Red Bull Energy Drink Essay -- Business Marketing Case Study, solution

Red Bull is an energy drink that doesn’t do well in taste tests. Some say it’s too sweet. Others just shake their heads, saying, â€Å"No.† Its contents are not patented, and all the ingredients are listed on the outside of the slim silver can. Yet Red Bull has a 70 to 90 percent market share in over 100 countries worldwide. During the past 15 years, the drink has been copied by more than 100 competitors, but such companies as Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch have been unable to take market share away from Red Bull. Says Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, â€Å"If we don’t create the market, it doesn’t exist.† Mateschitz’s secret to creating a $1.6 billion worldwide stampede for Red Bull lies in a highly ingenious â€Å"buzz-marketing† strategy that herds consumers to exclusive and exciting events that get high media coverage. Red Bull supports close to 500 world-class extreme sports athletes that compete in spectacular and often record-breaking events across the globe. Mateschitz explains, â€Å"We don’t bring the product to the consumer, we bring consumers to the product.† Today Red Bull is a powerful global brand and very few customers know the story of the highly talented, creative and determined salesman, publicity-shy Dietrich Mateschitz. Tiny Austria’s only billionaire, Mateschitz located his office in the quaint lakeside village of Fuschl, near Salzburg, Austria. His architect is currently building a new office building in the shape of two volcanoes. His collection of 16 airplanes is located in a steel and glass hangar, which serves as an aviation museum and the home of the Flying Bulls at Salzburg Airport. He tries to keep it down to working three days a week. He likes to keep things simple. The size of his headquarter staff is only 200. Mateschitz farms out the production and distribution of the 1.5 billion cans sold worldwide. The total number of employees worldwide is only 1,800, which brings the sales volume per employee close to a million dollars. Mateschitz not only generates brilliant sales and marketing ideas, he is equally talent ed in the execution of the biggest and boldest business ideas. His latest project involves a $1 billion motor sport and aviation theme park in Styria, Austria. Dietrich Mateschitz founded the Red Bull company. According to company legend, the idea for Red Bull came about as Mateschitz sat at a Hong Kong hotel bar in 1982... ...key to remaining market leader in the energy-drinks business. Last year, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch, an American brewer, each launched an energy drink, attempting to get a slice of the market in which Red Bull currently has a 70-90% share. Mr Mateschitz is not worried. â€Å"The market isn't generic; it doesn't exist if we don't create it. It's a branded market,† he says. Keeping cool Mr Mateschitz now plans to spend two days a week coming up with wacky ideas to promote Red Bull. Already, the company sponsors an annual Flugtag, when contestants build their own flying-machines and leap off a parapet into water, true to the Red Bull slogan: â€Å"It gives you wings†. His latest project is to build a huge glass hangar at Salzburg airport to house his collection of ancient aircraft, including a DC-6 that once belonged to Marshal Tito, and to host airshows.  £Ã‚ £ That will change. â€Å"We have to go for diversification and acquisitions, and we are investing lots in R&D. We already have concepts and brand formulations for five years' time,† says Mr Mateschitz. But if Red Bull becomes a sort of Austrian Coca-Cola, that carefully cultivated ethos will vanish like bubbles in the brew.