Red Bull and its Event Strategies

The chosen topic for this report is Red Bull as they are linked with several major events and would be a great example of displaying event strategies that they have come across to get where they are now. Red Bull has several event activities however a swot analysis and events that they have covered to achieve their aims for corporate strategy will be explained.

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In 1982, Dietrich Mateschitz learned about so-called “tonic drinks”, which enjoyed wide popularity in Asia. So he got the idea to market these products in functional areas. This idea was not new but a variation towards Lucozade theme, another popular energy drink marketed by Smith Kline Beecham in the UK which was known as post-illness beverage and the consumers drank this to recover from cold or flu’s.

Red Bull had to develop a unique market segmentation strategy and took a different approach towards promoting the drink than the usual methods of marketing, relying more on what is called ‘buzz marketing’ or word-of-mouth. A brand image was created and cultivated which associated the drink with youth culture and extreme/ adventure-related sports for example they had an event to begin with called Driver Search programme which the competition was used to support young American racing talent., They used support from such things as motor sports, mountain biking, snowboarding and dance music and more. The Red Bull consumers can be divided into three segments: athletes, clubbers and workers. Each segment will absorb Red Bull energy drinks to meet their personal needs for example to obtain physical edges, mental edges or just consumption for pleasure purposes.

Red Bulls marketing is mainly based on the “3 pillars of Red Bull; Sampling, Advertising, Sponsoring”. This means that next to normal advertisements Red Bull made their brand visible on the street by:

Using pick-up trucks as mobile displays, painted blue and silver with a giant can of the drink mounted on top of the vehicle is not just promoting their energy drink but is also selling a lifestyle, seemingly people are willing to be a part of this Red Bull extreme sports lifestyle.

They used eye-catching tools and devices that were aimed at promoting the red bull brand as youthful and slightly ‘off-the-wall’

Free cans of drink given out to people on the streets who may be in need of energy.

Red Bull provided club DJs, empty cans so they can be left on tables in hot spots such as trendy bars, clubs and pubs

Red Bull used a ‘viral marketing strategy where as they were promoting the Red Bull brand directly to Generation Y, the so-called ‘millennials’ and encouraged student and brand managers at university campuses to throw parties and gained success from the ‘youth underground’ where as the reputation and word was spreading according to the brand managers research data.

Future Plans

Red Bulls future Event Planning and Marketing Intern from June 14th to August 6th, 2010.

Red Bull has 52 Culture Teams worldwide activating projects in music/arts.

Their MISSION is to invent and activate music, dance, film and other artistic / cultural projects from within the company. The Culture Teams function like event production companies within the Red Bull brand.

Example projects include

The Red Bull Music Academy is a music workshop

The Red Bull Music Academy Radio is a web radio station

Red Bull Bedroom Jam encourages young people to pick up instruments, perform and realize their musical potential.

Benefits for Intern: For anyone interested in event promotion, music, concerts, culture, etc. this is an incredibly exciting opportunity to get involved with a great company that takes its support of art and culture seriously.

Benefits Red Bull: Red Bull UK is excited to bring on an enthusiastic intern who will work tirelessly to help promote and run their summer festivals.

http://www.intraxinternshipsabroad.com/category/company/red-bull-uk-culture-team

Future Recommendations

Red Bull aims to increase their sales and expand in their product and spread globally

Red Bull two objectives:

• Maintaining the lead
• Trying to extend it by creating further consumer needs for Red Bull

Product: is at satisfactory level image can be strengthened

Price: Price is high but represents high quality product and place and promotion can add value to the image.

Place: Red Bull has reached market dominance in the rest of Europe with rising sales figures; the company will have a significant influence on the wholesaler’s product displaying policy ( PDP). Red Bull will become a more established and demanded brand.

Promotion: Red Bull has high marketing expenditure and the sales of Red Bull in the past, the marketing budget should be significant. Red Bull has already increased the budget immensely; the goal is up to 50% of revenues. Majority of the budget is spent on sponsoring. In the future they will promote and ad-activities in order to maintain the leader position; there shall be more Red Bull stands at ski huts giving a way Red Bull mix drinks.

The Internal Environment

Strategic SWOT Analysis helps to identify the internal and external factors that are favorable/unfavorable for Red Bull to succeed:

Strength

• Market leadership- Within the energy drinks market Red Bull is the industry leader throughout the world
• Effective communication
• Loyal customers
• Reputation management
• Strong brand equity
• They create effective Marketing Efforts- a lot of promotions and well targeted campaigns and sponsorship for example formula 1 helps to expand Red bull brand and increase consumer brand awareness

Weaknesses

• Lack of innovation- there are a lot of competitors in the market and they have their own USP.
• Red bull product line is non-diversified 
• They are Reliant on small product base- The Company only markets one branded product, Red Bull Energy Drink (along with a sugar free variety).
• They cost more than their competitors 
• Red Bull is only manufactured in one factory in Austria 

Marketing Expense

Opportunities

• Extension of product line- this will help to retain market share
• Expansion

Threats

• Health concerns- tougher rules from government on high caffeine content.
• Competitors with similar product at cheaper price
• Consumer awareness of health and well being- people may start to drink more water as it is associated with healthy life style.

Commercial sector

Red Bull Racing was not the start of Red Bull’s involvement in motorsport. Setting up a Formula One team of its own meant that Red Bull had to end its long-term partnership with the Sauber Formula One team.

Red Bull is in the commercial sector and the purpose is profit driven their motor sports events attract crucial business buyers and manufacturers and thousands members of general public who pay for tickets.

They Market events to focus upon marketing activities and may be a sponsor of an event through loose/contractual/formal relationships:

• Red Bull events and strategic Objectives are Commercial/For Profit
• Red Bull produced several events for profit – under contract or on their own
• Red Bull created events for marketing and sales purposes

Corporate Strategies

Mission Statement

‘Our mission is to be the premier marketer and supplier of. Red Bull in Asia, Europe and other parts of the globe. We will achieve this mission by building long term relationship with people who can make this become reality’

Red Bull Sports Events they have been involved inn:

• Dolomitenmann(Relay Race)
• Red Bull Big Wave Africa
• Red Bull Drifting World Championship
• Red Bull Flugtag
• Red Bull New Year No Limits
• Red Bull Paperwings
• Red Bull Rampage
• Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix
• Red Bull X-Alps
• Red Bull X-Fighters

Red Bull Event Success

Red Bull has succeeded and gained high amount of sale since they joined formula 1 and their sales grew just 1.3% to £181.5m last year as this event boosted their sales and they have been achieving organisations Goals:

Red Bull has took this event to their advantage and has decided into increasing their sales growth with a limited-edition pack revamp featuring its sponsored Formula One title challenger Sebastian Vettel.

Their will be an image Vettel’s Red Bull Racing car on an F1 racetrack, his picture and signature on four-packs, eight-packs and cash & carry price-marked 24-packs for Red Bull .Red Bull plans to introduce new consumers to the category as the formula 1 event already have heavy advertising of Red Bull yet they plan to increase sales and bring a host of sales opportunities for retailers across all channels

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/articles.aspx?page=articles&ID=208568

Red Bull will need to look at various strategies in order to maintain being the market leader a SWOT Analysis will identify various facts and can determine what the next event should consist of and how they will get their target market locked in. Porter’s Five Forces will create a Competitive Analysis as there is always up coming similar products which are a threat to Red Bull and they need to know the grounds they are standing on in the market.

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Recommendations – What types of events should they be holding?

Red Bull might want to re-consider sponsoring extreme sports, it may be better to instead sponsor marathons, triathlons and other more traditional sporting activities such as football games. This tactics would open doors and extend the product to the new category audience. A football stadium fills up with a large amount of people if Red Bull was distributed in such areas in occasional popular matches that occur in the world cup/league it can create regular large amount of income for Red bull.

Keller says that a category extension for a popular brand allows a new product to benefit from existing awareness and image.

1. Reduced risk
2. Decreased cost for gaining trial
3. Packaging and labelling efficiency
4. Increased effectiveness of promotional efforts.

It other vendors with electrolyte replacement drink are entering the functional food category where as Red Bull will end up counterattacking their space which will reduce their market share.

Why the events are necessary?

Corporate event strategy sector is a fast growing industry red bull is able to maintain customer loyalty to raise their business profiles and increase motivation level of their workforce if they decide to hold an event that was football related it will be a large scale event which will create and open new opportunities however they will have competitors.

The event will increase sales if they supported created football tournaments with famous teams to play one another football is known world wide and red bull will be able to advertise globally through the means of footballs.

The events help to maintain Red Bull as market leader their objective is to sell by all commercial means necessary the reputation needs to stay string and they cant allow a competitor get close to them so different events will attract different categories of consumers

Marketing is about satisfying the consumer needs although consumers may have similar needs and structures them, may not want it all at the same time. Events don’t always appeal to all consumers therefore to understand the behaviour of the visitors must be included by identifying market segments.

• Geographic

• Demographic

• Psychographic

Red Bull targets people born after the year 1981 and looks at the characteristics of the individual age occupation and so on which fits into something called the demographic segmentations This segmentation can have a socio-economic scale base on income as men and women have different needs it depends on what stage the consumers are in their life cycle so the event will have to cater for their target market they wish to attract for example athletes, clubbers and workers.

The psychographic segment can also determine what type of event will attract their target market as it looks at individual’s personality and identifying the characteristics of the target markets lifestyle.

The company already sponsors unique events with the idea that it will also result in local television coverage thereby amplifying the effect. For athletic spokespersons, Red Bull selects certain individuals who represent its brand personality: non-conformist, unpredictable, and humorous and so leverage secondary associations, the final factor in successful marketing programs (Keller, 2008, p 40).

The multimedia Mix will be an excellent way to measure the events success and of course sales of tickets as the media are a strong influence towards the consumer’s behaviour and every promotional activity is usually done through media/events.