MKTG6002 Marketing Positioning Strategies Development

Critically evaluate the impact of the application of the marketing mix on consumer behaviour.

 

Explore the role of marketing in embedding principles of sustainability, ethics and social justice within an organisation.

Introduction

The marketing plan is a way to see the managing supply and production of products how the company is performing under that. The report is offered by taking into account the case study of business organization Red Bull in Australia. Red Bull is a carbonated drink that boosts up the mental and physical activity.  The marketing plan not only involves delivery of products and services to customers but also designs the products in such a manner, so that those are acceptable by the consumers and furthermore facilitate the transfer of ownership between the sellers and buyers. The marketing plan is an important step to concentrate on the product all day; it helps to improve the productivity of the company and shows how the plan will help in order to improve the growth of the company. It shows the complete plan in terms of which it will progress.

Background

Mateschitz founded Red Bull in 1984. It was first sold in the Australian market in 1987 as a Energy Drink. It reached its first foreign markets in Singapore and then in Hungary. By 2008 Red Bull produced its own cola, Red Bull Simply Cola (Bull, 2013). Unlike traditional colas, it created a market segment by using just 100% natural ingredients and now the product is available in 160 countries. Almost 4 billion cans of Red Bull are consumed each year.

Marketing Goals

• To develop a marketing plan in order to increase the social communication and see the sustainability of the company.
• To develop the knowledge in order to practice more effective marketing prospect increase the sale productivity
• To increase the high level of personal autonomy and accountability.
• To understand the threats and opportunities of the company so that it can be in a better position and will able to understand the outcomes of it.
• To understand that in order to introduce new products what kind of thing the market needs and based on those criteria it has to achieve its goals.
• To see the relevancy of the target.

Market Segmentation

Segmentation generally divides the population into groups according to certain characteristics, it basically choose their targets according to the specific groups as a result of segmentation to sell products. In order to understand the position of the market it is important to select the marketing mix with the most suitable target customer segments. Red Bull usually uses a mono-segment type of positioning and the company approaches to the needs and wants of a single customer segment. Red Bull is consumed by those customers who are into sports and are active in their professional and personal life. Segmentation is done on the basis of geographic, demographic, behavioral and psychographic level of the society (Candow et al., 2015).

Target Markets

The target market of Red Bull is mainly the young urban males ranging in age from 15 to 30 years old. They live on the edge and normally they have an average built. Red Bull males participate in competitive and extreme sports or any other kind of daring and frivolous activities. Red Bull usually defines the whole of these consumers as Generation Y as they are not only active makes but also active students who also need the energy drink to study all night. It also has a secondary target market for older consumers which have a range from 25 to 45 years old. A normal or patent Red Bull drinker is active and dynamic and most of them are males.

SWOT Analysis of Red Bull

Sales Objectives

In order to maintain the position as the main energy drinks and the main face of extreme sports all around the world, but however while increasing their reach in the U.S North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Ohio are covering in Red Bull in these states by 5% and increase brand awareness by 85% in these markets while preserving our national presence (McCole, 2014).

The exclusiveness of the Red Bull is that the company does not follow traditional media guidelines and this is the reason why it has chosen the untraditional platform. Red Bull’s target audience is very interested to this. However the target audiences of Red Bull are the people between the age of 18-35, who lead an active lifestyle and what to have a sense of belongingness in their community, but in a more traditional way.

Marketing Objectives and Strategies

The main marketing objective is to lunch localized events in order to attract youth from college campus and at sports events in North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio and Tennessee (Miller, 2013). They plan to distribute millions of cans across the U.S to be sold by retailers. Red Bull however should expand its original targeted group may not be as widely social; nevertheless they need to stay awake and concentrate for long hours on end studying. The ageing consumers from 25 to 45 who has in past moving, who were moving away from Red bull consumptions are also targeted by telling them that they can also benefit from the positive effects.

Marketing Mix on Consumer Behavior

“Red Bull Gives You Wings” is their tag line. Their Marketing Mix consists of public Relation promotions, advertising, non-tradition and sponsorships of athletes and events. (Hollensen, 2015) The use of this mix, they have attracted traditional media to cover the product without creating traditional ads. They plan to keep the price of Red Bull as it is now currently in the market, however they give away free cans during PR events. The social events are a cross country road trip in Red Bull’s Mini Coopers. The road trip will consist of 100 two-man teams that will be making stops at major colleges and universities across the U.S, including Berkley, Notre Dame and Yale. The company also continues to have heavy sponsorship of their 500+ athletes and at the summer and Winter X Games. The banners, mini events are their main tools during these sponsorships that are picked up by the local and national television and radio stations covering these athletes’ careers and sporting events.

There are various theories, models and approaches of analyzing a market, which is discussed under different perspective, but they have similar objectives. This very section may have a similar resemblance to the 3Cs approach or the 4Ps. The decision is taken while analyzing the foreign market and the result automatically falls through the marketing plan. It is very important for all the company who are seeking to do business in foreign countries should analyze properly. Company will have to design a proper development strategy, pertaining to its organizational goals and more important its resources for its existing capacity. Therefore various strategies are required in the business world. The marketing mix mainly deals with the analysis of brand which covers all the 4Ps i.e. the product, price, place and promotion.

Product

The main idea of Red Bull came from Krating Daeng a non-carbonated drink which was originally available in Thailand. The drink has similar ingredients to that but also there are other ingredients added that contains the taste of the western world and became carbonated as well. Therefore the product mix of Red Bull can defined as an energy drinks that contains caffeine, B vitamins, taurine, glucose and sucrose which are mainly used by athletes, workaholics as well as today’s youth who lies to party till late night. They also came up with the new idea that has become a trend today i.e. sugar free drink they also named it as Red Bull Sugar Free drink which has acesulfame k and aspartame instead of glucose and sucrose. This drink looks like a tall silver-blue can with 2 red bulls on the front. This product is popular in the whole world wide.

Place

The Red Bull drink has effectively managed to sell 5.9 billion cans worldwide just by distributing its network worldwide. This drink is available at suitable locations like local stores, supermarket, and retail outlets and even in casinos, night clubs and vars. Like this it becomes easy for the customer to buy the product as it comes in handy. The uniqueness of this particular drink is it is often seen preserved in their own personalized refrigerator that has their logo on it to attract customers. It is also available online either single or in a bulk as per customer need. Their main strategy to sell this drink at night clubs so that people can buy it and mix it with their drink to get some different flavor. (Shakhshir, 2014) In the supermarket they are placed with the other products which give the customer an option to buy according to their choice.

Price

Red Bull has a lot of competitors all around the world in the energy drink industry however they are still at the lead. Therefore it can be said that the strategy of pricing the product has proved to be justified. They price their cans on the basis of the competitors pricing scale but still they stick to see whether they are in the lead or not. They can easily charge a premium value for their product as they are on the top, this will make the customer buy the products even more because of their quality. Normally customers buy this drink in a bulk pack as that is cheaper than buying a single can. Even though many other energy drink has come in the market but still the value of the Red Bull will be at the first as it the first of its type and therefore it will always be the first choice for people. Its popularity will never decrease. So far they are the most expensive drink compared to their competitors such as Rockstar, Cloud 9, Gatorade, KS and Monster (Meier, 2013).

Promotion

This energy is mostly targeted by the sports people with the tag line “Red Bull gives you wings” owing to this they organize a lot of sports events to attract customers, they even sponsor sports teams as well. Biking, motocross, BMX, windsurfs. Skating, red Bull Foxhunt, Red Bull Cape Fear, Red Bull Startos, Red Bull BC One, Red Bull Battle grounds are some of the events that they sponsor. They also promote various celebrities and sports athletes. Beside this they also have a Red Bull House of Art in which they encourage different types if artists to display and show different types of art in a period if three months at their exhibition. They even have Red Bull TV, PCS, laptops, mobiles, table airing, gaming consoles and a variety of music festivals, films, shows and performance. They have their own merchandize online stores and magazines for the extreme sport lovers. By doing all these promotional activities they strategize to attract customers and they also make sure that they stay on their brain so that the brand can be recalled easily.  Thus this covers the entire marketing mix of Red Bull.

Competitive Analysis

Red Bull can be easily copied because the ingredients were printed on the can and the drink was not the usual. Though the taste of Red Bull did not go well in taste and tests, it was the marketing strategy that made Red Bull successful. After Red Bull became hit in the market, many other companies have tried to go with the energy drink. Red bull has almost 100 major competitors. Under this 100 major competitors of Red Bull’s direct competition but, there are other sectors as well, like soft drinks that have proven to be a vital. Pepsi, Gatorade and Coca-cola are the three major competitors of Red Bull (Singh, Kalafatis & Ledden, 2014).

Demand Analysis

The demand of the Red Bull increases every year and that is proven with its rapid growth. Red bull has spread its company not only throughout United States but all over the world. Looking at Red Bull’s Market share analysis, it is quite evident that Red Bull’s sales are expected to increase in every month.  

Porter Five Force Analysis

This analysis is very important to understand the rivalry among the existing competitors, suppliers, buyer, the entrants potential into the business and the threat of substitute products, these are the main five forces which can have both positive and negative effects on the company structure by making the industry less or more competitive.

Potential Entrants- Red Bull have produced an energy drink which is bubble less whereas other soft drink produces drinks with bubbles. The barriers of entry is very high, it is difficult for a potential competitors to enter the market. There are three main sources of barriers with the new entry i.e. the brand loyalty of red bull customers, the complete cost advantage in Red bull’s production line and the scales of economies enjoyed by Red bull.

Rivalry among existing firms in energy drinks industry- There are a lot of energy drinks brands and the way this industry is growing is quiet impressive.

Brand Loyalty- The Red Bull customers have become loyal to the brand. They attend events sponsored by the Red bull, and they respond to professional advertisement put by the company which is known for its quality among its customers. Brand loyalty is a barrier for all new entrants to enter the energy drink industry.

Advantage in Cost- Cost advantage is a huge barrier for companies to enter the market and industry as new entrants because it can be advantageous for the existing companies with the low cost structure.

Conclusion

This marketing plan gives a series of steps which shows the accomplishment of the research and Red Bull’s aim and objectives and how they have come so far. It gives a systematic approach. It outlines the marketing plans and shows how they have developed its marketing strategy in order to sustain in this competitive industry.

Review

I can say that the marketing plan has given a strategic idea to help the advertising and promotional plan. It will give a social idea that how people are feeling for the brand. I believe the outcome has to be positive as the marketing plan has given a thorough over view of segmentation, the targets of the company in order to achieve the goals it has also shown the segmentation of the market, and further given Ansoff Matrix which compared the existing market of Red Bull with the new market criteria that whether the company is going on the right direction or not. The marketing plan helps to see the various aspects of the company and the market that can both benefit the market. The analysis of the market for Red Bull is done with the help of marketing mix to see the effectiveness of the marketing strategy in business. Red Bull is using both kinds of techniques, it is selling its products as a retailer as well as wholesaler, and it is also trying to have the latest marketing methods, with technology and communication. According to my understanding the marketing plan has given a better understanding of the product and the company. This plan has given an exposure to the company and will help achieving the target goals. Any kind of plan is very necessary to progress without a plan every company is blind. I think this marketing plan has showed various aspects that might have gone unseen earlier, with the help of various analyses like, SWOT and competitive analyses it has helped to understand the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of the companies. The main purpose was to understand the positioning of the company. These strategies can prove to be successful if applied properly. The result or the outcome of this plan will be more growth of the company. Time and again marketing plan is required in order to understand the outcomes of the company. The marketing mix tools shows that how social events can publicize a brand even more. The analysis of the external and internal environments of an organization influence strategic choices and compare the marketing propositions of Red Bull is one of the most important and complicated of all communication decision. There is no doubt that Red Bull gas transformed to multinational company just by the product which revitalizes people’s body and mind. The international success of Red Bull has become the subject of interest for many researchers who are in the field of international marketing. The above current report shows that how the company has planned its growth and tried to achieve through all possible medium. The main advantage of this company is customer loyalty and the production costs. However the company is still threatened by the major business tycoons of the international market. Nevertheless the company is still enjoying its growth especially in its international market of energy drink. Various kinds of analysis has been done to show the outcomes of the product that how the product is doing in the market and how the strategies have been proven to be successful. It shows that the activities of Red Bull have become universal. The marketing plan which is mentioned above in this report, furthermore the marketing strategy has been introduced to show Red Bull’s outcome and further improving product consumption by developing the strategies and targeting various age and gender groups.

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