Red Bull Marketing Essay
RED BULL: THE HYPE & THE BRAND
A case study of the world’s most successful energy drink
It may be ranked consistently among the worst in taste tests, and is rumoured to be a health risk, but Red Bull’s dominance over the energy drink market actually depends on such rumours. This company only manufactures and markets one product – and has become very good at it, being at the forefront of popular culture without being too outlandish. How did a traditional recipe from Thailand take over the world and become the world’s number one energy drink?
Introduction to Red Bull and its Marketing Environment
Corporate legend has it that its founder, Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz was on a business trip in Thailand when he spotted a business opportunity with the local “energy drinks”. An energy drink called Krating Daeng, or Red Bull in Thai, caught his attention for curing his jet lag. At the time, Krating Daeng had already built a loyal following among Thai blue-collar workers such as taxi drivers by helping them stay alert during long and irregular working hours. Sold on the drink’s effectiveness, he brought some samples home to Austria where he could gain greater clarity on the kind of business and marketing plan required to implement the “Big Idea” called Red Bull. In 1984, he co-founded Red Bull GmbH in Austria with Chaleo Yoovidhya, the owner of Krating Daeng. Armed with marketing and scientific know-how, Red Bull would take over the world as a product that defined its category.
Red Bull is the current market leader in the energy drinks market, a category it helped define. It holds 40% market share. Competitors may or may not be in this category because the beverages business depends on products in adjacent categories which are interdependent. As a first-mover product that defines the energy drinks category, category perceptual mapping must factor in Red Bull, by which a favourable marketing strategy for competitors would be to avoid direct
A case study of the world’s most successful energy drink
It may be ranked consistently among the worst in taste tests, and is rumoured to be a health risk, but Red Bull’s dominance over the energy drink market actually depends on such rumours. This company only manufactures and markets one product – and has become very good at it, being at the forefront of popular culture without being too outlandish. How did a traditional recipe from Thailand take over the world and become the world’s number one energy drink?
Introduction to Red Bull and its Marketing Environment
Corporate legend has it that its founder, Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz was on a business trip in Thailand when he spotted a business opportunity with the local “energy drinks”. An energy drink called Krating Daeng, or Red Bull in Thai, caught his attention for curing his jet lag. At the time, Krating Daeng had already built a loyal following among Thai blue-collar workers such as taxi drivers by helping them stay alert during long and irregular working hours. Sold on the drink’s effectiveness, he brought some samples home to Austria where he could gain greater clarity on the kind of business and marketing plan required to implement the “Big Idea” called Red Bull. In 1984, he co-founded Red Bull GmbH in Austria with Chaleo Yoovidhya, the owner of Krating Daeng. Armed with marketing and scientific know-how, Red Bull would take over the world as a product that defined its category.
Red Bull is the current market leader in the energy drinks market, a category it helped define. It holds 40% market share. Competitors may or may not be in this category because the beverages business depends on products in adjacent categories which are interdependent. As a first-mover product that defines the energy drinks category, category perceptual mapping must factor in Red Bull, by which a favourable marketing strategy for competitors would be to avoid direct