Finances runs the world, yet so many people are scared to learn about it.
Crispin Nkya
MBA/ Finance student
Business Analysis
Buckle your seat belts world because 2019 is going to be a roller coaster in the financial sector. The United States is still on the driver’s seat, but we as individuals have no time to waste but bake sure that our bank accounts, savings, investments, businesses are healthy in the years to come…. This is an opportunity to learn about your cash flow, taxes, credit management and much more.
Creating my own space in the world, one post at a time…. Crispin Nkya
The global energy drink brand Red Bull was created by Dietrich Mateschitz 31 years go in Austria, who came up with the unique formula and initially only sold in his home market in Austria (31 Years And Counting, nd). There are several reasons why this company took off and became successful with no generational history or billions of dollars like its competitors. The first strength is the company’s unique marketing concept of skillful connecting with people especially the youth, made it a success in creating an alternative new billion dollar drink category while companies like Coca Cola and PepsiCo who are the beverage industry moguls had to come to terms and couldn’t ignore anymore (Kotler & Keller, 2016). That second strength is the fact that it’s a category leader in the energy drink market gives the company for leeway because it can flaunt it’s position with more confidence and notoriety than its competitors (Red Bull: Soaring into Pop Culture, 2015) . It takes more risks in its marketing than most which give it an edge in all others, since the inception of the company it set out to do something different in the beverage industry and it’s this mentality that has made it a billion-dollar brand we know today by not focusing on the drink itself in the marketing but rather a brand that embodies , connects and define a certain distinct lifestyle and audience (Red Bull and their Marketing strategy, 2018). The billion-dollar drink that we know very well is a star in its accord and a game changer in its own category, which comes with risks especially in the world of billion-dollar beverage companies that have the history, connections, money, infrastructure, technology and expertise to compete globally in each and every category (Leading beverage companies worldwide in 2017, based on sales (in million U.S. dollars), 2017). It had to adapt to its newly found success environment and come up with products that are customer conscious like Red Bull Total Zero, Red Bull Sugar Free to make sure to serve the markets that would otherwise be taken by competition (Red Bull Energy Drink, nd). (Tsae, Lee, & Chan, 2015).
Red Bull’s marketing tactics pros and cons.
There are several pros and cons for Red Bull’s non-traditional marketing tactics. From signing international athlete’s beginning in 1994, creating the first ever international kiteboarding competition, completed a Stratos jump in 2012 and became the exclusive broadcaster for six major music festivals which exposed them to more people (Contact Sponsorship, n.d.). Looking at it market targeting strategies by publishing awesome content, colossal publicity stunts and sponsoring or creating events that connect them to its current and future customers (Bergstrom, nd). Its strategies have been successful mainly due to its ability to tell stories that entices its audiences in a manner that they can understand and relate, It puts it’s audiences needs first by providing them value before it’s products and last but not least it is commitment to the values and aesthetic of giving people the ideas and wings to fly (Bergstrom, nd). Now that they are a major force in the industry it comes with responsibility and the non-traditional market has gotten them in trouble as seen when two lawsuits filed in North America claimed that the advertising was deceptive and fraudulent (Sara Kimberly, 2014). This begs the question, should the company do more traditional advertising? Why, or why not? In my opinion the company shouldn’t stop doing the non-traditional marketing because that is precisely what has made it a success where other companies couldn’t. It keeps consistent and engaging with its audience which most brands are not able to replicate by far as seen in 2017 whereby statistics from Tubular that tracks down brand awareness campaigns that showed Red Bull was the most watched brand that generated 2.5 billion views and 50.2 million engagements in just 12 months which is phenomenon (How Red Bull Took Sports Marketing To a New Level, 2017). There’s no way traditional marketing could have created such a following and almost fanatic following for such a young company without having a blessing from beverage conglomerates like Coca Cola, Nestle, PepsiCo or Anheuser- Busch. Being on this position as a category leader means it has to incur even more costs to protect its intellectual property as seen when it had to fight a Taiwan Company Fly Bull to protect its name because they were benefiting through copy right infringement using identical signs as Red Bull’s and potentially causing damage to its good name (Tsae, Lee, & Chan, 2015).
How we know Red Bull.
Many people in the world who know about Red Bull have associated it with high fueled sports because of its association with everything sports from owning a Formula 1 race team, hosting endless sports related events to contracting athletes in wake board, soccer, skateboarding, Air racing etc (How Red Bull Took Sports Marketing To a New Level, 2017). This is by no means an accident but a strategy for the company, take for example in 2018 it was estimated about 265 million people in the world play soccer in one way or another, and the World cup played to which Red Bull had some ads running had hit about 3.4 billion people worldwide (Roxborough, 2018). It’s common sense to say these associations have so far worked tremendously for the company by being the center stage and always bringing the Wow-factor in everything it does. Many keep asking if the company should draw a line in terms of risk. For a company that is known for its giving you the wings Motto by sponsoring the first ever Free-Fall parachute jump from 24 miles above earth, endless guerilla which included a small car with a big Red Bull can at the back and beautiful girls giving free Red Bulls at college campuses (Kumar, 2017). Risky as its marketing strategies have been but it what has made this company be one of the best beverage and marketing companies from its humble beginnings in Austria of all places. There shouldn’t hold back matter of fact they should keep going because in the process they keep creating greatness.
What would you recommend for Red Bull to do next?
Trying to make recommendations for a company like Red Bull with respect to their marketing and advertising strategies is a great challenge since they are already on top and don’t seem to be stopping in their quest of being the best marketer and brand. At this point they should just focus on evolving in their awareness campaigns through strategic affiliations and associations that they already have going on. Continue to look for ways to generate and maintain interest of their products globally. Keep creating desirable products and content that creates an emotional connection with consumers. Figure out innovative ways to nurture the millions of engagements they have with its audiences globally on a daily basis like how it’s doing with its social media platforms which helps them in customer retention, sell, referrals etc.
Questions to ask yourself about Red Bull;
Can Red Bull continue to make good content?
Should Red Bull diversify and venture to other products?
Would it make a good business sense for Red Bull to outsource it’s marketing?
What can other companies learn from Red Bull?
Creating my own space in the world, one post at a time…. Crispin Nkya
This is an example of a company evaluating it’s social media strategy using the SWOT analysis.
Strength
We have a lot of satisfied customers that can be an awesome asset in expanding our good name.
We service a wide variety of customers and this should be displayed for all people to know.
We have enough staff to start pushing the conversation for our customers to start engaging with us online for rates or changes.
Weakness
We don’t have any social media footprint for customers’ research and tracking (we can track where the searches are from so we can increase our focus on areas that are needed).
Most of the reviews on social media about our company are negative and we don’t have our side of the story portrayed.
We don’t have a social media strategy can be implemented to take us to success.
Opportunities
We can counter online bad reviews that appear on the search engines by showing our own good things like volunteering, employee engagements etc.
It’s cheaper to use social media marketing than regular marketing.
A big part of our customers and would be customers are on social media and get most of their information.
Threats
All the other companies are using social media to listen and anticipate what their customers’ needs and wants are and because of that they leverage the information.
The industry bohemiths can at anytime overspend us and use our strategies to crush us.
Competition is constantly innovating on their online portals ready to decrease our market share.
Recommendations.
Have a dedicated social media department or personnel, presumable someone who knows the inner workings and not just hiring an independent social media agency. This department or personnel will have access to all departments in order to know and understand the current and future strategies so they can be portrayed online.
Creating my own space in the world, one post at a time…. Crispin Nkya
