we say energy drink; the world says Red Bull.

2. Logo and Symbols: Red Bull is using an abstract logo that is related directly to the name. The components of the logo are two thick-necked Herculean crimson bulls in opposing charge against a yellow sun. This sun represents the human mind, the bulls represent the muscles and the body which means that Red Bull revitalizes body and mind.

3. Slogan: Red Bull's slogan is: "Red Bull gives you wings". It is a short phrase that communicates descriptive information about the brand. This slogan is making strong links between the brand and the corresponding product category, so it's creating a strong brand awareness to the product. This slogan is used in all Red Bull campaigns, through the world, but in different languages.

4. Jingles: The jingle is here the slogan said in a musical tone. And it is: "Red Bull gives you wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngs". When asked why did they choose the slogan as jingle : " we stress on the benefits of our product."

5. Character: it's character is called Witty Bull. It is an animated character that represents a red color bull. It is used in most of Red Bull events.

6. Packaging: Red Bull has created a can that is practical to use. The colors are silver and navy blue divided in a very creative way, and in the middle we have the brand name, the logo, and the function (energy drink). This bottle can identify the brand, convey descriptive information, facilitate product transportation and protection, assist at-home storage and aid product consumption. The size and shape are made to satisfy mostly athletic people.

All of Red Bull brand elements are highly protected by a lot of laws. To protect it's brand name, Red Bull has paid a lot of money so that no other company could use similar name or package. The logo, slogan, jingle and character can not be imitated. As for the packaging the colors, the dividing of the colors and the shape are protected.(see linked document).

III. The Product.

IV. POSITIONING.

Definition: It involves finding the proper location in the mind of a group of consumers so that they think about the product or service in the right or desired way.

A. Segmentation: Red Bull has segmented its market using the main variables: Demographic and Psychographic.

o Demographic: A product like Red Bull with it's ingredients is targeted to a certain age category. The age to witch it can be given to children is above 12 years old. And the highest age for people to stop drinking energy drink is49 years old because at that age most people stop exhausting their body. So Red Bull's core target is between 12 and 49 years old. As for the real target it is from 15 to 29 years old the segment where people make the most physical and mental efforts in there life. It can be used for both sexes.

o Psychographic: Red Bull mainly target optimistic and outgoing people; clubbing, sports and adventures lovers.

Students and hard workers are main targets of Red Bull.

B. Competition: Red Bull has many competitors in the Lebanese market. We can tell from them Base, XL, sharks, explosive, speed... Because Red Bull is the leader in the market all these competitors are attacking the firm directly, especially in their advertising campaign. For example: in its advertising Base says: "no taurine and no caffeine", the essential ingredients of Red Bull. As for XL they say: "enough energy to beat a bull" with an image of a red beaten bull. Red Bull Company says: there's no competition, because they don't lead the market but control it. Many new entrants invest a lot of time and money on advertising campaigns pushing people to consume energy drinks. Red Bull sees in this fact a self advantages: Promoting for energy drinks = Promoting for Red Bull. For now, Red Bull's market dominance seems guarantied. Other competitors have neither the distribution channels nor, more importantly, the potential to be considered real threats.

1. Point of difference (POD's): The competitive advantages that Red Bull has over the competitors are:

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