How Is Red Bull A Marketing Powerhouse?

Red Bull: A Marketing Powerhouse When energy drinks come to mind, the iconic Red Bull often comes first. This simple energy drink has dominated in nearly every aspect of business since its creation by Dietrich Mateschitz in 1987. Since then, Red Bull has branched out into more than 167 countries worldwide and is vastly popular with athletes, students, celebrities and even just everyday people needing a boost to make it through the day. In 2016, Red Bull’s sales astoundingly resulted in over 7 billion dollars worldwide and is continuing to thrive in today’s fast paced society. Through this brief case study of Red Bull, I will explain how Red Bull developed its product through the years, describe their main criticisms, briefly explain competition, and finally expound upon their vast yet simple marketing techniques that have helped them reach this point in business and continue to build their empire. Although energy drinks have been around for quite a while, they weren’t ever considered to be for recreational use, rather they were designed to help with medical treatment. When Mateschitz created Red Bull, he added sugar, caffeine and flavor to the bland medical energy drink. He then got a local pharmaceutical company to
Initially Coca-Cola and Pepsi jumped on the bandwagon with double caffeinated drinks, but these fell short in comparison. In 2001 Rockstar energy drinks were created and shortly after in 2002 Monster energy drinks followed. These two energy drinks rapidly grew in popularity and posed a huge threat to Red Bull. These drinks took advantage of Red Bull’s biggest criticism; that they didn’t have enough flavors. This weakness of Red Bull allowed Rockstar and Monster to become realistic competitors and eventually threaten overtaking Red Bull’s dominance. In response to competition and the requests of customers, Red Bull finally introduced new flavors in