Red Bull Market

A BULL MARKET

case study / red bull /

CASE STUDY / RED BULL / A BULL MARKET /RED BULL DEFIES GRAVITY AND CONVENTION. ONCE THE PRESERVE OFTIRED THAI TRUCK DRIVERS, THE BRANDSHIFTED NEARLY TWO BILLION CANS LASTYEAR AND DOMINATES EVERY NATIONALMARKET IN WHICH IT IS PRESENT. ITSGRASSROOTS MARKETING AND SAMPLINGSTRATEGY HAS SPAWNED A LEGION OFADMIRERS, FROM HIP CLUBSTERS TOJADED CUBICLE-DWELLERS. ITS CAPACITYTO MAKE FRIENDS ALONG THE ENTIRESPORTING SPECTRUM, VIA CRICKETERSAND GOLFERS TO AEROBATIC PILOTS ANDPEOPLE WHO THROW THEMSELVES OFFMOUNTAINS FOR FUN HAS TURNED THEBLUE AND SILVER CAN INTO A SYMBOL FORA WAY OF LIFE / SUZY BASHFORD UNCOVERS THE STORY

BEHIND AN ICONIC DRINK THAT SELLS ON FUNCTION RATHER THAN TASTE /

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Revolutionary. Multi-faceted. Anti-brand. Non-conformist. These are all terms that have been used todescribe Red Bull's marketing approach. But ask theman who came up with the now ubiquitous ‘Red Bullgives you wiiings’ slogan to shed some light on thishugely successful brand strategy, and you realise it isactually overwhelmingly simple.

‘Red Bull is all about making friends. Not buying people.Because Red Bull became a friend, a real personality,people feel emotional towards it. They do things for usthat they wouldn't do for Coca-Cola,’ says JohannesKastner, founder of international advertising networkKastner & Partners. The agency has been working onthe account since 1984, three years before the brand'sofficial launch, and has been integral to its productdesign and development.

This is hardly the answer you would expect for a brandwith such an edgy image, steeped in urban legend andliving life at the limits. The strategy is so simple that itcould even be mistaken for a playground guide on howto get down with the ‘in’ crowd. In fact, the way thatKastner describes the approach is startlingly similar tothe definition of a good friend given on charityKidscape's website: ‘Good friends show an interest inwhat people do; go around with a pleasant expressionon their face; ask to join in, don't demand; offer to helpothers with work or carry things; invite people to dosomething; hang around places where other peoplethey make friends with are; are good at thinking ofinteresting things to do; are willing to share; arehumourous; and are good at organising games oractivities.(www.kidscape.org.uk/childrenteens/makingfriends/1makingfriends.shtml)

Whether Red Bull is building a start-gate to allow anup and coming snowboarder to improve his race technique, throwing parties with free drinks so that clubbers can dance all night or helping students stayawake while revising, these rules of the playground areapplied scrupulously.

‘We have a lot of respect. We don't push people to doanything. We give them ideas. We give them a product.They can do want they want. In TV clips we never askthem to say things or give them logos. We're there tohelp them. We're there to give them experiences theycan't buy. It's humanistic thinking,’ says Kastner.

An example of one such experience came after theEnglish cricket team famously won The Ashes thissummer. Red Bull flew the team members and their wivesin one of its 'Flying Bulls', a Douglas DC-6, to Venice for aweek. Even before this gesture, Andrew Flintoff and KevinPietersen happily told the broadcast media how they drankRed Bull before a game. ‘You can imagine what the

cricketers said when they got home after that,’ smilesKastner.

Red Bull boasts at least 70% of every national marketin which it is present and is still growing rapidly. Lastyear company sales rose by 32.3% from 1.261 billionEuros to 1.668 billion Euros. Sales were up 50% in theUSA, 43% in the Middle East, 40% in Australia and30% in Eastern Europe. Also in 2004, the companyestablished new subsidiaries in Canada, Turkey, Russiaand Romania.

Red Bull's appeal has grown by targeting opinion formers, who drive sales through word of mouth and byassociation. Extreme sportsmen. Hollywood stuntmen.Barmen at the trendiest haunts. Formula 1 drivers. Now,even golfers. This seeding strategy has made Red Bullthe clear global energy drink market leader, selling1.935 billion cans in 2004.

What these key audiences say is infinitely moreimportant to Red Bull than what the media says.Compared to many other brands in the 'lifestyle' sector,Red Bull certainly doesn't bend over backwards to wooand accommodate reporters writing about the company,yet it still manages to garner significant media coveragefor its exploits.

At Red Bull events, journalists tend to come away withthe impression that the PR team's attention is clearly onthe participants for whom the event is being thrown,rather than the peripheral media types. To Red Bull, theparticipants are the real opinion-formers. After all, asRed Bull knows, showing off is no way to make friendsand influence people.

‘To advertise oneself is not good. We don't say “comeand look at how wonderful we are everybody”. Thatwould not be laid back. That would be aggressive, old-style marketing. It's always better to let others say howgreat we are’, states Kastner.

He adds that Red Bull doesn't even promote one of itsmost defining and famous worldwide events in a waythat garners positive coverage for the brand: theFlugtag. Participants make wings and attempt to fly intheir homemade contraptions, a sight witnessed bythousands of spectators, sometimes more than 50,000.According to Kastner, the Flugtag is only advertised in away that helps people who have created the machinesbe seen. At Flugtag time, Red Bull replaces its normalabove the line ads with pictures or footage of previouscompetition participants. These may catch peopledrinking Red Bull or wearing a Red Bull helmet, forexample, but the branding is incidental to the mainmessage that focuses on encouraging performers totake part.

Kastner argues that such a strong bond has been

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“Because Red Bull became a friend, a real personaliy,

people fel emotional towards i. They do things for

us that they wouldn't do for Coca-Cola.”

RACE WORLD SERIES / THE FLYING BULLS AEROBATICS TEAM 2005 /

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created between consumers and Red Bull, that whenthey walk down the street clutching their can they areusing it to identify themselves: ‘They want to expresssomething by holding this can. They want to say “I amlike the personality of this can”. They want to say we areprofessional. We are smart. We are good at sport. Wefirst kissed a girl when we were twelve. We smokedcigarettes very early. Maybe we've spent a night inprison before because of a big party we had. But we aresmart, we don't spend all our time getting drunk.’

In other words, as Lars Emilson, the chief executive ofthe brand's can company Rexam said in Septemberwhen it delivered its 10 billionth unit to Red Bull: ‘Thecan has become a symbol for a way of life’. This symbolis Red Bull's capital. As Austrian billionaire founderDietrich Mateschitz has said: ‘we have no real materialassets, our asset is the brand’.

Red Bull's slogan itself arose from the friendshipbetween Mateschitz and Kastner. This partnership toohas been fundamental to the brand's strong personality,says Kastner: ‘We'd both lived the 70s, with The Stonesand Spencer Davis and so on and we thought differently[to other marketers]. Advertising was always tellingpeople things like “Your laundry is not white enough”.We always thought that was stupid. We thoughtdifferently. Finally with Red Bull we were able to executeour thinking. We were two entrepreneurs. We didn'ttake ourselves too seriously. We weren't pushy. Wewere laid back. The brand is very personal. We're bothin it. That's why it's so authentic.’

The pair met while studying at the World TradeInstitute in Vienna and Mateschitz turned to Kastnerwhen planning the launch of Red Bull. Born in 1945,Mateschitz grew up in the Mürz valley, Styria,surrounded by a family of teachers. He, however, didn'tthrive academically at school. According to Trend, anAustrian magazine which crowned Mateschitz its 'Manof the Year' in 2000: ‘At age 18, Mateschitz headed toVienna and spent the next 10 years happily bummingaround as a student. The essentials were sent fromhome and he earned the luxuries himself: as a travelguide, as a barman in Switzerland, as a steel-worker inSweden.’

The magazine afforded Mateschitz this accoladebecause ‘he's a marketing wizard. He has taken aproduct which is nothing special and made aninternational success of it, through sheer strength ofbrand image and clever marketing’.

At 28, Mateschitz got a job in marketing at Unileverwhere he was responsible for Omo, Sunlight and Lux. Itwas through his travels marketing toothpaste forBlendax in 1982 that he came across a tonic that Thaidrivers used to stay alert at the wheel. He drank it to get

rid of his jetlag and, recognising its potential as anenergy-giving drink, he spent the next few years refiningthe recipe. Today, Mateschitz owns 49% of thebusiness, with his Thai partner Chaleo Yoovidhya alsoretaining 49%. The remaining stake is owned by anotherThai associate, Chalerm Yoovidhya.

Mateschitz wanted Kastner to help him with themarketing strategy. A famously fraught few yearsfollowed. Not only did the duo struggle to agree on aslogan, but the product researched appallingly. Nobodyhad ever encountered anything like it before. Or tastedanything quite like it. When they did, many hated it.Many focus group participants thought the tonic tastedsickly sweet like liquid jelly babies or cough medicine.And they thought it was substantially over-priced for itsslim can size.

Some were also put off by the strange-soundingchemicals on the ingredients list, like taurine andglucuronolactone. The rumour mill went ballistic. Was itbad for children? Or an aphrodisiac? Or the equivalentof 14 espressos? Was it really made of bulls' testicles?

But Mateschitz was convinced that if peopleunderstood the product's functional benefits - that it‘vitalises body and mind’ - they would buy it. He alsosaw the merit in leveraging all the myths around thebrand to his advantage.

‘The rumours and confusion add to the brand. Thesemyths and word of mouth add up to something quiteclose to a magical potion,’ explains Carsten Beers,international account supervisor at Kastner & Partners.

The brand is still boosted by the air of mystique thathangs over it today, aided by France's ongoing ban ofthe product on the grounds that it is ‘harmful’. ‘This isjust the French protecting their own market and theyneed an excuse, so they say they need more researchon taurine, a harmless acid. But it helps the rumour. RedBull gets smuggled into France from Switzerland andBelgium’, says Beers.

Undeterred, Mateschitz launched Red Bull in Austria in1987. Problem was, at that time there was very littlemarketing budget because all the investment had goneinto production, research and gaining governmentapproval for the product from the health ministry. AndMateschitz does not believe in borrowing money,preferring to run his company via cashflow rather thandebt. Red Bull was forced into a grassroots strategy,which has since become its trademark.

This approach is often credited as the main reason thebrand succeeded in creating the energy drinks market.But The Henley Centre's Tamar Kasriel, head ofknowledge venturing, believes its fortune can beattributed to more than just clever marketing: ‘Red Bull


"We have no real material assets,

our asset is the brand.” / Dietrich Mateschiz

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has been very smart or very lucky, or both. Some of itssuccess is down to its first mover advantage and someis because of the revolutionary, subversive edge given toit by its early, grassroots marketing. Through both, it nowtakes the lead on fuelling people's ability to have fun.’

Many blatant copycat rivals have crashed and burnedin Red Bull's wake. The aptly named Burn, owned byCoca-Cola, fell flat when it tried to take on Red Bull inthe UK market in 2000.

Ex-Coca-Cola marketer Phil Roman, now chiefexecutive of agency Meerkat Culture, believes Red Bullstill has its stranglehold because no one has come upwith a better product yet. ‘All of them have dabbled andstruggled and finally failed to say “here's a clearpositioning of something that's different and here'swhy”’, he says. ‘But Sprite 3G [Coke's latest energydrink launch] will be interesting. It tastes good for astart.’

But Red Bull has never been about the taste. Launchmarketing focused on sampling. The brand had topersuade consumers to drink for a physical benefit,rather than the taste. It enlisted an army of souped-upsuper samplers, driving cars with giant Red Bull cansmounted on their roofs. These teams policed the streetstargeting the tired outside gyms, university campusesand offices.

Red Bull was one of the first companies to realise thepower of student brand managers. Little encouragementwas needed for students to throw parties other than thefree cases of Red Bull, especially when they realisedwhat a potent mix Red Bull and vodka proved. The brandmanager role is an informal one, with students chosenfor their outgoing personalities. In return, Red Bull givesthem free drinks, covers the social costs incurred andmakes a modest contribution towards funding theirstudies.

The brand has stuck to this grassroots strategy whenlaunching in new territories. After conquering theAustrian market, Red Bull launched in Hungary andGermany in 1992, before entering the UK in 1995 andCalifornia, the first state in the US, in 1998. It is now

present in over 100 countries.That's not to say it does not do traditional marketing.

Red Bull executes a highly conservative, ‘problem andsolution Procter and Gamble style’, above the linestrategy, says Kastner. But the brand's playful cartoonads, which air globally, are more of an amusing aside tocomplement the core events and sponsorship strategy.As an adjunct they're often overlooked, which couldexplain why some pundits applauded Red Bull's ‘stealth’strategy on entering the US despite the fact it spent$100m on traditional media.

As it becomes more mainstream, viral marketing isbecoming increasingly important. In the UK for the lasttwo years, for example, agency Blowfish has beentasked to create parties that keep the brand on the rightside of cool. ‘Our brief was to do something quirky andinteresting and keep Red Bull alive in an undergroundway,’ says Chris Pearce, managing partner at Blowfish.

Targeting ‘movers and shakers in key towns’, Blowfishorganised a series of secret parties. The mostfashionable haunts were targeted with flyers bearing theheadline 'Please keep on the grass', accompanied by ablurry image of an armoured vehicle and a URL but noRed Bull branding.

‘Red Bull wanted to do something that was an antidoteto the heavily branded and overt TV advertising targetingthe mainstream. This was about discovering somethingfor themselves,’ says Pearce. ‘Personal invites weredistributed and invitees were told by text where to meet.’

‘On the night we picked up about 400 people in busesand transported them to the country. Everyone wassaying “what the hell are we doing?” They thought theywere being abducted when we took them on a 25minute walk along a dirt track’, says Pearce. When theyreached the top of the hill, they looked down into theilluminated valley to see bars, dance floors and thearmoured truck in the centre. Free Red Bull waseverywhere, but no banners or logos.

This is typical of the type of underground marketingdone by Red Bull around the globe. Pearce admits it'sincredibly difficult to measure the effectiveness of suchniche marketing. But as Kastner says, ‘making friends isnot about asking what you get out of something’.

Red Bull's Music Academy is another case in point.‘We thought we should be present in music’, saysKastner. ‘But we didn't want to sponsor a big contest.We wanted to help young musicians improve theirtalents.’ Founded in 1998 and headquartered indifferent international cities each year, the Academyselects DJs, singers, songwriters and producers tospend two weeks with renowned musicians, toexchange ideas, learn and network. During this time theycome face to face with their music heroes, from pirate

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radio station operators to turntablists to ‘sonic theorists’.Drummer Bernard Purdie, boogie pioneer LeroyBurgess, mixer Bob Power and African jazz artist HughMasekela have all been guest lecturers.

The Music Academy is supported by its more recentventures such as Artsehcro. Spelling orchestrabackwards, this initiative brings the DJ's turntable intothe classical music world. The brand also has what itcalls its own ‘web radio’. It consists of a library of newmusic, which can be heard while accessing a photoarchive of Red Bull events.

Another fundamental part of Red Bull's strategy totarget opinion formers is extreme sports. As Soft DrinksInternational magazine's features editor AnnetteSessions says: ‘Red Bull has become almostsynonymous with speed sports. Its many sponsorshipshave given it a high profile in activities as diverse asmotor racing, bobsleds and aerobatic flying. Itsmarketing strategy, including the sponsorship of suchaction sports, must be working: the brand hasn't neededto change direction in either its formula or packaging.There have been no makeovers, no on-pack promotions,no two for the price of ones etc, that are seen elsewhereto regenerate and bring new life to brands.’

Indeed, the only product change the brand has madesince it launched is the introduction of a sugar-freevariant, which has boosted sales. Extreme sports suitthe brand because they accentuate the productbenefits; when athletes are pushed to the limits of theirendurance, whether they're base jumping, kayaking, freeskiing, mountain-biking or cliff diving, Red Bull is thereto stimulate body and mind.

The bolder the event, the better. Earlier this year RedBull held a ‘Big Wave’ surfing competition in Africa. ‘Inthe end, the waves weren't big enough and the eventwas cancelled, but Red Bull picked up plenty ofsympathetic media exposure in local sports journalistsand specialist international media,’ says Sessions. Alsothis year, Red Bull held the first bobsled race, whichtook place at Mount Hermon, Israel.

Red Bull is particularly fond of aligning itself with newand gravity-defying sports. Two years ago it invented the‘Air Race’, a World Series competition described as across between aerobatic flying, auto racing and skiingslalom. Pilots execute a series of mandatory high-speedmanoeuvres, withstanding G-forces up to 10 times theirbody weight.

The brand is also keen to back promising athletes,rather than the big names. It will often ask sportschampions who they believe to be the next generation ofwinners, the idea being that Red Bull will help themreach their potential. In total, Red Bull sponsors around300 athletes.

‘Red Bull has sponsored so many of these sportspersonalities that it has become ubiquitous. It'severywhere you turn. Whether it's snowboarding,skateboarding or BMX-ing, the place is saturated withpeople drinking Red Bull. They’ve seeded it beautifully.They've been particularly good at linking with highprofile, potentially dangerous events that have grabbedattention, like speed skiing,’ says Matt Hales, planningdirector at sports marketing agency Octagon.

One of Red Bull's most famous athletes is Austrianbase jumper Felix Baumgartner, who became the firstman to fly across the English channel without using anaircraft in 2003. Instead, he was supported by a pair ofRed Bull branded, carbon fibre wings. On touchdownhis words could not have more ‘on brand’ had Red Bullmarketers chosen them. ‘It was total freedom,’ he said,echoing Mateshitz's mantra that Red Bull gives peoplethe freedom to do what they want. Baumgartner's wordsand pictures were then promptly beamed around theglobe and seen by over 200 million people (SellingPower magazine, USA, September 2004).

More recently, Red Bull has moved into mainstreamevents and sponsorships. Using the hook of extremesports, it launched the Taurus World Stunt Awards tohonour Hollywood stuntmen and women in front of astar-studded audience on the Paramount Pictures lot.As Mateschitz said at this year's gala ceremony: ‘Stuntartists are the ultimate extreme athletes, so it seemedonly natural to create an event that would reward theseunsung heroes.’

Less predictable is Red Bull's move into traditionalsports like cricket, Formula 1 and particularly golf. Lastyear it created the Red Bull Final 5 competition on theEuropean PGA Tour. As players dip in energy levels,they are encouraged to drink Red Bull for the final fiveholes.

However, Giles Morgan, managing director of Hill &Knowlton's sports marketing and sponsorship division,believes Red Bull is approaching these new markets ina way that won't threaten its heartland youth positioning:‘Rather than just slapping a label on an event, they'vegone down the route of describing the function andbenefit of what's in the can. They want to show that it'snot just beneficial for 17 to 25-year-olds or clubbers.Grannies can drink it. And why wouldn't they?’

Red Bull's move into Formula 1 motor racing is as farfrom logo slapping as is possible. By buying the oldJaguar team at the end of 2004, the brand is reallyputting its neck on the line; after all, it wouldn't lookgood if a product that claims to enhance performancetrailed at the end of the grid, would it?

Hales believes it's too soon to judge how successfulthis sponsorship will be. ‘The transition into the new

team has been such a big job. Only next year will wereally see a Red-Bull-ified team. Then we'll see somereally creative uses of the team’, he says.

Already Red Bull has put its own spin on this traditionalmarketing arena, by launching its own magazine toaccompany race days, called Bulletin. It contains all thetrackside gossip, from news about drivers' girlfriends toBernie Ecclestone's latest bugbear.

In August it threw a Star Wars themed event tocelebrate the formation of the new team during theMonaco Grand Prix weekend and promote the releaseof Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Director GeorgeLucas schmoozed with the Stormtroopers and theFormula 1 glitterati.

Although the Formula 1 deal gives Red Bull a boldglobal positioning, some observers have questioned themove and hinted that it is Mateschitz's personal affinityto the sport that led to the decision to invest, rather thansound marketing sense. Similar aspersions have beencast in relation to Red Bull's aviation interests, such asHangar-7 (a huge glass hanger at Salzburg airportwhich houses a collection of old aircrafts, the FlyingBulls) and its restaurant Ikarus, which showcasesacclaimed chefs every month.

But as Giles Morgan says, in today's world obsessedwith return on investment and research panels‘marketers can sometimes disappear up their ownmarketing strategies’.

‘Marketers can be very pompous about CEOs creatingassociations on a whim, or putting money into theirfavourite pastimes. But why the hell not? In Red Bull'scase, that's very close to the idea of living your life howyou want to’, he adds.

Many marketers also lose confidence in their ideas ifthey don't immediately produce a payback. This issomething that Mateschitz has never done. Herelentlessly persevered, even when the outlook wasbleak.

As Beers points out, many successful brand casestudies read like fairytales that follow a logicalprogression to an inevitable, happy ending. ‘But justbecause a brand gets to be successful doesn't meanthat it's logical. Often articles have a selectiveperception of events. You read them and think “hey,anyone can do it”. We should never forget thatMateschitz had very hard times.’

The founder's passion and commitment runs throughthe company DNA. Though this human touch will notalways be predictable, logical or rational, there's nodoubt that when the brand grabs the bull by the horns,it's a force to be reckoned with.

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CHALLENGE / FOUNDER DIETRICH MATESCHITZKNEW THERE WAS POTENTIAL IN THE ENERGY-GIVING TONIC HE FIRST SPOTTED IN THAILANDBEING GUZZLED BY TIRED TRUCK DRIVERS. HISBIG CHALLENGE WAS TO PERSUADE THE RESTOF THE WORLD TO CONSUME A SOFT DRINK FORITS FUNCTION, RATHER THAN ITS TASTE. NO ONEHAD ENCOUNTERED ANYTHING LIKE IT BEFORE.FOCUS GROUPS THOUGHT IT TASTED HORRIBLE.RUMOURS EMERGED THAT THE DRINK CON-TAINED LIFE-THREATENING CHEMICALS, ANDPEOPLE THOUGHT IT WAS EXPENSIVE.PROTRACTED DEVELOPMENT COSTS ATE INTORED BULL'S LAUNCH MARKETING BUDGET.

SOLUTION / BY TARGETING OPINION FORMERSWITH GRASSROOTS MARKETING INITIATIVES, REDBULL CREATED AN IMAGE AROUND THE BRANDTHAT MADE DRINKING IT SYMBOLISE FREEDOM,AND LIVING LIFE TO THE MAX. IT HAS DONE THISBY BEFRIENDING PARTYING STUDENTS ANDEXTREME SPORTS ATHLETES THROUGH ITS MANYQUIRKY EVENTS AND SPONSORSHIPS. THESEPROPERTIES ARE HIGHLY PR-FRIENDLY,ATTRACTING SIGNIFICANT MEDIA EXPOSURE.WHEREVER PEOPLE ARE IN NEED OFSTIMULATION FOR THE BODY AND MIND, REDBULL IS THERE. THE STRATEGY CONTINUESTODAY WITH A GROWING NUMBER OF OPINIONFORMERS DRINKING RED BULL, SUCH ASCRICKETERS AND GOLFERS, AND TELLING THEREST OF THE WORLD ABOUT IT. RED BULL'SWEBSITE SERVES AS A PORTAL INTO THEDIVERSE ARRAY OF ACTIVITIES ENDORSED BYTHE BRAND.

RESULTS / IN ALL NATIONAL MARKETS IN WHICHRED BULL IS PRESENT, IT HOLDS AT LEAST A70% SHARE. NO OTHER RIVAL HAS GOT CLOSE,DESPITE THE CONSTANT ONSLAUGHT OFLAUNCHES IN THE ENERGY DRINK SECTOR. ITHAS MANAGED TO DO THIS WITHOUT THENEED TO DISCOUNT ITS PRODUCT OR REVAMPITS IMAGE. IN 2004 RED BULL SOLD 1.935 BILLION CANS.COMPANY SALES ROSE BY 32.3% FROM 1.261BILLION EUROS TO 1.668 BILLION EUROS. SALESARE UP 50% IN THE USA, 43% IN THE MIDDLEEAST, 40% IN AUSTRALIA AND 30% IN EASTERNEUROPE. FOR MANY, RED BULL'S SLIMLINE CANCHARACTERISES ENERGY DRINKS AND HASBECOME AS ICONIC AS THE COCA-COLABOTTLE. IN FACT, ACCORDING TO BEVERAGEDIGEST, RED BULL NOW OUTSELLS COKE ANDPEPSI IN AMERICAN CONVENIENCE STORES.

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If you're planning to launch a new product into the over-crowded soft drinks market, you've got two options.Either start with a small-scale launch, with a possibleroll-out to other regions if everything goes well (maybe ifthis is successful, you'll eventually roll the brand outnationwide or internationally). Or go for a huge, all-guns-blazing global launch, supported by vast amounts ofabove- and below-the-line marketing.The first approach is popular among low-cash start-ups,the second among drinks giants - Innocent smoothiesand lemon-and-lime Diet Coke are good examples. Butwhat about a huge global launch over a short time peri-od without significant input or support from any of theestablished multinational drinks companies? Whatabout doing this initially with no above-the-line market-ing support at all?Red Bull is not an example that drinks marketers oughtto follow slavishly: Dietrich Mateschitz's roll-out plan wasso bold that, but for the fact he owned the company, noCEO would ever have greenlighted it. The success ofthis strategy owes a great deal to being in the right placeat the right time, as clubbers tired of beer and alcopopswhile extreme sports took off worldwide.Nonetheless, Red Bull's launch was clear evidence thatviral and word-of-mouth marketing is now the mostimportant advertising medium for new product launches,utterly eclipsing the traditional 30-second TV spot.Consumers are so jaded and immune to conventional adclaims that if you want them to trust a new brand, youneed to go for their friends and their idols. Above-the-line media still have a role, but this role is to maintaininterest in existing brands and to support below-the-linecampaigns.

www.datamonitor.com

ANALYST’S INSIGHT / By John Band /

Consumer Markets Analyst at Datamonitor

Source: www.xtremedigest.com

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RED BULL / BRAND MAP/

CREDIBILITY / Copycat rivals havecrashed and burned in Red Bull's wake.It has retained its stranglehold on theenergy drinks category because of aclear and consistent positioning, free ofthe usual retail gimmicks and packagingredesigns: the product genuinely doesdeliver on its claim to 'vitalise body andmind'. EVENTS / BUZZ / Red Bull sees event

marketing as an antidote to heavilybranded mainstream advertising. Thischimes with the brand's 'making friends,not buying people' positioning. Activitiesrange from secret parties that keep asubversive brand on the right side ofcool to PR-friendly Air Races and thefamous Flugtag, watched by up to 50,000spectators in one go. Red Bull's appealhas grown by targeting opinion formers,who drive sales through word of mouth.

SPONSORSHIP / SPORTS / Red Bulsynonymous with speed sports agravity-defying stunts. The brasponsors 300 athletes, many of whare up-and-coming rather than big nastars - the idea being that Red Bull help them reach their potential.Extreme sports suit the brand becathey accentuate the product benefwhen athletes are pushed to the limitsendurance, Red Bull stimulates body amind. Red Bull has also infiltratraditional sports like cricket and gand now runs its own Formula 1 team

PONSORSHIP / CULTURE / Red Bull'susic Academy helps young DJs,ngers, songwriters and producersarn from renowned musicians. Itsaurus World Stunt Awards honourollywood stuntmen. The brand alsouns its own 'web radio' - a library ofew music, accompanied by a photorchive of Red Bull events. Its ties toviation are symbolised by Hangar-7 atalzburg airport, which houses aollection of old aircraft, and aestaurant, Ikarus, which showcasescclaimed chefs.

HERITAGE / Most of the world's iconicbrands are rooted in a good story. RedBull's humble origins as an obscure ori-ental stimulant sparked a rags-to-richestale rooted in the power of effective mar-keting. The myths surrounding thedrink's strange-sounding chemicals - anaphrodisiac? The equivalent of 14espressos? Made of bulls' testicles? addup to something close to a magicalpotion.

GRASSROOTS MARKETING / WhRed Bull launched in 1987, the marketibudget had largely been eaten up by tnew product's development cosReluctant to run the company on defounder Dietrich Mateschitz aadvertising partner Johannes Kastnopted for a grassroots strategy, whihas become the brand's trademark. RBull is a rare drink, sold on physibenefit rather than taste. Hence tinaugural army of street samplertargeting the tired outside gymuniversity campuses and offices.

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