Redbull's Marketing Brilliance

To simply call Redbull "successful" would be an understatement. In 2019, they sold the equivalent of 1 can for every person on Earth - that's close to 8 billion cans of Redbull. In addition to their iconic energy drinks, Redbull also owns two Formula 1 teams, five Football teams and an ice hockey team. They host multiple iconic annual events, sponsor countless world renowned athletes and run their own media production and broadcasting service. Redbull is also in the process of developing their own brand of high performance cars modelled after Redbull PowerTrain developments throughout their career in Formula 1.

Redbull was the very first energy drink product, meaning that there was no actual market for the product yet. Dietrich Mateschitz - the company's founder - responded to this dilemma, saying "if we don't create the market then it doesn't exist" - and they did just that; they created a booming market that has grown from strength to strength over the years. This is an admirable attitude to have, and a mindset that truly inspires me as a marketer. Unlike their soft drink competitors, Redbull doesn't produce their product themselves. Instead, their entire production process is completely outsourced - resulting in them being able to direct more time, energy and money into marketing the product. Due to their power and dominance in the market, Redbull are able to produce the product for a very small fraction of the amount that they charge for it.

Redbull made their mark in the nightlife scene through student brand managers (popular university students employed to promote redbull to other students and to throw epic parties, completely sponsored by redbull), and the iconic drink containing Redbull and vodka was soon discovered by bartenders and has been loved by many ever since. Redbull handed out free samples everywhere they could, from office buildings to gyms and everything in between. This was only the beginning for Redbull and their marketing endeavours.

Redbull is able to connect with their market on a whole new level through the sponsorship and branding of iconic sporting teams and world renowned athletes. Their sponsorship of the world's most extreme sports makes customers associate the adrenaline rush and exciting experience of these sports with drinking a Redbull - reinforcing their energetic brand image and reputation.

Redbull's brand strategy makes use of story performing instead of storytelling. They host massive sporting events and stunts and broadcast it themselves. They ultimately own the rights to all media from these events, making success from viral communication on social media almost guaranteed for the company. A legendary story performing example is the Stratos Jump stunt (2012) where the world saw Felix Baumgartner free falling from the stratosphere in a pressure suit and then parachuting to Earth, having an epic landing and leaving the whole world in awe. This performance stunt cost Redbull $50 million, which seems excessive but if you consider the global reach of the event being worth around $6 billion in exposure, there was undoubtedly a massive return on this marketing investment.

Redbull also sells branded merchandise, providing them with additional income as well as marketing exposure. The company depends almost entirely on one singular product (the energy drink) which is rather risky, especially considering the ever-growing global awareness of health and the dangers of consumption of energy drinks. However, in addition to this singular product offering, Redbull has built its brand through media production, broadcasting, sponsorship, team ownerships, merchandising and contract management. All of these are marketing activities, and are more of a cost to the business than an income as 97% of Redbull's revenue ultimately comes from can sales encouraged by these marketing investments.

There is simply no denying that Redbull owes much of their success to marketing. One third of their annual revenue on cans sold (+-6 $billion) is spent on their marketing budget every year. This is evidently a brilliant investment on their part and a perfect illustration of the importance of investing in marketing as a business striving to succeed.