The Anti Brand Essay Example
The Anti Brand Essay Example

The Anti Brand Essay Example

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  • Pages: 14 (3590 words)
  • Published: April 14, 2017
  • Type: Case Study
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Marketing communication is an important element in any marketing situation. Marketing communication is the interactive dialogue between customers and the company. In the case of red bull as a brand we can say that Mateschiz succeeded to make red bull a market leader through the use of effective marketing communication. There are various forms of communication because today people can communicate through media, newspapers, telephones, television and many other forms of communication media.

To begin with, Red bull was a success because Mateschiz used the various marketing communication mix elements to push it through the market. Some of the major modes of communication that he used were advertising, sales promotion, public relation and personal selling. Red bull was founded in 1984 in Australia as an energy drink and rose steadily to take the highest market share

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worldwide beating many of its competitors thanks to good promotion and publicly that was done to the product.

The product was well produced with all the characteristics of a good product, good branding and packaging in a Sunder 250 millilitre bottle. However, as marketers realized, just having a good product is not all because good marketing strategies have to be employed to ensure that the product beats competitor products in the market. Having a good distribution system and also with well trained sales people who have good customer relation skills.

Red bull’s marketers had a good integrated marketing strategy because they had a good product, and presented it to the right target market at the right time using the right procedures. For instance they had a clear audience in mind because they had produced an energy drink, mateschitz’s target audience was

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group of people who used a lot of energy and hence needed more. This is why he decided to target youth and people in their late teens. To do this, sales representatives had to target hot spots when young people hand out more often.

The most important aspect of integrated marketing is to identify a target audience or market. Mateschitz did this by doing good image analysis and assessing the image of red bull among the competitor’s brands. He also tried to ensure that Red bull had to fit into the beliefs and attitudes of the target market. As a good move had to target the distribution of the product to places near universities gyms and bars.

After identifying the target market, Matescitz had to identify the communication objectives, what he had in mind to tell his target market. (Why buy Red bull? He had to convince these young people to buy red bull and surely he did this by putting the marketing ideas it not he minds of young men and changed attitudes and perceptions of these young men towards the drink, and depending on the response, most young men really believed that Red bull was the best energy drink. They sponsored most youth events leading to wide knowledge of the product which later began to be associated with the youth culture and in fact it meant that most young people would prefer to take the product and look ‘cool’ in fact it formed a cult among youth between the ages of 18 – 29 years.

This increased its sales making it rise and become the best brand in most European and African countries. The success of

red bull also could be because of the other most important element of the integrated communication after there was good understanding of the objectives of the target market, Mateschitz designated good communication messages targeted towards his target market.

The youth need captivating slogans that can be associated with power, energy, sports, sex etc strong slogans also made most youth to try and fit ‘the crowd’ starting with the term ‘Red bull’ was also good message designed to attract the target market because the slogan depicted power and strength and as time went by the youth had to give the drink nick names to fit into their description. Slogans like the ‘liquid cocaine’ liquid Viagra were a sign that surely there was good absorption of the message sent by the advertisers.

Strong designs of the red bull message through words, pictures and even the shape of the packages were some of the factors too that led to its success for example in 1987 they included a cartoon character in their launch campaign and used the slogan ‘Red bull gives you wings’ which was a form of good message designed. Good messages however that were designed needed to reach the target market through various forms of communication channels.

Red bull used various communication channels to carry their messages that they relied on traditional advertising techniques like TV, newspapers and magazines, probably in most countries they also use bill boards, and through the radio. They placed adverts that had quality messages with good message content i. e. the messages had good appeals, themes and unique selling preposition and they had good appeals to people both emotionally and morally. Red bull adverts

also were well structured i. e. ‘red bull gives you wings’ to reinforce good brand identity.

Good format of their adverts is to be given credit because it is evident that they had advertisements beside on good illustrations, color good choice of words and phrases. This is because mateschitz realized that his target market (youth) paid attention to various features i. e. dressing posture, hairstyle, color, texture and shape who gave this information? Good message source is credible, mateschitz realized that to lure youth into the red-bull culture he had to use people who would be believed by his target market. He used D. Js and bar tenders and used hot spots for the promotion of red bull.

This is because to make the target market believes on the product good marketers should use those people they loop up to, to send the message about the product. To support his integrated marketing, there was good budget allocation for all communication activities i. e. he set aside about 30% of his profits in advertisement and sponsorship events. The promotional mix tools that were used by red bull also played a major role in placing red bull at that high position. The use of effective advertising like through TVs, radio and bill boards to make sure that people believed that all that advertising offers a good value.

It also helped to build long term image for red bull and it is good to note that in 2001 sales for red bull rose highly especially in Africa due to vigorous advertising. Good sales promotion also ensured that red bull drew a quicker response to the short run; some of the sales

promotion methods that helped red bull to be successful is the sponsoring of events and competitions throughout the world which made people to get to know a lot about the famous drink. They also used the creation of experiences designs and contests.

This led to the success because customers are given one on one treatment on experience with the product. Sometimes products can be faced with unfortunate poor public relations and red bull is an exception because not al people had good intentions with the product all through. Competitors always in any way try to beat down their competitors through negative publicity. At this point there is the need for public relations and publicity due to deaths when the deceased claimed to have consumed red bull, it had negative publicity and to deal with this there was the use of public relations.

Merschtz also used public relation skills to deal with information that related to the red bull brand. There was a rumors that one of the chemicals used to make red-bull was made out of the testicles of bulls. To deal with this mateschitz he responded positively to reinforce the product mythology of strength.

Red bull’s sales people also led to the success of red bull because they were dedicated to personal selling and tried all they could to set the product including panting veins with red bull logo and then distribute the red bull …. They confronted customers directly and interacted freely about the product and made people to have that feeling to be under some obligation to have listened to the sales talk. Red bull marketing strategy also included direct marketing where there was the use

of student brand amasedors who were given brand products to throw parties to fellow students especially in Italy. All brands in a competitive market have various challenges that they have to adhere or adjust to.

As in the case of red bull that is a brand that became a No. 1 brand in most company had to face various challenges and when discussing competitors. Just like other products, the major challenge that a product may face is the rise of competition. All companies in a competitive world have to accept real competition unless in a monopolistic type of market. Competition can be defined as a group of firms, that offer a product, or class of products that substitute the products of a company.

In 2000 to 203 new drinks were introduced into the market and this was because some people realized that the success of red bull meant that there was an opportunity in the energy drinks market. Introduction of competition to the market meant that red bull had to face a number of brands that were trying to initiate similar techniques to get the market share that red bull had acquired over the years and marketing techniques. Some of the companies’ brands that posed a challenge in red bull included a marketing threat to red bull.

To deal with this type of challenge, red bull had to challenge some of the competitors through challenging the products legally in court through them urging that the products had infringed their trade mark rights because simple products poised a challenge by producing products that had products similar to those of red bull and this led to brand confusion some of

this products were the red rhino that had a can that resembled that of red bull and which could confuse customers in the market.

This was a great challenge that the company had to deal with. The second and perhaps the most serious challenge that red bull faced was the issue of legislature challenges because most people went to court to challenge the red bull business. For example people went to court to challenge the red bull brand received a blow in France and Denmark.

The red bull brand received a blow because as a result of this the product was at one point banned in this countries because there was a health argument against the use of the product, other countries also posed a legislative alert because they classified red bull as a medicine product rather than an energy drink and due to the serious growing health concern among most of the red bull consumers led to these customers to start drinking water in the market rather than energy drinks and in fact react to their challenges in 2004 red bull introduced a water drink that carried its logo that was known as lunang that was bottled water, and this meant that to respond to the challenge of legislative and product awareness campaigns red bull management and marketers decided to be more innovative and focused more in market research to produce products that could lead to diversification.

This meant that mateschitz had to focus more on research and development of new products. Other challenges that red bull faced were the reduction of the target market because as time went by most of the target market tended to

reduce. This is because it had to recruit new people of the age of 16 years every year because as time went by most of the young men who consumed red bull aged and ceased to be part of the young enthusiastic young customers who formed the red bull market this mean that they had to hope that young people could continue to use the product even when they grew and changed from their youth years.

The other challenge that red bull faced was the entire focus on one product and this made it easy for a competitor to create a product that could easily counter them in the market and to deal with this challenge they had to produce a product that was low in sugar in 2003 and to deal with the issue of their customers growing and changing form the young enthusiastic youth who formed red bull a good target market, red bull, mateschiz produced new age health drinks that served old people. Innovation and brand diversification is the key to beating product challenges and once red bull identified its major challenges it had to ascertain its characteristics and specify strategic, objectives look at its strengths and weaknesses, reaction patterns and ways to react to these challenges to overcome them.

To do this the pioneer of red bull decided to take the bull by the horns. He monitored the competitor’s expansion plans, size and other factors and decided to plan and game plan to counter the challenges. Red bull continued to defend their market share by continuously expanding their total market size and defended their product against rival attacks. Developing the Red bull brand

perhaps was the most important step in the success of the product because red bull was majorly emanated as a product that stood out of the crowd as a distinct brand. A good brand is the cornerstone of marketing and red bull is no exception.

It is definitely a way of life. Red bull is a brand that relies on entirely word of mouth or buzz marketing strategy when brand ambassadors or those who have used the product before make people to come in and begin to use the product. Making a product to be accepted fully in the market takes a long time and requires long term investment. The red bull became a way of life when most young people began to start their attachment to the brand. To do this Metchutz started by targeting hot spots such as bars, clubs and pop star joints to create brand visibility and then made the product to look hard to get brand so that people could have that urge to have it.

Red bull had specific set of features that made to look nice a way of life rather than a product it had good sets of features benefits and good consistent attributes to the buyers or target market and it had that quality. Good advertising through the use of sponsoring events and the youth culture like extreme events the product had a large following especially with the youth who longed to be associated with the brand young men from the age of 18 – 29 wanted a share of the fund. Meteschitz through vigorous advertising realized that he had to develop a new culture by making the

product available to most people who liked it in times. He made it a style rather than a product and made it part of the people.

This was done through sponsoring youth events, pop culture events and because he used the idea of participation where most of the participants had one on one experience with the products, there was their development of the red bull brand that had a great persuasive power and value in the market place. Red bull had that social responsibility touch by giving back to the customer in resource a good experience especially by sponsoring dance music and youth events and saving the energy drink i. e. in the famous red bull music academy that through together musicians and DJs in a workshop sponsored by red bull in major cities of the European continent. The red bull developed a strong culture that led people to relate it with a certain way of life i. e. most youth related red bull with music dance extreme sports and energy this was definitely a way of life that the youth had to adapt to.

The pop culture that red bull used to promote its brand has grown into the mind of young people positively leading to increased sales of the product especially this is because people talk about the product in different ways that show the rumors ways they perceive the product. The ideas of sponsoring events spread messages about red bull giving it a competitive advantage over the competitor brands which had sprung up in the year 2001. new ideas to develop the brand also made it more popular among young generation Red bull was

a brand that targeted young people between the age of 18-21 years and most of the reacted to adverts placed on various forms of media. This generation of Red-bull looked at the brand and perceived it. To exhibit a way of life that related to them that is when Red –boll sponsored events like sports dancing competition and the use of DJS to promote the product.

This made the young people have the notion that they have to take in order to fit the league of their peers. Red-bulls advertisements were also a show that the brand exhibited a culture (way of life) because of the word of mouth strategy of advertising (buzz) most people learn about Red-bull from their peers and this showed that ambassadors of the product did much on the marketing and recruitment of customers. This culture of marketing was a success because of rumors that most of the people spread around about perceived qualities of the Red-bull brand. It formed part of the life of the people because they gave nick-names to the product which showed how the Red-ball product affected their way of life.

Youth went further to believe in the product to the extent of using the product before games, before going to gums and as mixers. To the extent that one teenager died behaving taken red-bull before a basketball match and he believed that it gave him strength. Red bull also replaced most brands that were substances as for rave in most European countries and most raves began to consume red bull in raves and clubs; bars and favorites night sports because it was used by clubbers to get energy

from a long night out in the early mornings. This was a culture that after a long night out, the best way the youth received or got back their strengths was by the consumption of red-bull.

Having realized that it was forming part of the way of life of people ,Matcschiz decided to come up red bull own extreme sports to make people to come together and meet at one place like biking, late boarding and many other sports that made people look forward. This sports captivated people to the extent that most of them associated the product with extreme dangerous sports and competition. It was a culture that dangerous on the edge adrenaline fueled activities could only be done or associated with Red-bull. But above all the most interactive way that made Red-bull form part of life of most people is the association with dance and music. This is because music is the most influential social activity and once a product is associated with musk the trial is done.

They sponsored a roma when they sponsor redlined more music extravaganza and in turn they gained more customers from the experience and publicity gained out of the experience and truly matcschz agrees that Red bull grew out of the DJS culture or the pop music culture and so they have to avoid as much as possible to make people to abandon the culture. the had to give back to the people by organizing such event that promoted Red bull. this was far to the extent of coming up or sponsoring art creative contests where people used an empty Red bull cane to create art or pieces of

art work. And hence through these experiences people became believers in Red-bull.

To say that a product is part of life of particular people we mean that that product has a lot of significance of that people who form the customer base. In Italy Red –bull also decided to use student brand mangers to market the product and to show that truly it as a way of life. These brand manager were not formally employed or was not trained sales representatives but they were just trend sellers and made other students join their culture through organizing parties and their aim was not experience for salesmanship career development. So the approach was not sale approach but persuasive and as matcshz believed if a brand is well developed and presented by building a mystique it wont be had to market it because people will be looking for the product.

That is how Red bull gained this position as a market leader Red bull was also later perceived by men as aphrodisiac and this for any brand is very important aspect because men want to associate themselves with things that will turn them on sexually or the product that relates to fertility. That is why Matechitz new that as much as he could loose property money and pride, his main aim was to build a mystique and he belied that they do not bring the product to the people but the people to the product after they developed the brand. It was now the people to join their way of life and surely Red-bull succeeded. It was not a drink but the way of life.

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