Red Bull's Integrated Marketing Communication - Case Study Example

Red Bull’s Integrated Marketing Communication: Integrated marketing communication (IMC) refers to the process by which various messages and the transmission tools (the media) are effectively organized and coordinated with the primary aim to deliver to and receive information from the market. An organization uses integrated marketing communication with a view to optimize her impact to the target consumers in the market while cutting on her expenditure. Integrated marketing communication brings together the four aspects of the marketing mix. The four are product, price, place and promotion. When put into an effective harmonious combination, these four elements go a long way in building the brand value for any given product. Thus IMC promotes the brand building process by improving a company’s customer relations which is attained through enhanced communications, (Kambarangwe, 2009). This paper will present and discuss the various ways in which Red Bull has applied the concept of integrated marketing communication in building her Brand (Red Bull Drink). But first, let’s examine and understand the background information regarding the integrated marketing communication concept. The advent of IMC was necessitated by the conviction by marketers that as far as brand marketing decisions were concerned, there was an existent conflict between public relations, publicity and sales. This caused inconsistency and inefficiency in resource combination and allocation in terms of time, money and other important production inputs. Another concern was the significant shift in the way people viewed the marketing concept. Unlike in the past when this was market leaning, marketing became more market determined. Initially, people identified more with advertising as a way of promotion than any other factor. This was because advertising was effective in communicating information to the mass audience. With time however, education has made consumers to have different preferences and choices have also changed significantly due to continuous market fragmentation. To this extend, the consumers no longer value advertising as before. Instead, consumers try to find information from any other sources which they feel are more relevant and informative to the particular brand. In other words, it became apparent that no one factor in the promotional mix is sufficient to apply in the market to deliver desired result in the contemporary dynamic market. Therefore, IMC became the new way of promotion implementation that sought to bring together personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations and advertising elements of the promotion basket in order to effectively manage and strategically deliver important sales information to the mass audiences. This intended to help companies build both brand relationship and synergy in the market, (McGoon, 2011). The ideal way for IMC management is to survey and understand then establish broad client databases classified on the basis of tastes and preferences, strengths and weaknesses, and awareness levels. A company can then implement most appropriate communication channels that would best suit the different categories so identified. In the next section, this paper briefly considers the individual elements of the promotional mix so that when they are discussed in the Red Bull application, they will be well understood (Doyle, 2008). To begin with, let’s consider advertising and its contribution to the product sales and marketing process. In advertising, information or message regarding a brand is communicated through the mass media and therefore it is less costly to reach large numbers as compared to what it would take if the process was conducted through personal selling. Except for internet, contribution of advertising can only be quantified in the long run after considering how awareness levels and people’s attitudes have changed. The most obvious shortcoming of advertising is that it can not tailor the communication to suit particular individuals like would be the case in personal selling, and it can not close a sale either. It is also an increasingly expensive venture. Television commercials are quite costly. Today, there is growing clutter in advertising. Advertising is done through; newspapers, television channels, radio, billboards, posters, brochures and stickers. As the English saying confirms, “too much of something is poisonous”. Consumers currently seem to be less interested with these advertisements which are allover the place. However, by using specifically designed images and impressions, advertising goes along way to build and sustain a company’s brand equity and is therefore an indispensable marketing tool, (Doyle, 2008). Direct marketing is another important aspect of the promotion kit. It entails engaging the customers in oral communications, by telephone contacts, and by mail among other direct communication channels. A significant strength of direct marketing is the ability to reach out to the specific target customers and therefore easy to manipulate the message to suit specific needs. This is important in strong relationship building and strong brand equity development. On the weaker side, direct marketing may fail especially if customers do not cooperate. Customers may be too busy for direct engagements and thus choose to be skeptical especially due to the competitive market where the competition is pursuing similar strategies. Consumers are also not easy to convince in today’s society full of fraud and deception that raise a lot of suspicion, (McGoon, 2011). A contemporary form of direct marketing known as database marketing involves a series of customer surveys from which a listing is made and updated from time to time primarily to keep informed of the changing consumer trends. This therefore serves to guide the companies to produce products and develop communication strategies that are most suitable for the market. This also helps to reduce time wastages and costs that would otherwise have incurred targeting non-potential or absent clients altogether. However, it is also expensive to build and sustain database marketing. The other way to promote is through Personal selling. In personal selling, the seller physically meets the prospective buyer, introduces the product and company and goes ahead to make effort to sale the product to the customer. The sales person holds an interpersonal talk with the client and can read the client’s reaction directly. This helps in message manipulation to suit the particular customer and one can be sure of the feedback, (Shimp, 2008). Sales promotion is the other way of marketing. This involves, both trade and consumer promotions. For instance, volume discounts and various types of allowances are trade based promotions. Sampling, rebates, coupons and premiums are examples of consumer based promotions which actually serve to persuade the consumer to try the product and therefore buy it. Another common way of marketing is the event marketing (also called sponsorship). It is actually a mix of advertising, public relations and sales promotion. It is very effective in relationship building. Closely related to this is Exhibits (trade shows) which create opportunity for businesses to meet potential clients and introduce to them both new and existent products. When such exhibits are captured through media, companies gain significant advantage derived from the visibility, (McGoon, 2011). Lastly, let’s consider the value of internet marketing in the promotion kit. The advent of internet as a means of communication was subsequently converted by marketers into a marketing means and today’s international community virtually buys and sells goods and services over the internet. For instance, if you politicians can be looked at as products, it is evident that politicians have set up web sites to help market themselves and their political agendas to the public. Businesses too have resorted to websites to pass message regarding their products to important audiences, (Stacks, 2010). Having briefly considered elements of marketing communication in the foregoing section, this section embarks on the discussion of how Red Bull has made use of the IMC concept in building brand equity. Founded in Austria by Dietrich Mateschitz in 1985, Red Bull was availed in a symbolic silver and blue 250ml (8.3 oz) can- a single stock keeping unit (SKU) which did not even benefit from the traditional advertising. Red Bull was then marketed and sold in Austria alone for 5 years before expanding to other countries in Europe. Right from the beginning, the expansion strategy had been intended to be slow but accurate so that Red Bull could optimize buzz and generate eagerness (Doyle, 2008). Red Bull was made with a strong and sweet flavor, a factor which aimed at convincing the consumer that Red Bull was not same as the ordinary refreshment. The symbolic package was meant to convey message that Red Bull had stronger contents than the other soft drinks. The benefits of the Red Bull drink could clearly be sported fro the “Energy Drink” positioned beneath the logo on the can. The Brand positioning was devised very carefully to communicate the intended message using the phrase “Revitalizes body and mind”. Red Bull’s broad positioning was aimed to encourage consumption of the product anywhere, anytime. It is because of this reason that early users of the product comprised mainly of clubbers who attended late-night parties as they used Red Bull to help them keep fresh. Long distance truck drivers also adopted Red Bull to help them stay awake (TCRB.com, 2011). After Red Bull was launched, empty cans were placed on shelves in bars and clubs to create fame across Australia. The company deployed a “seeding program” going for “inn” outlets with an aim to generate a word of mouth communication flow from cultural elite to down-line consumers. Later, the company reached out to opinion leaders who were expected to have significant influence to other consumers in the market. This was done by availing the product in sports competitions and in parties too. The initial stages saw a limited supply of Red Bull hence word of mouth was the major tool for awareness creations. Red Bull however was later placed in supermarkets hence was able to reach the mass-market (TCRB.com, 2011). The company made efforts to create awareness for Red Bull in new markets through “pre-marketing efforts”. These comprised of events sponsorships within the country and exporting television productions of the product to nations where Red Bull was still absent. The aim was to have these activities serve as Red Bull brand ambassadors in those markets where the product was still absent. The logic was that if a citizen of nation A is a Red Bull sponsored athlete taking part in a television covered Red Bull contest, it would interest country A’s TV stations to broadcast the event hence message about Red Bull will be passed on to country A’s citizens countrywide. The fact that Red Bull is involved with the country’s citizen would persuade the masses in the country to identify with the brand, (Slideshare, 2011). An important aspect of marketing communication is identification of the target audience. Red Bull decided not to specify any for of market segment as its target. The aim was to remain open to a wide market and have a large consumer base. The only two broad categories which Red Bull directly targeted were; the “mentally fatigued” and the “physically fatigued”. Obviously, anyone would fall in either one or both of these categories. Apart from event marketing, Red Bull also made use of other marketing schemes such as sampling, promotions at points of sale, print and radio publicity. A good example of an advertising communication on Red Bull was one in which Dracula was advised by a dentist that his teeth would have to be removed. Subsequently, Dracula complained that he would not be able to drink blood without his teeth, and in the absence of fresh blood, his body would wither and his minds would fade. The dentist then told the Dracula that he needed one revitalizing Red Bull to make him prince of the night once more. Next appeared a shot on the screen phrased “Red Bull energy Drink. Vitalizes Body and Mind”. Sampling the drink, the dentist told Dracula that “You know, Red Bull gives you wings”. Then the dentist grew wings and flew away. This advertisement effectively passed the intended message because the brand positioning message “Red Bull vitalizes body and mind” had been put into practice, (TCRB.com, 2011). Red Bull Company established a sampling arrangement in which sampling teams were dispatched to different places armed with the Red Bull cans for sampling and branded vehicles to communicate the brand to the people. The campaigns targeted entertainment and competition avenues. College students were part of the sampling teams and were labeled as “Red Bull Student Brand Managers”. Red Bull also made use of event marketing where the company could create the event and take charge of every phase of it ranging from name and logo to promotion and media production. An example of such events is the “Red Bull soapbox race” (TCRB.com, 2011). In summary, the Red Bull IMC comprises mainly of personal selling, advertising and public relations elements of the promotional mix which are used with a major purpose of creating a comprehensive and rich cross media campaign. Red Bull’s promotional mix is based on the pull strategy in which the focus is on demand creation which subsequently necessitates distribution. What this implies is that marketing and advertising does the sales work such that the orders are submitted by the retailers prior to sales representative visiting the customers, (Slideshare, 2011). References: Cliff McGoon "Cutting-edge companies use integrated marketing communication". Communication World. FindArticles.com. 11 Mar, 2011. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_1_16/ai_53527379/ Doyle P. 2008. Value-based marketing: marketing strategies for corporate growth and shareholder value, San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons. Kambarangwe F.M. 2009. What Business Leaders Should Know but They Don't, Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing. Shimp T.A. 2008. Advertising Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, Mason: Cengage Learning. Slideshare. Red Bull Energy Drink. Retrieved on 11/3/2011, http://www.slideshare.net/neha17tyagi/redbull-energy-drink Stacks D, & Michaelson D. 2010. A Practioner's Guide to Public Relations Research, Measurement and Evaluation, New York: Momentum Press. TCRB.com. Red Bull marketing strategy, Retrieved on 11/3/2011, http://www.trcb.com/business/marketing/redbull-marketing-strategy-7375.htm http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_rhD3W_qenPE/TM2yGrv1o-I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/AWk_3m9_0T0/S250/rb+samples.jpg APPENDIX: Source: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/red_bull_puzzle Source: http://redbullbeverage.blogspot.com/ Source: http://redbullbeverage.blogspot.com/ Source: http://redbullbeverage.blogspot.com/ Source: http://redbullbeverage.blogspot.com/ http://redbullbeverage.blogspot.com/ Source: http://redbullbeverage.blogspot.com/ Red Bull Open Ice 2011: The Final Source: http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Red-Bull.com/Video/011242745950125 Downhill for the Masses Source: http://www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/Red-Bull.com/Video/011242745950125 Read More