Introduction
The original formula for Red Bull was developed in 1964; however, the Red Bull company was not founded until 1984 after a merger between Dietrich Mateschitz, marketing guru, and Chaleo Yoovidhya, the owner of the Red Bull formula. Categorized as an energy drink, Red Bull was initially designed to “treat jet lag and boost energy for truck drivers” (Hollensen, 2012). In today's era, Red Bull is commonly used as an energy drink; like coffee, and as a mixer in alcoholic drinks, like Red Bull Wings and the Jägerbomb. This aligns with the company's focus on the younger generations of partygoers and post-secondary students.
Red Bull’s marketing strategy is one of the key factors in their success, they created Mobile Energy Team that consists primarily of young university students driving around in specially designed Mini Coopers with large Red Bull cans on top to attract the younger audience. The students are Red Bull’s team out in the field that attend different events and provide sampling of the energy drink. Oftentimes, the Red Bull representatives host parties with cases of Red Bull. These representatives collect data from these parties and send it back to the company as a form of low cost market research. In 2010 Red Bull had 7,758 employees of which 5,000 were university students.
Red Bull is also known globally for hosting extreme sporting events and sponsoring some 500 athletes. Over the years they have acquired four soccer teams, a Nascar team, and two Formula 1 racing teams. All of their teams have been quite successful and are financed from their healthy operating income. Since Red Bull aims to be seen as this drink for the extreme and cool, their association with extreme sports definitely helps inspire the consumers to consume Red Bull, especially the young and media sensitive.
Over time, Red Bull began to gather negative press, often in the