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. 

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. 

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.  

 

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

 

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.

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.  

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.  

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.

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.   

 

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.