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RedBull While working on this report, we tried to figure out the best way to go about completing a consumer analysis for Redbull. Initially, we were confused as to what to tackle first: the marketing strategy or the consumer profile? We figured that both the marketing and the communication strategy of Redbull in Pakistan were based on— or rather for— a very specific type of consumer. So our first task (in order to understand this consumer type, as well as the dynamics of Redbull’s marketing strategy) was to review the nature of the product, and establish a consumer profile for it.
Redbull is an energy drink, developed specially for periods of increased mental and physical exertion in humans. It aims at increasing performance, concentration and reaction speed in order to improve the vigilance and emotional status of its user. It additionally stimulates cell metabolism. Redbull’s effects are appreciated throughout the world by top athletes, busy professionals, active students and drivers on long journeys. All this information is listed on the back of a Redbull can— but what you don’t find at the back of the can is the fact that Redbull is also highly addictive!
Its addictiveness is fully recognized and appreciated by Mansur Khan, the marketing head of Redbull Pakistan. He also realizes that not every consumer is a victim to it— only people who actually exert themselves physically or mentally directly after consuming a Redbull are prey. So the question that remains unanswered is: who consumes Redbull in Pakistan? What are his or her traits, tastes and habits? It is clear that Redbull, as a product, is meant for action-oriented consumers—’experiencers’ to be precise…young individuals who are impulsive, enthusiastic and rebellious.
Experiencers combine an abstract disdain for conformity with an outsider awe of others wealth, prestige and power. Their energy finds outlets in exercise, sports, outdoor recreation and social activities. 1 The consumers of Redbull in Pakistan are either outrageously social with high paced lifestyles, or extreme workaholics. They are students striving to maintain a balance between their social activities and their studies— or young white-collar workers that work from nine to five and still find the energy to make it to a party at night.
They smoke and drink, and belong to the upper and upper-middle classes of our society. Being well educated, they earn at least Rs. 30,000 per month, which grants them the ability to spend Rs. 100 on an energy drink daily. They can be categorized under SEC A1 Lifestyle and SEC A1. The average consumer of Redbull falls into the young single stage in the household life cycle. This group can be subdivided into those who live with their families and those who are independent. At home, singles have fewer worries and maintain an active social life.
With fewer obligations, they can often afford to go to pubs, movies and concerts; and purchase sports equipment, casual clothing and other personal care items. 2 In relation to Redbull, we further divide this group into two sub-categories: Young College Students and Young White Collar workers. The prior have lesser spending power as they are dependent on their parents for money. They fall into the age group of 18-24. These Gen-Y kids are non-conformist in nature and hold strong anti-establishment opinions. On an average day, the average student spends 1. hours in class, and an additional 1. 6 hours studying outside of it. This student has $287 (Rs. 18000) to spend on discretionary items per month. 3 Young White Collar workers are those who have just completed college and recently attained a regular job. They are extremely social and too belong to Gen-Y. They savor their new found independence and have larger spending power compared to college students, as they are earning themselves. They also have a tendency to buy products they have no use for and are prone to impulsive shopping.
This is due to the fact that for the first time in their lives, most of them have more money than they need— even though this phenomenon is short-lived as they generally increase their “needs”. Now that we have established the consumer profile for the average consumer of Redbull and highlighted the nature of the product itself, we will proceed by delineating these factors’ relationship to the marketing strategy of Redbull. Redbull is priced at Rs. 100 per can in the market. It officially grants the retailer an incentive of Rs. 10 per can, even though smaller retailers charge Rs. 110 (driving their profit to Rs. 0 per can). Considering the fact that it is a relatively expensive beverage, it is placed in medium to large sized shopping malls. Large shopping malls are also provided with little refrigerators in the shape of a Redbull can (see appendix 1 for picture) by the company for advertisement purposes. Armed with the knowledge that the average consumer also smokes cigarettes, the Redbull company ensures that cans are also sold at major tobacco shops in Lahore such as Tobacco Masters and Abdul’s Tobacco. They can also be found at popular “khokas” such as Two Guy Pan Shop in Fortress or Jaidi Pan Shop in Defence.
During our research we found that the correlation between smoking and drinking Redbull was indeed quite strong as the average tobacco shop sold about 48 cans per day, while the average grocery store sold about 8-9 cans per day (not taking into account large shopping malls). Redbull is also placed at shops within colleges and some schools. It can be found at DSR in Aitchison College, the “Shop” in the Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS) and even the canteen in the liberty branch of the Lahore School of Economics (LSE).
All three institutes have been provided with small display fridges with a capacity of 12 cans. These are also strategically placed at canteens near major company offices that harbor the Young Single White Collar Workers. An example of this is the office canteen in the EFU building on Jail Road that houses Citibank, Warid, and EFU Insurance and Investment offices. For the convenience of drivers, the product is also found at gas station shops in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. In terms of promotion, we see that Redbull started with the traditional means of ATL and BTL.
They used adapted campaigns with the iconic slogan “Redbull gives you wings”. We saw massive use of international TVCs and radio commercials. But soon these methods were abandoned as they were deemed as ineffective to the Pakistani market. [For what reason? ] In 2006 Redbull Pakistan dramatically changed its marketing campaign to a more subtle and clever one. The TVCs and Radio commercials were stopped in order to make way for an ‘under-the-hood’ promotion campaign, the likes of which Pakistan had not witnessed before.
People at Redbull marketing reevaluated the product and realized that its’ major strength lay in the fact that its’ product was addictive in nature. So why weren’t people buying it? The answer is, that most consumers thought that a beverage costing Rs. 100 was way too expensive to try. Armed with the knowledge that people who exert themselves either physically or mentally after drinking Redbull become hooked on to it, the team sent out a massive sampling campaign to offices and colleges. However, this wasn’t just simple sampling— Redbull Pakistan was literally smothering its consumer with its product.
Much like the British who introduced tea into the subcontinent and made 20 billion people addicted to it, Redbull Pakistan was set to achieve a similar effect. This is illustrated in the following example. In 2006 Redbull sponsored its first major event, the Model United Nation (MUN) at LUMS. Student delegates from all over Pakistan attended this event. They were subject to tireless MUN sessions of five hours straight with an hour’s break in between, later followed by hectic social events such as the Global Village and the Cultural Ball.
Subsequently, these tired delegates were gifted free cans of Redbull in between. Each delegate could have any number of Redbulls he/she desired; no restriction of one Redbull per person was set. Of a total of around 1200 conference attendees, half were soon buying Redbull from the college shop on the third day of the conference. The college shop saw an increase of 240% in the sale of Redbull. The LUMUN ’06 campaign was only the beginning— it was followed by yearly events such as the Redbull Volleyball tournament, LUMS Olympiad, Redbull Halloween Party and the Redbull Gravity Challenge.
Redbull also sponsored the graduation party for the batch of 2008 at LUMS. Furthermore, Redbull Pakistan imported four Mini Cooper cars at the start of 2007 and modified them— using them as marketing gimmicks. The Red Bull Mini Cooper (see appendix 2 for picture) started touring in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, distributing free Redbulls at colleges and offices. People at Redbull marketing also realized that consumers of Redbull were social, went to parties and consumed liquor.
The fact that alcohol is illegal in Pakistan did not hinder Redbull Marketing from using this information to their advantage. They started out by sponsoring private parties for people that the company team members knew, or were affiliated with. Free Redbull was distributed at parties and thus the international combination of Redbull and Vodka was introduced in Pakistan. Soon, this combination gained popularity and Redbull started appearing in the hands of local socialites and celebrities, who are highly glamorized by social publications such Sunday and GT magazines (page 3 pages).
Redbull started receiving a lot of free publicity via these social pages, and came to the conclusion that these celebrities were in fact acting as aspirational reference groups. Redbull went on to fully capitalize on this information and organized the first ever Redbull Gravity Challenge earlier this year at LUMS . The challenge invited socialites and local celebrities, along with students, to compete in designing a mechanism that would land an egg without breaking it if thrown from a height of 12 feet. We saw local designers and models competing against students to win this task.
The students— even though they clearly out-performed most of the celebrities by assembling ingenious devices that did the job perfectly— were not able to win the challenge. The competition was won by a model who managed to safely land the egg by means of attaching it to a simple parachute. The event was given coverage by radio station FM 89 and TV channel Fashion TV Pakistan and the pictures appeared in the next issue of Sunday magazine. In conclusion, Redbull’s communication strategy is not a traditional in-your-face campaign anymore.
It has stopped telling you to buy a Redbull because “it gives you wings” but rather to buy it because you need it. You need it because you want to finish an assignment on time. You need it because you have to go to a party on a weekday. You need it because you see people you like, or want to be like, drinking it. You need a Redbull because you think you look cool drinking it. You need it because everyone you know thinks it is brilliant with vodka. You need it now, because you are addicted to it.