Red Bull Energy Drink: Target Market and Positioning Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Red Bull's marketing strategies, focusing on its target market, positioning, and overall market performance. The report begins with an introduction to Red Bull, its product offerings, and its competitors. It then delves into the company's tar...Read More

Running Head: MARKETING 0
INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING

MARKETING 1
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Target Market and Positioning...................................................................................................2
References..................................................................................................................................5

MARKETING 2
Introduction
One of the leading energy drink corporation i.e. Red Bull incorporated in 1984 offers
products that invigorate consumer body and mind. Basically, the beverages produced by the
company are based on Thai drink, however, Red Bull was created as a wholly new “energy
drink” category in the beverage market and its direct rivals would be the other beverages
comes under the group of energy drinks and Rockstar and Monster are the two energy drinks
known to be as direct competitor of Red Bull. On the other hand, other caffeinated beverages
or sports drinks can be considered as indirect competitors as they are also available with the
notion of offering energy. Such drinks involves sodas like Pepsi and Coke. At present, Red
Bull operates in more than 166 countries globally (statista.com, 2018).
Red Bull is also on the Forbes list of world’s most appreciated brand and its brand
value stands out to % 9.9 B. The company has 12, 000 plus employees and in 2017, Red
Bull's sales come up to about 6.28 billion euros globally (statista.com, 2018). Red Bull was
the top energy drink brand in the US in 2016. Originally, the key market target of Red Bull
was enthusiasts of thrilling sports but its market has rapidly grown over the years to those of
the younger demographic of 16 to 30 years old.
Target Market and Positioning
The segmentation and targeting of Red Bull explain which particular cluster of the
population the organisation targets so that to offer their energy drinks with diving population
into various segments. Mono-segment type of positioning is used by Red Bull and the
company targets consumer segment characterises busy individuals who are highly active in
their personal and professional life and also captivated by thrilling sports.
In relation to different criteria of segmentation, geographic segmentation of Red Bull
includes region and density. The company have their operations in both domestic and
international marketplace. With regards to this, in more than 166 countries, the company sold
its cans. It was also identified that 6.06 billion cans was sold by the popular energy drink Red
Bull in 2016 globally, up from just above 4 billion cans in 2011 (McCarthy, 2018). In terms
of density, the company covers both urban and rural areas due to its vast distribution network.

MARKETING 3
The next criteria of segmentation are demographics where the criteria are based on
gender, age, life-cycle stages, revenue and employment. Taking consideration of Red Bull
energy drinks, the company serve age’s group of 16-30 to both females and males. In
addition, Red Bull serve to high level income group with also targeting students, workers and
professionals. Considering behavioural criteria of segmentation, the targeted segment has
high degree of loyalty that allows company to come up with new and other products such as,
Red Bull Zero Calories, Red Bull Sugarfree, Red Bull Simply Cola and so on. Hard-core
loyal customers also enable free word of mouth publicity and thus it benefits and supports
various marketing programmes of companies (Schlegelmilch, 2016). Adding to this, the
benefits sought by the customer with using Red Bull energy drinks include enhancing
performance and sense of belonging and this can effectively be seen in the rich history of the
company. User status can be any both i.e. regular users and non-users who seeks Red Bull
energy drinks for normal consumption. Understanding this behaviour of the users and this
targeted segment allows companies to plan various significant plans and policies towards
effective marketing campaign and business practices.
The last criteria of segmentation embrace over psychographic targeting where the
social class represents middle and upper class who seeks out benefits with consumption of
Red Bull energy drinks. With regards to this, the lifestyle represents reformer and explorer
individuals. Here, the explorer behaviour is concern with need for change, discover and
desire to be different. They always want to try new things and this is also beneficial for Red
Bull as with launching its new product portfolio, the old loyal customers potentially try its
new product by showing loyalty towards the brand. On the other hand, reformers are
intellectual and tolerant and they do not purchase products just as they are new, they look for
enlightenment (Plessias et al, 2017). However, this also requires company to wave more
information about their products in the market so as to make the people aware about the
benefits of products.
In terms of targeting and positioning, Red Bull is the biggest selling brand in the
industry of energy drink with about 32% of the global market and it interprets to around 2.89
billion U.S. dollars in sales (statista.com, 2019). Nearly, 4.6 billion of cans are sold by Red
Bull every year and its slogan i.e. “it gives you wings” serve as a brand note for targeting
millennials and the company also collaborated with great sports activities and events such as
music festival.

MARKETING 4
To position the brand in the market, Red Bull adopts progressive marketing strategy
with involving sponsorship of extreme and inspirational sports and the founder of Red Bull
also supports the company philosophy that “We bring consumers to the product rather than
bringing the product to the consumer” (Gschwandtner, 2012).
In relative to competitor product and position, All Red Bull did to separate itself from
its competition was to be first with creating emerging drink on the markets. It surfaced its
brand in the consumer's hearts so completely that by the time other brands initiated to pop up,
Red Bull was a cultural phenomenon.

MARKETING 5
References
Gschwandtner, G. (2012). The Powerful Sales Strategy behind Red Bull. Retrieved from
https://www.sellingpower.com/2012/03/01/9437/the-powerful-sales-strategy-behind-
red-bull
McCarthy, J. (2018). Ex-Red Bull marketer plans to ride the sugar-tax with his healthy
energy drink brand. Retrieved from https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/04/16/ex-
red-bull-marketer-plans-ride-the-sugar-tax-with-his-healthy-energy-drink-brand
Plessias, A. A., Nasiopoulos, D. K., & Giakomidou, D. S. (2017). Modeling of market
segmentation in social networks and media. In Strategic Innovative Marketing (pp.
523-529). New York: Springer.
Schlegelmilch, B. B. (2016). Segmenting Targeting and Positioning in Global Markets.
In Global Marketing Strategy (pp. 63-82). New York: Springer.
statista.com. (2018). Red Bull's revenue worldwide from 2011 to 2017 (in billion euros).
Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/275169/red-bulls-company-sales-
worldwide/
statista.com. (2019). Market share of leading energy drink brands in the United States in
2019, based on dollar sales. Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/306864/market-share-of-leading-energy-drink-
brands-in-the-us-based-on-case-volume-sales/