Red Bull branding - Brazil
Executive summary
Red Bull GmbH (Red Bull) is an Austrian company founded in 1984, which produces in distributes energy drinks. Between 2003 and 2008, before the global recession, the energy drink industry had explosive volume growth rates of 17 % on the total market. The primary market, North America accounted for a 35 % increase in that period1. However, the recession in 2008 caused the growth rates to decrease significantly. Even though the energy market outperformed the general soft drink market and growth rates started increasing again, there are no clear signs that the growth volume will return to their previous high levels in the North American and European markets. The high growth rates in the 80’s and 90’s meant, attracted a numerous competitors, many of which, trying to follow in the footsteps of Red Bull, thriving “on the principles if shock, awe and rebellion”2, as is evident from the names like Monster or Rockstar. The emergence of these brands, that offers a similar product to Red Bull – often at a lower price, in markets the seems to be stagnating or at least to a great extent has matured compared to previous years growth rates is cause for concern for Red
Bull. For this reason emerging markets are key to future success. There are still opportunities to capitalize on markets where the growth rates are in the double digits – like the Australian and Latin
American. This report focuses on Red Bull and particularly their new product lines in the Brazilian market. The Brazilian market is not as developed as Red Bull’s main markets in the US and Western Europe and some of their main competitors in the global market, like Monster and Rockstar, has yet to make an impact. However, increasingly sophisticated customers and trends towards healthy natural products are issues that need to be addressed for Red Bull to consolidate and improve their current leading position in the Brazilian energy drink market. To make sure that they can target
Red Bull GmbH (Red Bull) is an Austrian company founded in 1984, which produces in distributes energy drinks. Between 2003 and 2008, before the global recession, the energy drink industry had explosive volume growth rates of 17 % on the total market. The primary market, North America accounted for a 35 % increase in that period1. However, the recession in 2008 caused the growth rates to decrease significantly. Even though the energy market outperformed the general soft drink market and growth rates started increasing again, there are no clear signs that the growth volume will return to their previous high levels in the North American and European markets. The high growth rates in the 80’s and 90’s meant, attracted a numerous competitors, many of which, trying to follow in the footsteps of Red Bull, thriving “on the principles if shock, awe and rebellion”2, as is evident from the names like Monster or Rockstar. The emergence of these brands, that offers a similar product to Red Bull – often at a lower price, in markets the seems to be stagnating or at least to a great extent has matured compared to previous years growth rates is cause for concern for Red
Bull. For this reason emerging markets are key to future success. There are still opportunities to capitalize on markets where the growth rates are in the double digits – like the Australian and Latin
American. This report focuses on Red Bull and particularly their new product lines in the Brazilian market. The Brazilian market is not as developed as Red Bull’s main markets in the US and Western Europe and some of their main competitors in the global market, like Monster and Rockstar, has yet to make an impact. However, increasingly sophisticated customers and trends towards healthy natural products are issues that need to be addressed for Red Bull to consolidate and improve their current leading position in the Brazilian energy drink market. To make sure that they can target
Bibliography: Malhotra, N.K., Birks, D.F. (2007); “Marketing Research – An Applied Approach”, Third European Edition. Prentice Hall