Marketing plan for Red Bull Drink Company

Marketing plan for Red Bull Drink Company
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Introduction
Red bull GmbH began in the late 1980s as a private company that has its headquarters in Austria where it manufactures its drink for a consumer base consisting of over one hundred countries in Europe, Africa and America. It produces non-alcoholic energy drinks (Datamonitor, 2004). The company reportedly sold four thousand and two hundred and four cans of its energy drink in one hundred and sixty two countries in 2010 (Dudovskly, 2012). The company registered revenues amounting to $6.5 billion in 2012 and sold 5.2 billion cans in one hundred and sixty five countries (Pangarkar & Agarwal, 2013).The multinational company has a range of energy drinks namely Cola, energy shots, sugar free, and the Red bull drink.
Red Bull drinks were initially viewed as medicinal drinks. They then gained popularity among clubbers who would mix it with Vodka to achieve their preferred taste. The drink penetrated the market in the US and many European countries in 1997 (Datamonitor, 2007). Red bulls’ mission statement indicates that the company is committed to maintaining its standards and upholding its leading position in the energy drinks sector and deliver superior customer care profitably and efficiently (Dudovskly, 2012). Its slogan is ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ which is a marketing strategy that attracts customers wishing to get the energy to do things with extraordinary ease and those wishing to engage in an active and daring lifestyle (Dudovskly, 2012).
SWOT analysis
Strengths
Its corporate image as a freewheeler in sporting activities forms a core area of its success. It sponsors activities such as free-fall parachute. This focus attracts people with ideas about developing the brand further to demonstrate the success of the company through freewheeling. The company goes to an extent of reimbursing its employees that take flying classes. This is seen as a way of promoting the company’s brand as one that enables people to soar higher (Pangarkar & Agarwal, 2013). The brand also enjoys strong customer loyalty and a leadership position in the energy drink market owing to its strong products (MarketLine, 2012).
Weaknesses
Red bull has been facing innovation challenges from import products from other companies such as Monster and Rock Star and PepsiCo. These companies are developing similar products to red Bull’s as well as Red Bulls sports marketing. The other weakness arising from the competitors is that they offer better value products in the sense that they offer lower prices for products that are similar to red Bull’s size (MarketLine, 2012). To work on the weaknesses, Red Bull requires investing in more aggressive innovation to develop products that are more difficult to copy by the competitors as well as more creative marketing strategies.
Opportunities
In order to counter the rising rivalry from Coca Cola Red Bull has the opportunity to expand its sales with the upcoming center for production in Brazil that is bound to significantly increase its capacity. Increased production capacity allows it to expand into other markets and consequently enhance its pricing strategy to compete effectively with its rivals (Research and Markets: Red Bull GmbH in Soft Drinks, 2012).
Threats
Red Bull has been facing a threat of major competition from Coca Cola which entered into a distribution agreement with Hansen. This cooperation poses a threat to Red Bull’s market in the US and in Western Europe (Pangarkar & Agarwal, 2013). Increased health consciousness in the face of the economic instability in most parts of the world is another threats to the company’s revenues. There is increased negative publicity about the high glucose and caffeine levels in energy drinks that is considered unhealthy when consumed in high quantities (MarketLine, 2012).
Porters five forcesThreat of new entrants
The threat of new entrants into the energy drinks sector is low because Red Bull has an established brand in many countries. This means that even when setting up a manufacturing plant for energy drinks production and complying with food regulations are relatively inexpensive, marketing expenses pose the largest barrier to a new entrant into the energy drinks market. This implies that since Red Bull has already achieved substantial awareness about the product, the threat of new entrants is low (MarketLine, 2012).Bargaining power of buyers
The energy drinks markets have three other major players namely Monster, Rockstart and Full Throttle. Red Bull is at a more favorable position in pricing owing to strong customer loyalty despite the existence of forthcoming strong rivals. In this case buyers have low buyer bargaining power because ...