2. Red Bull
Red Bull is an Austrian brand of energy drinks that are
marketed and sold worldwide by their parent company, Red
Bull GmbH. It is the most popular and bestselling energy drink
brand in the world, selling over 5 billion cans in 2013.
Red Bull uses a simple yet very effective colour and style, with
just three core colours. Their logo is a combination of red and
yellow and usually on a blue background, making it very
visually distinctive as these colours work extremely well
together. These colours, while common, are also present in
Thailand’s national flag, which is where the idea of Red Bull
originated. What sets Red Bull apart from most other energy
drink brands is that their marketing and style isn’t overly
aggressive or dominating, instead being more focused on a
bold, stylized appearance that promotes power and victory.
This can be seen with their distinctive charging bull logo. They
are not stationary but instead are charging at each other
head-on, which can be seen as a show of strength and
determination. The fact that Red Bull uses a core palette of
colours on all of its brands and advertising as well as a simple
yet effective logo ensures that they are instantly recognizable
to the general public.
3. Primarily Red Bull is sold upon reward power, which is linked directly to their slogan ‘Gives you
wings’ This can be interpreted that Red Bull is a drink that can make you powerful enough to
make you fly, or give the illusion of flying. It can also be interpreted as meaning to fly past the
competition and emerge as the winner. Their adverts support this by featuring dozens of different
sports all labeled with their logo. It shows us that Red Bull can help us succeed in any sport
imaginable like motorsports to surfing to dance. This helps increase its audience to a wide range
of athletes and sportsmen to the point where there are literally hundreds of different sporting
events on show where Red Bull branding can be spotted.
Star power also comes into play with Red Bull as they have used a great deal of famous athletes
and players from around the world in their advertising and endorsing. The use of celebrities
inspires people to buy Red Bull as they themselves want to be on the same level as these famous
people and they have the idea that drinking Red Bull will help them achieve what these people
can.
4. Red Bull’s primary audience is young men, particularly those interested in sports. The drink is
primarily marketed with Red Bull’s extensive array of extreme sport sponsorship, including
motorsport, water sports and athletics, even extending towards space endeavors (Felix
Baumgartner’s jump from the stratosphere in 2012) This promotes their brand images as being a
drink associated with power, determination and victory thanks to their involvement in a countless
amount of sports events. Red Bull’s website is notable for containing a lot more information
about their sports events and news rather than the actual drink, which can be found in a small
tab at the top while the rest of the page is devoted to Red Bull’s sponsorship. The website uses
Red Bull’s blue and red colour scheme throughout which gives the brand a very smart and
uniform styling, which would appeal more to young adults and older as opposed to young people
such as teenagers. Red Bull, to a lesser extent, also markets towards students and college aged
people as a drink that helps them stay focused during studying.
Currently there are three main Red Bull flavors: Original, Sugarfree and Zero Calories. The latter
two were created to appeal to a crowd that doesn’t want/need a massive boost but would still
want to enjoy the Red Bull taste. They were also created with a campaign that claimed that they
would provide the energy for ‘studying, gaming and socializing’ which appeals to a more casual
crowd as opposed to the sportsmen and people in demanding jobs that Red Bull targets with the
original flavor.
5. Relentless
Relentless is a brand of energy drinks that is owned and
produced by the Coca Cola Company. It is one of the most
popular brands of energy drink in the UK alongside Red Bull
and Monster.
Unlike Red Bull, Relentless has a very defined style that is
primarily aimed at a younger, ‘hip’ audience who follow
common 21st century trends. This is highlighted in the
design of their logo and packaging. The logo of Relentless is
very stylized and distressed with lots of warped lines and
curved motifs, giving it the appearance of a band logo (tying
into Relentless’ music based campaign) or street art
(catering to the teenage and young adult audience) It is
quite aggressive and powerful looking with lots of intricate
details, which would entice younger people for its unique
design. Previously before a packaging change, Relentless
reinforced a very artistically styled approach with the
intricate logo and the inclusion of several poetic quotes on
the cans. They also currently feature detailed drawings of
Greek gods and folklore on their cans. This is further
cemented by one of their slogans, ‘Suffer for your art’ All of
this combined implies that Relentless is aiming towards a
specific group of modern teenagers, particularly artistic and
creative thinking individuals.
6. The colours used on the original flavor can are several
shades of brown which symbolize that the drink is a little
darker and more underground than more blatant brands
such as Red Bull.
The colour brown gives the feeling of something dark and
deep like a music gig or festival, something that Relentless
commonly organizes. This is further evidence of the younger
market that Relentless aims for as many adult wouldn’t want
to attend a gig primarily due to some of the chosen acts, of
which most are teenage idols or current trends. This ties
heavily into the design of the drink’s website, which is
arranged almost like a band’s personal website with links to
events, gigs and festivals (organized by Relentless) and also
features a heavy emphasis on promoting these with the
news section on the main page. There are only a few articles
dedicated to the drink itself and the majority are dedicated
to music news and updates.
A typical Relentless can is 500ml cans which towers over
normal sized drinks cans, and other energy drinks such as
Red Bull. This possibly highlights a target audience of males
as larger portions are often associated with masculinity.
Further cementing this is the inclusion of a stylized diagram
of the muscles around the head and shoulders. This ties into
the other slogan Relentless uses, ‘No Half Measures’ which
implies that consumers will be getting the full dose with a
can of Relentless. It is also a jibe at the size of their
competitor’s cans (mainly Red Bull)
7. Monster
Monster is a brand of energy drinks
originating from the US. It is one of the
bigger energy drink brands and one of
the most recognizable with its distinctive
black and green livery.
Monster’s primary style is defined as
extreme and overboard, being marketed
towards those who needs the biggest
amount of energy for hardcore sports
and activities. Monster appeals to this
audience with their aggressively styled
font and logo, which takes the form of an
‘M’ that has been made with claw marks,
hence the name. The font used for the
logo is rough and twisted as opposed to
being clear and refined, which shows
that they are aiming for those on a
wilder side as opposed to more chilled-out
consumers. It could also be
interpreted as aiming for a more ‘primal’
style, which ties into their name and
what they sponsor.
As well as this, Monster Energy directs
most of their advertising campaign
around sponsorship of extreme sports and
events, such as motocross, motorsport,
skateboard, biking and eSports. This ties
into their extreme energy aspect of their
campaign and they also use several
celebrities to promote their drink. They
are usually well known athletes, drivers or
cyclists, and music acts.
8. Monster Energy directs most of their
advertising campaign around sponsorship
of extreme sports and events, such as
motocross, motorsport, skateboard,
biking and eSports. This ties into their
extreme energy aspect of their campaign
and they also use several celebrities to
promote their drink as the use of these
encourages consumers to act like their
idols and consume similar beverages. The
target audience of Monster is generally a
male crowd of teenagers to young adults,
which can be mainly evidenced from the
inclusion of their ‘Monster Girls’ section
on their website, which stars many
Monster-sponsored female fashion
models. The heavy emphasis on the
various car and bike related sports also
cements this, being two male-centric
hobbies.
9. Monster also organizes music events and sponsors several music acts like Asking
Alexandria, The Word Alive and Shinedown, as well as several metal bands such as Korn
and Disturbed. These are all bands that play music that is typically listened to by
teenagers and not older people. It also reflects the current tastes of teenagers around
the world with their constant usage of modern looking, distressed styling and their use of
language, describing their drink as ‘awesome’ or ‘killer’ This is language that is more
suited to a younger, wilder crowd as opposed to a more relaxed appeal. The use of their
sole two brand colours, black and green, ensures that their product is extremely
noticeable on shelves when browsing. The colours can also be interpreted as a green
neon light in darkness, tying in to their organizing of club events and festivals. This also
ties back to their younger audience as they are the most common audience in such
events.
10. SoBe Pure Rush
Pure Rush is a a naturally sourced energy
drink produced by SoBe, a company owned
by Pepsi that produces a range of flavored
waters and soft drinks. Unlike many other
existing energy drinks and their respective
styles, Pure Rush is marketed as a more
organic and natural drink, featuring lighter
and more rounded packaging as well as a
target audience of both males and females,
particularly young adults. This is due to the
lack of aggressive and ‘primal’ packaging that
has been present on other brands such as
Relentless and Monster, and such styling has
been replaced with lots of natural colours
that symbolize plant life and fruit, such as
reds and greens. This implies that Pure Rush
is a much more fruity drink and healthier to
consumer compared to the aforementioned
competitors.
11. Pure Rush also doesn’t feature any
language that could be considered to be
aimed at a young adolescent male
audience, particularly slang. It uses a lot
of large descriptive words for the taste,
such as ‘deliciously’ and ‘invigorating’
which implies that they are more aiming
for a female audience, who are usually
more enticed when a product is
described using such terms to tempt
them.
The packaging of Pure Rush also
includes SoBe’s distinctive curved lizards
logo which further adds to the drink’s
natural approach. The inclusion of this
helps to differentiate the brand from
the more aggressively marketed drinks
when included with the plain white
background, which helps to distinguish
lighter and widely marketed drinks from
drinks such as Monster and Rockstar.
Currently there are two varieties of Pure
Rush: Appleberry Burst and Tropical
Twist. Both of these use language that is
more chilled out and relaxed in
comparison to their competitor’s name
choices (Monster uses such names as
Khaos or Ripper for its flavours.)
The font used for the logo is a smooth and modernized
typeface with no distress or wear, giving the can a clean
and modern appearance. This contrasts heavily with
Monster’s use of a crooked and wild font for it’s own
logo to fit in with its nature of extreme sports and
events. SoBe’s own advertising revolves around the fact
that there isn’t enough time to do the things you like,
but Pure Rush can give you the boost you need to get
the most out of it.
