Comparative Analysis of Lucozade and Red Bull Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the marketing strategies of Lucozade Energy and Red Bull energy drinks in the UK market. The report focuses on the 4Ps of the marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion. It examines the target markets, product offerings, pricing strategies (differential vs. premium), distribution channels, and promotional tactics employed by both companies. The report highlights the similarities and differences in their approaches, with Lucozade targeting a broader youth market with a variety of flavors and a differential pricing strategy, while Red Bull focuses on a premium product and innovative promotional campaigns. The research utilizes secondary research methods, including market research databases and company websites. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of a well-defined marketing mix for both companies and suggests areas for improvement, particularly in promotional strategies for Lucozade and product portfolio diversification for Red Bull. The report provides valuable insights into the competitive landscape of the energy drink market.

Individual report: The 4Ps of
Marketing Mix

Executive Summary
This report is aimed at assessing marketing essentials of Lucozade Energy drinks and
Red Bull energy drinks in UK. Both of them are competitors to each other and reflects some
similarities and some differences in their marketing strategies which are compared in this
report. Research methods used in this report are secondary research methods such as using
market research databases, company websites, etc.
This report comprises five parts – comparison of target markets, product, price, place
and promotion. Both the companies have placed themselves in the segment of sports and
energy drink and target youth customers. While Lucozade offers variety in products and
flavours, Red Bull focuses on improvising its limited product portfolio. Lucozade uses
differential pricing policy while Red Bull uses premium pricing policy. Both the companies
use mass distribution model. Both uses online and offline mode of promotional campaigns
but Red Bull gives more stress over innovation and creativity in the process.

Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Main Body..................................................................................................................................4
Comparison of Target Markets..............................................................................................4
Product...................................................................................................................................4
Price........................................................................................................................................5
Place.......................................................................................................................................6
Promotion...............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Marketing of a product is very important for the business since it takes the product to
the targeted customers and helps in realising them into sales (Solimun and Fernandes, 2018).
This report is aimed at assessing effectiveness of the marketing mix of Lucozade Energy and
Red Bull energy drink in their targeted market.
Lucozade Energy is a soft drink which was first introduced in UK in 1927 by the
name of ‘Glucozade’. At present, it is being manufactured and marketed by Japanese
company Suntory since 2013. It was initially offered as energy drink for sick but later
remodelled as sports drink. Lucozade energy as a company has its operations in UK only
while Red Bull energy drink has projected itself as a global energy drink. It is sold by Red
Bull GmbH, an Austrian company created in 1987. Six years later in 1993, it was introduced
in UK. Unlike, Lucozade, Red Bull is a multinational company and serves in more than 100
countries across globe.
Above-mentioned brands face competition from other brands such as Boost, Monster,
Rockstar, Relentless, Emerge, Mountain Dew Energy, etc. however, Lucozade and Red Bull
not only registers large sales numbers but are both market leaders as well (Ranking of energy
drinks brands by number of users from 2018 to 2019, 2020). With, increasing health
awareness and fitness level, people are expected to shy away from sugary drinks. Therefore,
energy drinks market is expected to grow with less than expected number (UK energy drink
market growth, forecasts and trends (2020 – 2025), 2020).
Main Body
Comparison of Target Markets
Lucozade is an energy drink which has placed itself in segment and positioning of
sports drinks and mainly targets youth. Company has kept its prices nominal as it aims to
attract customers of every income range. Its products are pharmaceutically formulated after a
long research and are well marketed which has helped it reach the position of market leader
in energy drinks in UK ahead of its major competitor Red Bull, Coca-Cola, etc.
Red Bull is also an energy drink which targets active consumers of age group 15-30
years. Company projects itself as premium product and has kept its prices at premium.
Therefore, its customers belong to upper mid-range of income. However, company offers
such quality products that it has earned many loyal customers of every income range who do
not shy away from paying higher price for the product. Company understands that it is vying
for the attention of same customers as its competitor Lucozade and markets its products
accordingly to not steal others’ market share rather, bring new customers in the market
segment.
Marketing Mix
It is a mix of marketing tools that can help company understand their process and the
nature of their customers so that they can develop marketing strategies that shows that their
product has value for the customer (Sinapuelas, Wang and Bohlmann, 2015). It has below
mentioned components:

Product
Lucozade – Product is something that a company produces physically aimed at
earning revenue from selling it by satisfying customers’ needs or wants. Lucozade Energy
offers glucose carbonated drink as product. It was designed to provide energy boost to
physically active people. Company offers the drink in nine flavours – original, orange, apple
blast, pink lemonade, wild cherry, Brazilian mango & Mandarin, Caribbean crush,
watermelon & strawberry cooler and citrus chill. Company produces Lucozade Energy in
three forms – bottles, cans and tablets and also has other products like Lucozade Sports,
Lucozade Revive and Lucozade Zero.
Red Bull – It has a smaller product range and includes Red Bull energy drink – blue
and red (watermelon flavour) pack, Red Bull zero, Red Bull tropical edition, Red Bull
Coconut edition, etc. Company products had higher amounts of sugar and caffeine in the
products than rivals like Lucozade. Therefore, it now offers sugar-free versions of its
products as well.
Particulars Lucozade Energy Drinks Red Bull Energy Drinks
Levitt’s model
of brand
building
Innermost level or core benefit of
both the products is to provide
instant energy to its customers.
Differentiation between two
products is its potential product.
Lucozade focuses on providing
glucose while Red Bull focuses on
caffeine.
Functional and
emotional level
Both the brands exhibit near same
functional level that it makes them
healthier and works better
(Lahtinen, Dietrich and Rundle-
Thiele, 2020).
Same way, both the brands exhibit
near same emotional level that it
makes them feel optimistic and
energetic.
Aaker’s brand
personality
framework
Lucozade reflects sincerity in its
brand personality. It gives the
feeling of caregiving, generosity,
familial and friendship to its
customers.
Red Bull reflects brand personality
of excitement. It echoes active,
outgoing, courageous and
unpredictable personality to its
customers.
Price
Lucozade – Price refers to the amount that a customer has to pay to buy products of
the company. Therefore, it should be decided keeping customers’ expectations in mind. This
component of mix discusses pricing strategies of a company for it has direct implication over
company revenues. Lucozade energy has differential pricing strategy. For example, all the
three flavours of the can are available at the price of £13.99 for a pack of 24. Bottles of 380
ml are available at £15.99 for a pack of 24 in all flavours and tablets are available at the price
of £18.00 for a pack of 24 (Lucozade energy – shop, 2020) on its website but the amount
keeps changing at retail super markets.
Red Bull – Pricing strategies of Red Bull are different from Lucozade Energy since,
Red Bull is a global brand. For example, subjected to price change – a pack of 24 of 330 ml
of Lucozade Energy Can Orange can be purchased at £17.99 at Amazon.com while a pack of
24 of 355 ml of Red Bull charges around £34.49 at Amazon.com. Therefore, it can be said
that Red Bull has a premium pricing policy which gives its rivals, a chance to poach its

customers. However, massive brand awareness, high quality, ease of availability and
customer loyalty has helped it being dominant in market even after charging premium prices
(Koo, Kim and Kim, 2016).
Place
Lucozade – This component covers distribution centres or those places from where
company’s products and services can be obtained (Kotler, 2015). Both Lucozade and Red
Bull have multi-distribution channels. Lucozade distributes its products through both local
retailers like in schools, gyms, sports centre, etc. and through physical and online retail
supermarkets like Tesco, ASDA, Amazon, etc. It also sells its products through its website.
However, Lucozade Website only distributes to UK and Northern Ireland at present.
Red Bull – Alike Lucozade, Red Bull company also follows the mix strategy of all
marketing concepts and aims at making its products available at maximum place. Therefore,
Red Bull can easily be available at all supermarkets, night clubs, grocery stores, sports
centres and events. It is also easily available at online distribution medium like Amazon,
Tesco, etc. Both the companies have maximised their distribution outlets and registers large
number of sales even after having such different pricing policies.
Promotion
Lucozade – Lucozade company understands the importance of advertising and
promotions to maintain its market leadership since it operates in a highly competitive
industry. Company initially placed itself as pharma drink in minds of people and later
remodelled itself into sports and energy drink to broaden its customer base. It uses both
online and offline traditional and digital methods of promotions such as advertising on TV
and billboards, public relations, direct marketing, sales promotion, social media promotions,
email marketing, etc. However, if being compared with promotional tactics of Red Bull,
Lucozade lags behind in innovative and creative ways to connect and attract customers
towards its products.
Red Bull – Company has a dedicated team of creative individuals who have by and
time produced new and innovative promotional methods for company (Baker and Hart,
2016). Just like Lucozade, company also takes both traditional and digital methods of
marketing. However, its main focus is on innovative and creative promotional campaigns
which makes it unique and helps it stand apart from its competitors like Lucozade. They use
methods like celebrity endorsements, free sample distribution at sports events, sponsorships
and campaigns to increase brand awareness. It uses creative taglines like “give you wings”
and storytelling TV ads to promote its products. Red Bull is often stored in Red Bull
exclusive refrigerators so that they get special attention of customers. Both of them have
placed themselves as energy drinks. However, having high sugar content has resulted in loss
of calorie conscious consumers.
Conclusion
From the above report, these conclusions can be drawn that both Lucozade and Red Bull
have applied all the four aspect of mix in refined ways. They have differentiated ways of
attracting the same customers. For example, both of them stress on mass availability of their
products while Lucozade aims to create competitive advantage through better pricing, Red

Bull aims for better quality. However, Red Bull outshines Lucozade in promotional mix with
its innovative and creative marketing strategies that they design every time.
It can be observed that both the companies have a clearly defined marketing mix which
must be as per the strategic objectives set by the company management. Their market share in
UK suggests that both the companies are neck-to-neck competitors which proves that both of
them have successfully applied their marketing mix. Business environment is dynamic and
with the ever-changing scenarios in different aspects of external environment of the
company, Lucozade can improve their promotional tools. They need to have more creativity
in their marketing strategies to outshine a competitor whose biggest strength is its marketing
tactics. On the other hand, Red Bull which aims to develop new customers should broaden
their product portfolio to include more cheaper products, which can attract price sensitive
customers are well.

References
Books and Journal
Baker, M.J. and Hart, S. eds., 2016. The marketing book. Routledge.
Koo, K.R., Kim, S.J. and Kim, K.H., 2016. The effects of internal marketing capability on
export marketing strategy, B2B marketing mix and export performance. Journal of
Global Scholars of Marketing Science. 26(1). pp.51-65.
Kotler, P., 2015. Marketing and Sales. Marketing. 1009. p.3V.
Lahtinen, V., Dietrich, T. and Rundle-Thiele, S., 2020. Long live the marketing mix. Testing
the effectiveness of the commercial marketing mix in a social marketing
context. Journal of Social Marketing.
Sinapuelas, I.C.S., Wang, H.M.D. and Bohlmann, J.D., 2015. The interplay of innovation,
brand, and marketing mix variables in line extensions. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science. 43(5). pp.558-573.
Solimun, S. and Fernandes, A.A.R., 2018. The mediation effect of customer satisfaction in
the relationship between service quality, service orientation, and marketing mix
strategy to customer loyalty. Journal of Management Development.
Online
Lucozade energy – shop. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.lucozadeenergy.com/shop/>
Ranking of energy drinks brands by number of users from 2018 to 2019. 2020. [Online].
Available through:< https://www.statista.com/statistics/308493/leading-brands-of-
energy-drinks-excluding-colas-or-mixers-for-alcoholic-drinks-in-the-uk/>
UK energy drink market growth, forecasts and trends (2020 – 2025). 2020. [Online].
Available through:< https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/united-
kingdom-energy-drink-market>