Red bull marketing strategy and how it rules the energy drink industry

Red bull! What is the one thing which came to your mind after hearing the word  Red Bull?

Red Bull gives you wingggs!! even everyone might have stressed that wings part as well, yes this is the perfect marketing strategy where red bull makes us to remember their slogan no whatever where we are or who we are.

And the best part is this slogan helped them to lead the business and in addition to that they have tried so many tactics and strategies to attract customers from all corners of the world (no, to be precise red bull even went to space to mark their brand awareness!) 

this article covers everything about how our red bull company got wings in the minds of people.

About Red bull

Red bull is an Austrian energy drinks company that was founded in the year 1987 by a person named Dietrich Mateschitz.

 Starting period of red bull was a really tough phase for them because they want to compete with very popular brands like Pepsi, coco-cola, etc.

Initially, they followed traditional marketing strategies to cover their customers. In 1992, they devised their first-ever cartoon commercials and tried several strategies.

But their businesses went to the next successful phase when Red bull started a different marketing approach. And it helped them to capture the energy drinks market by 35% and helped them to sell nearly 75 billion cans!

What were those strategies? the answers are below!

Popular marketing strategies of Red Bull

Slogan selection

As we have seen earlier Red bull’s slogan “Red Bull gives you wings” refers that the drink is something powerful that makes us to feel very energetic. 

Within 5 words redbull shared their whole concept of business and that is the energy drink that gives you more power energy than the rest of the company.

After creating this crisp and short innovative slogan, Redbull also started to advertise its slogan. The method they choose to advertise their slogan tells a different story.

They seek the help of sponsorships, influencers, websites, print media, and literally everything to promote their slogans.

Demographic approach

Who will be the target audience of an energy drink company? It can’t be a 2-year-old baby, right? our mothers don’t do that and of course, it can’t be someone in their 70s.

So on average, the target audience for any type of energy drink is 18 to 34 and Redbull directly targeted them.

Even though Redbull markets for all age ranges of people, their primary focus is on all the 18 to 34 age group people.

Okay, how to collect that information from our audience?

Redbull used digital marketing campaign analytics methods, external market researching methods, and websites to collect those details.

 And to stay updated with those details, Redbull conducted many surveys, field trials etc.

They used to update their user profile periodically, so it helps to find their potential customers.

Sponsorships

After finding out the potential customers, the next step is to promote their products. Red bull potential customers are the 18 to 34 age group adrenaline -rushed youngsters so red bull targeted the place that this age group people will visit a lot.

And where they will be? In musical events, festivals or any sports games, right?

In this red bull selected extreme racing sports. They begin to sponsor sports like Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Red Bull Air Race, Red Bull Crashed Ice.

All these extreme sports have a wide audience base from all over the world, and Redbull utilizes the opportunity to create its brand and slogan awareness.

For example, in Detroit, Redbull sponsored a red bull air race, and during that race, the entire racing place was filled with the red bull logo(the bull, the sun,yes you are right !)

Models were invited and they offered the red bull drinks to their fans so in this way Redbull captures the attention of people.

Till now, Redbull has sponsored more than 500 extreme sports events which helped them to associate themselves with extreme sports.

It evolved as an extreme sports energy drink brand; in addition to that red bull has its own teams in globally popular sports like football, ice hockey, racing etc

Stratos mission 2012

It is one of the most successful projects of Red bull, do you guys note we mentioned red bull even went up to the space for their marketing? this is the mission!

The mission helped red bull to acquire sales worth 500 million dollars.

Let us get into the details about it.

A professional skydiver named Felix Baumgartner got into this for his space jump. Red bull sponsored this space jump event by helping him with all the aerospace equipment to assist his jumping.

Stratos refers to the stratosphere and Felix was missioned to jump from space to the stratosphere of the Earth in a helium balloon

That event went on live on YouTube, and 52 million people watched the space jump live event and it was one of the most viewed live shows on YouTube

What do you guys think about the distance Felix needs to jump? It is 38,600 km!

Redbull organised the event perfectly and Felix did that record, his space jump proved that man can beat the speed of sound (343 m/s) when he is the free fall.

The event ended to securing lots of awards and records, thus red bull name was placed inside the hearts of people and in the scientific world itself.

The overall cost of this project is only 30 million dollars but redbull got a profit for 500 million dollars!

Isn’t the perfect way to market our products?

Consistency

Red bull is very consistent when it comes to its marketing strategies; since 1997 they are following a unique approach when it comes to branding.

For example. Redbull tagline has invited lots of legal lawsuits and they have literally paid 13 million dollars to retain the slogan for themselves.

Because the slogan was its unique identity and Red Bull put all its efforts to retain its consistent behaviour.

Marketing mix of Redbull

The marketing mix is the combination of strategies that comprises 4 categories

1.Product

2.Price

3.Promotion

4.Place

1.Product strategy

The secret ingredient itself is a great marketing strategy, have you tasted Red bull drinks taste different from other drinks, right? After having the drink, we have that energized feeling that is the unique selling point when it comes to Red bull’s product strategy.

Red bull energy drink consists of ingredients like caffeine, sugar, water, taurine, vitamins etc. The Addition of vitamins gives us an energized feel and they have started with only one flavour but presently according to the needs of the customers red bull has introduced varieties of flavours such as blueberry, dragon fruit, and coconut.

And it has also occupied the market with zero sugar diet-free drinks as people are getting more weight conscious.

And even inculcate a sense of public responsibility by releasing its sustainable drinks.

Red bull products are customized, so it was most likely by many people. The important thing to be noted in business is that marketing strategies help the customers to buy our product but in order to make them retain our business the quality of the product is very important.

Will you buy the product again if it tastes so blended or bad? No.

Thus, Red bull understands this concept while designing its products.

2.Pricing strategy

Red bull uses the “premium pricing” strategy to fix the price of the red bull products.

Most of us have compared the price of red bull drinks with its competitors’ pricing which will be a costlier one than the rest, Because of this premium strategy.

Here is what its works

Red bull strongly believes in the quality of its own product and they truly know that they are the market-dominated one in energy drinks so they maintain a high price.

Most customers are convinced that the costly products will be of great quality and taste. Red bull also uses this psychology for pricing.

As they have set their prices in the higher-level red bull has turned into a premium product so people hold pride while buying it.

3.Promotion

Red bull promotions will be more adventurous ones, they used to promote it on extreme sports, races, mountain hiking etc.

Their investments in these types of different approaches will be more and that’s why the brand red bull has become one of the most needed energy drinks in the world.

Well, our fridges are loaded with red bull drinks all because of their promotional activities.

Medium of promotional activities

Red Bull never misses the chance to promote it on any type of medium, be it online or offline, and let us know  some of their media

Influencer approach

Recently influencers act as the best medium to reach millions of people and get engaged with them. Thus red bull finely selects the trending and elite sports persons like Max Veratappen , Marquez etc.

Red bull will collaborate with these influencers,which in turn those players will promote red bull on their own social media pages.

Inclusive approach

In order to make the people to have a sense of belonging to red bull community , red bull used to organize many competitions for its own customers.

It may look like a simple tactic, but it will make people to participate in the events and by doing so, the customers couldn’t take red bull brand from their minds.

For example, red bull organizes an international photography competition every three years called “ Red bull Illume” . People from all over the world enthusiastically participate in that competition. This type of competition will surely give an inclusive feeling and it makes red bull to shine among its competitors.

TV advertisements

Red bull advertisements have been so unique since 1997; even today we can see red bull ads with only cartoons.

Those cartoons are the trademarks of red bull company and it helps people to locate and register those advertisements so easily.

In addition to that, those advertisements represent some social messages as well.

Red bull advertisements are not only unique but also highly televised ones. In the year 2018, red bull ads were the third highly televised ad in the USA.

They used to invest a lot of money in that and people also loves to see their ads so red bull ads turned into a win-win situation for everyone.

Print Media

Red bull has its own magazine where it used to share their product updates, sports, energetic lifestyle etc.

And surprisingly, the magazine holds a  readership from many parts of the world with a significantly high number of people.

4.Place

Red bull uses an intensive and effective distribution approach to distribute their product to customers.

Since red bull has millions of customers, they load up their products in every retail shop, supermarket, online purchase etc. And they do the distribution in a more effective manner as well by employing more diverse channels.

This intensive approach helps people to refill their fridges with red bull drinks continuously!

Red bull guerrilla marketing

Guerilla marketing is one of the unique marketing approaches ,and it can also be known as student ambassadorship programs.

In this program school and college students are invited to be as red bull ambassadors so they will promote the red bull product within their school campus for any competition, sports events etc.

Even the students will be provided with the mini red bull advertisement vehicles for commuting purposes as well.

Iconic success for Red bull

By adhering to all these strategies, red bull’s success rate skyrocketed let us see that in more detail

•       The global market size of red bull is above $ 87 billion dollars, and in the American region alone it holds about $ 25 billion dollars market.
•       According to the Nielsen numbers reports for 2023, red bull holds the market share of 35 % in the energy drinks sector, coming after the Monster company.
•       According to Forbes reports, Red Bull company has sold 75 billion cans since 1987 spreading its market across 171 countries. And they have increased their sale growth rate up to 30% in India and 22% in Brazil

Key learnings

Marketing strategies should create an impact on the minds of people.

Products should reach the customer’s hand seamlessly. For that to happen a flawless distribution channel is a must.

Try to engage with the customers by using social media or event sponsorships. It will result in creating more human connections.

Thinking out of the box strategies helps to stand out from the crowd.

Consistency is key while comes to marketing

Never comprises the quality of the product to retain in the market for a longer period of time.

We have reached the end of the article we truly hope that this article helped you to learn more about how red bull rose to a global company. And kindly understand the nuances of their marketing strategies and try to implement them according to your clients and businesses.