How RedBull sold 10 billion cans in 2021 🤯 🤯
Thinking red bull when thinking energy drink? You are not alone!
Welcome to the 64th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,400+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
Soft drinks as a category was owned by Pepsi & Coca Cola since 1900s. So why launch another drink in a brutally competitive market? Here’s how Red Bull challenged the soft drink ecosystem & created a category of its own.
Quick back story 🗓
Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull’s founder, chanced upon a crazy drink that fixed his jet lag. The drink was “Krating Daeng”. Mateschitz found his way back to the founder of this drink & launched a brand new drink- Red Bull GmbH in 1984.
Fast forward 2021
Red Bull is in the top 5 most consumed drinks in the world.
Few things before we begin.
Today we have covered more than 100 stories so far at Growth Shorts. Going from zero to 25,000+ active readers of this newsletter in under 9 months. I just want to say thank you for helping us get where we are. Really, I mean it, fam.
Let’s get to the redbull story.
The humble beginnings 🪴
The original drink (Krating Daeng) was primarily designed to keep sleep at bay. The immediate market they were serving was blue collar workers such as truckers, farmers, and construction workers. A match made in heaven.
The immediate market had a problem. The blue collar segment had little appetite to pay for the drink & was very local in the Southeast Asian market. This had to change for Red Bull to become a global brand.
The pivot in strategy ✨
Dietrich Mateschitz created launched another brand called Redbull. This brand was priced a premium price point, was targeting exceeding human capability than just keeping sleep at bay and focused on adventure & productivity.
Classic case of pricing the product based on the outcome your product can drive for the customer. This fundamentally changed the marketing narrative.
Interestingly, the original drink “Krating Daeng“ is still sold in the blue collar audience as is to this date, attacking both blue collar and premium customer segments.
The next step - marketing pitch 🪂 ⛷ 🏎
This is where the product differentiates from its substitute “soft drink” category. Take a moment and understand why a Rolex costs a fortune while a random brand watch which shows the same time on the clock costs 1000 times cheaper?
It’s the association marketing.
Redbull pulls all these tricks from its kitty. Be it branding the biggest skydive, Dolomitenmann running or owning the Formula 1 team.
It’s borrowing status / perceived value / trust from other brands.
The whole narrative of selling outcomes with the drink builds the perception that drinking Red bull makes you the kind of person who will be most productive or adventurous or (insert) larger than life goal.
Another jab - discovery 🥊
Red Bull follows a simple framework that we practice at GrowthX too. Always ask yourself, - Where does your customer spends time & money? For Red Bull it’s the high intensity locations - pubs / adventure sports / hackathons & stuff like it.
The discovery doesn’t end at typically high intensity points but also at places where you would have a lot of red ocean. for example, you will always see the Red Bull small refrigerator at every medium to large store.
The final punch - delivering on promise 🎯
Go & buy a Red Bull and try it yourself. You will feel the higher rush Red Bull keeps talking about. Now, it’s another thing that the rush over a long period of time can really damage your sleep cycles and more. But, even in that case, Red Bull drink delivers.
The trigger point of productivity / adventure has helped Red Bull maintain the repeat purchase behaviour, especially with the millennial segment who wants to exceed their productivity. Perfect scaled product market fit.
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