55-Hour Energy’s Communication Strategies Living Essentials, a health supplement company, created 5-Hour Energy in a response to the energy drink craze circa 2004 (5-Hour Energy, 2010), which created an entirely new category of beverages. Today, the energy shot market continues to grow (there are nearly 250 brands), accounting for about 11% of the energy drink market (Bevnet, 2009), though the 5-Hour Energy brand owns an overwhelming 81.8% of the market share in the energy shot category (Rouan, 2010). This paper will examine how, through effective communication processes, Living Essentials was able to create and maintain a loyal customer base and get more and more people to try their product. First of all, Living Essentials understood their target market very well. FiveHour Energy is marketed to a group market of working adults, which strays from the norm of marketing similar products to teenage boys. The company learned that these adults simply wanted an energy boost – not an entire drink. Therefore, they made 5-Hour Energy shots 2 ounces, setting the precedent for the entire energy shot sector. They knew that traditional energy drinks caused the users the eventually crash, so the company abstained from adding sugar or excess caffeine. Lastly, they knew that their target market would not be browsing refrigerators for energy drinks, so they created a display that could be placed on counters (Zmuda, 2009). Understand their target market played an integral role in 5-Hour Energy’s lasting success, and they created messages that effectively communicated all of these advantages to their audience. Even while most energy shot brands still get a

majority of their sales from teens, 5-Hour Energy appeals to an older generation. Carl Sperber, the creative director of Living Essentials, says, “I think the message we’ve managed to create has really worked to capture those