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Q&A

On their Q&A rubric on their website, Red Bull promises self-confident that “it's been more than 28 years and we've still got nothing to hide. If you've got a question, we've got an answer.” In the following you get answers to a lot of questions, giving by themselves of course, regarding health issues. The key message is obvious: If you consume the energy drink responsibly, there is nothing to worry about. To increase the credibility, Red Bull supports their statements by naming scientists and health organizations as a prove.

“The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded in 2009 that the ingredients of energy drinks are of no concern.”

“Health Canada scientists conducted an extensive review of the scientific literature on caffeine (Nawrot et al., 2003). […] they concluded that the general population of healthy adults is not at risk for potential adverse effects.”

“There is no indication that Red Bull Energy Drink has any specific effect (negative or positive) related to alcohol consumption. This was confirmed by leading global authorities like the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).”

All in all, you can conclude that Red Bulls strongest way of reacting to negativity surrounding Energy Drinks is their notorious and media-effective marketing strategy. As long as there are athletes from all over the world that represent the “cool”, sportive and adventurous lifestyle Red Bull stands for and the company keeps being successful and in many of the world’s most famous sports, the minority, especially of the younger target group, will connect Red Bull directly or even indirectly to health issues. While at the same time not giving press releases or interviews, Red Bull strengthen its status of a “myth” and remains exciting for its customers.

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Annual reports

A fact that supports my point above is the amount that Red Bull spends yearly on marketing. With an incredibly 30% of its turnover (Wirtschaftsblatt, 2015), the company spends way more than comparable enterprises on its marketing. Just to give you an idea, Coca-Cola, which is also well-known for its marketing and advertising, does not even spent 7 % of its revenue for marketing in each year from 2012-2014 (Investopedia, 2015).

This suggests that Red Bull is dependent on investing these unusually high sums in order to ensure its good and special reputation.

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Marketing Campaigns

Red Bull is world-wide known for its, partly controversial,  sponsorships which is a huge part of their marketing. According to www.energydrink.redbull.com/red-bull-history (2015), the company was a pioneer of sponsoring extreme sports. It all began in 1988 when Red Bull gave their name for the first Red Bull Dolomitenmann, “an marathon event [...] combines mountain running, paragliding, kayaking and mountain biking.” From there on, Red Bull slowly turned itself from a simple energy drink manufacturer into a popular brand with the sponsoring as a good-working tool. Over the years, Red Bull signed more and more athletes from almost all existing traditional and extreme sports. Nowadays they have more than 600 athletes under contract and own multiple sports clubs in soccer, hockey and racing (Salzburg.com, 2012).

On the one hand, this strategy makes the customer buy not only a drink, but an experience. Consumers connect the drink to adventure, freedom, power etc. On the other hand, this already long-lasting campaign clearly helps Red Bull to handle the public opinion about health issues regarding the energy drink. With every joining athlete they try to show that a person earning his or her money with professional sports knows what is good for his or her body and therefore Red Bull cannot be bad for you. Of course, Red Bull would never actually say that literally, but this connection and idea behind it cannot be unseen.

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Press Release

Press releases are something you won’t find from Red Bull. They do not answer to critical questions individually, nor do they agree for any interview requests. As also seen in the documentation “The Dark Side of Red Bull” (2014), they will only refer to their website where all the information you need is allegedly mentioned. The renowned German newspaper “Die Zeit” even went a step further and claimed in 2011 that Red Bull doesn’t issue press releases, but produces its own media: on TV, on paper and on social media. With its own TV channel “Servus TV” (for now only available in Austria and Germany), its magazine “The Red Bulletin” (according to the Red Bulletin website globally available as print magazine, e-Paper, App and online) and their various social media channels with in general more than 35 Million followers according to Red Bull Media House (2016), the company is able to spread their news with a massive global reach.

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Like all of its competitor, the popular energy drink brand Red Bull is surrounded by negativity relating to their main product. As the market leader in the field of energy drinks, the company has various possibilities to react (or not to react) to the negativity surrounding their product which I want to present in the following.

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How does the organisation present itself with respect to the issue?

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How does the organisation present itself with respect to the issue?

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What we think is striking, is that we never heard much negative things about Red Bull. And when you look on the internet you don’t get a lot of articles about the energy drink. All the articles are more about other brands. This means Red Bull, although the ingredients and side effects, is still a good brand in people’s minds.

Also when you look at the social media like the webpage of Red Bull or Facebook page, you don’t get a lot negative stuff. This is the opposite of the general article about energy drinks.

We think, the reason why they almost talk good about Red Bull, is because of the good marketing. This is a big benefit for Red Bull. They use famous people for the commercials like Max Verstappen (formula 1) and Kjeld Nuis (ice speed skating). You can see the brand Reb Bull everywhere on music festivals, sport events, etc. People associate Red Bull with this events and peoples. For example, when you go to the music festival you really love and you see a lot of marketing from Red Bull, you make this connection in your head between the good music and vibes and Red Bull.

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“The first issue we have is with Red Bull Energy Drink ingredients. This canned beverage contains both sucrose and glucose, which provides 37 grams of sugar per serving. This may cause weight gain if consumed regularly.”

“Another concern we have is Red Bull Energy Drink side effects. Some people have reported jitteriness, rapid heartbeat, insomnia, anxiety, nervousness, headache and nausea.”

-       Summer Banks(10-11-2016) ISSA Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist with a Diploma in Human Nutrition.

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In news and media texts you find a lot about energy drinks in general. The reviewers are not really positive about energy drinks. You also see this in our media analysis. When you look in the excel file you see a lot more negative articles instead of positive ones.

This also applies for Red Bull. When you go searching for reviews about the energy drink, they are mostly negative. The most articles tell you about the bad ingredients and side effects from Red Bull.

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Political-judicial
Red bull is sold in more than 167 countries in the world. In total there are 195 countries. So you can almost get Red Bull everywhere.

In 2004 the French food safety agency was concerned about the taurine in Red Bull drinks. After that a taurine free Red Bull drink was introduced. Even though the French food safety agency could not proof health risks because of taurine in Red Bull.

In 2011 The Canadian government decided to introduce rules to limit the amount of caffeine in energy drinks. And the health minister also wanted Red Bull and other energy drink companies to put clear labels with the ingredients on the cans.

In 2012 Kuwait banned Red Bull for people under 16 because it caused an heart attack  by 2 people from their national squash team.

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Socio-cultural
A lot of people drink red bull, from children to old people and from men to woman. Officially the target audience are males, between 18 & 29 years old. But of course not only young males drink Red Bull.

People in Austria drink the most Red Bull. Probably because Red bull was founded in Austria.  Austrian People we’re drinking 7,6 liters per capita. People in the UK & Ireland 6,3 liters, Switzerland 6 liters, the US 5,4 liters and Australia 5,3 liters in 2012.

Red bull likes to work together with people who play cool and extreme sports like snowboarding and formula 1 racing to make people think Red Bull is an awesome company and they want to let the consumers think it’s cool to drink Red Bull drinks. That’s probably why Red bull is the market leader when it comes to  energy drinks.

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Productivity: Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organisation.

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Profit: Maximize long-term return to shareholders while being mindful of our overall responsibilities

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Partners: Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value.

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Portfolio: Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage that anticipates and satisfies peoples desires and needs

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People: Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be

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The vision of Red Bull according to neha17tyagi, (2009) is split up in multiple points:

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Red Bull’s mission is: “to be the premier marketer and supplier Red Bull in Asia, Europe and other parts of the globe. We will achieve this mission by building long-term relationships with the people who can make it become a reality.” (neha17tyagi, 2009).