RED BULL vs. MONSTER
Brand Audit on the two famous energy drinks
VON KUNDE'S BRAND RELIGION MODEL
RED BULL VS MONSTER
The brand religion model gives an idea about the positioning of a brand in terms of the involvement with its consumers and the values it embodies. Each brand is attempting to achieve the position of a brand religion, which means that the brand has reached the ultimate status of involvement and very strong values. Those brands enjoy very high consumer loyalty and their consumers do identify themselves with the brand.
For us Red Bull is a clear brand religion. The level of involvement is enormous. Red Bull is not only a product, it is a lifestyle, a way of thinking and inspiration for the consumers. The brand stands for all the sponsored events and it embodies values as success, creativity and loyalt
In comparison to Red Bull, the brand Monster is not a brand religion. They are reaching out to get there but their community is not solid enough yet. They do a lot of actions and events to increase the involvement and to deliver their values. As Monster is definitly more than just a product or a concept brand, we have positioned it between corporate concept and brand culture. It has already first elements of an own brand culture with its supporters, but it has not established enough values yet. We have to follow the development of Monster and we will probably see it moving towards a brand religion soon.
by Theresa
THE BRAND MANTRA
The image below show the three different stages of the brand mantra for Red Bull & Monster. The emotional modifier, the descriptive modifier and the brand functions. The brand mantra is mainly designed for the employees of the brands on a first steps. It is used for the internal communication and helps the employees to identify themselves with the brand, which enables them in the next step to communicate their own brand and values outside the company.
Sources
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Kevin Lane Keller on Red Bull: http://www.emscom.usi.ch/sites/www.emscom.usi.ch/files/media/event-keller-presentation-12.4.2011.pdf
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Lautenslager. (2014): Market like you mean it. Engage customers, create brand believers, and gain fans for everything you sell.
by Theresa
3. Conclusion
Considering the outcomes from this questionnaire, we assume that Red Bull is the clear favorite energy drink for the majority of the consumers. We have stated this with the facts
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Red Bull generates more positive feelings than Monster
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It has more positive associations and the associations are in line with Red Bulls brand image and reputation, whereas Monster has no clear associations and they tend to be more negative
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Red Bull is more well-known than Monster
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Red Bull has a better taste and this is the most important criteria for the consumers
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Red Bull is in the top of mind for energy drink brands and has a greater brand awareness
To be fair we have to add here, that only one of the respondents answered that he or she consumes Monster energy drinks. Obviously we did not reach the target group with our questionnaire and therefore the results tend to be more in favor for Red Bull than a representative survey might show.
by Theresa
(Article, Analysis, Pictures, Conclusions, etc.)
- questionnaire: Theresa, Julia, Gladys
- google form: Gladys
In the last question we asked about the preferences of energy drinks, which criteria is the most important when buying energy drinks. The most important fact is the taste. This criteria has been mentioned by 41 %. It is followed by the price (19 %) and the brand reputation as well as the ingredients with 13 %. The less important fact is the packaging and advertising.
Link to our taste testing experiment
As we have seen here, the taste is very important for the consumers. We have done a taste testing at school to find out if people are able to recognize the drinks by tasting them without knowing the brand. And according to the last question, we could see that people even prefer Red Bull, when Monster is written on it. Red Bull is the clear winner of taste. (See more details on the article above: Taste Testing Experiment)
In question 12 and 13 we asked the respondents about their feelings towards the brands Red Bull and Monster.
54 % talk positive about Red Bull, they like it (44 %) and even love it (10 %). About one fifth of the answers are negative, they don’t like Red Bull.
For Monster, one third does not like the drink and only 10 % feels positive about Monster, 1 person loves it. The majority (59 %) simple does not care about the drink.
These questions also highlight the better standing of Red Bull compared to Monster.
As we have already seen in the question before, people are not that sure what to associate with Monster. The Answers show very close distribution of the percentages, simple the association with partying is higher. We can also see here that Monster has more negative aspects than Red Bull.
Regarding the four questions above, Red Bull has a stronger and better defined image and positioning. Consumers know what to expect from the brand and they are very good in categorizing it. For Monster the answers are very unclear and tend to be negative. Therefore we can assume that the brand image of Monster is not that well established among the consumers yet.
The outcome of this question shows, that people have more difficulties to name associations for Monster than for Red Bull. People answered “don’t know” or “nothing”, which means that the brand image of Monster is not that well distributed among the respondents.
Many people know that Monster is an energy drink and they remember the green logo. Overall it can be said that the associations are more negative e.g. bad taste, danger, images for negative persons.
Question 9 goes in the same direction as the question before. As people have made up their own ideas before given them examples in question 8, it shows that they know very well Red Bull. This question emphasizes it know. Red Bull is mainly related with extreme sports and partying, and therefore also with young people. This reflects the marketing strategies and campaigns of Red Bull and also the target group of the drink, which is mainly focused on young adults and sports athletes.
The answers for health problems and danger show that Red Bull as an energy drink always has to be aware of the fact, that it can be easily related with negative attitudes.
In question 10 we asked “What comes first to your mind when you hear Monster?” It shall show us what people associate with Monster, without giving them any ideas about the brand. (This will be asked in the next question).
The answers show that the image Red Bull is communicating is well reflected by the consumers, they mention (extreme) sports and the slogan “gives you wings”. It is well known as an energy drink. The overall associations are positive and fit with the brand Red Bull.
9 people answer Vodka, which shows that Red Bull is associated with partying, where the drinks is very present and does a lot of advertising.
As we could have already guessed from question 6, Red Bull is the brand which is consumed most with 63 %. Nobody is consuming Burn and only one of the respondents is drinking Monster. There are many other drinks which are consumed, e.g. retail brands or other products associated as energy drinks, like tea or coffee.
In question 8 we asked “What comes first to your mind when you hear Red Bull?” It shall show us what people associate with Red Bull, without giving them any ideas about the brand. (This will be asked in the next question).
Red Bull is the clear winner in terms of “top of mind”. 67 % have mentioned Red Bull as the first brand, followed by Monster 10 %.
Red Bull has also been mentioned the most in all answers (first, second or third mentioned) with 83 %, followed by Monster with 63 % and Burn with 43 %.
Red Bull has also been mentioned alone, without any other brands.
It is also interesting to see, that 32 % of the people who repeated the three brands shown in the logos at the beginning, used the order “Red Bull, Monster, Burn” even Red Bull was not shown as the first logo. The people created their own ranking of the brands without knowing it probably.
The top of mind question has shown us that Red Bull is better positioned in the mind of the consumer than Monster.
In question 5 we wanted to find out why people consume energy drinks. As there are many respondents who do not energy drinks, we focus on the answers from people drinking them. The most mentioned answer is, that people consume energy drinks to feel awake in general without a specific activity in mind. Some also answered that they do not have a particular reason, they just do it. The answer is followed by the reason to be focused while studying. The less mentioned responses are to get hyper and social, and to get pushed for sports.
In question 6 we asked “What kind of energy drinks do you know?” This question was to find out what is in the top of the mind of the respondents. We can assume that the brand they mention first, is the brand they know the best and probably like the most as well.
As we have shown them three brands of energy drinks before with the images (in case they have recognized it), they might be already biased. With the ranking of the three energy drinks, we can still see which of those drinks is still in the top of mind.
TIn question 4 we asked if the people drink energy brands in general. The majority, 56 % do not drink energy drinks. The people did not know that the survey is about energy drinks, therefore the brand recognition can be evaluated even better and additionally the majority does not consume energy drinks, but they are still aware of the different brands.
In question 1, 2 and 3 we have shown the brand logos and asked what comes in your mind when you see that logo. The results for Monster and Red Bull were really good. Almost everybody (97 %) recognized Red Bull and 90 % know the brand logo of Monster. Burn is less recognized with 62 % and relatively high amount who don’t know the logo at all (14 %) and every fourth answer mentioned another brand, like gas stations, lighter and even Red Bull.
To compare Monster and Red Bull, the brand awareness of Red Bull is slightly higher than the brand awareness for Monster, but they have both excellent results.
2. The results
The questionnaire was only for about three weeks and we have shared it on social networks. 63 persons have responded to our survey. You can see the results for each answer below.
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THE SURVEY
We have conducted an online questionnaire among potential consumers of energy drinks to find out their preferences, their consumer behaviors and their perception of the different brands.
1. The questionnaire
In the gallery below you can see the questions we have asked during our survey. Please use the navigation buttons on the right/left side to show all questions.
EXPERIMENT: TASTE TESTING
We have done an experiment at SKEMA campus in Paris to find out how the people perceive the taste of the energy drinks Monster and Red Bull.
We have done two different scenarios to test the consumers.
Scenario 1:
The test person had to test three different energy drinks, served in plain cups, in order to find out which drink is in which cup. We offered Monster, Red Bull and Burn.
Results
The results were really clear, most test persons were able to identify the right drinks.
Afterwards we asked which drink they prefer and the answer was clear: Burn.
Scenario 2:
We have prepared cups with the names of the energy drinks Monster and Red Bull on it, but we put Monster into the cup where Red Bull was written on it and the other way round. The test person had to try the both and we asked afterwards which drink they prefer. We have done this in order to find out if the test persons will follow the taste or the brand written on the cup.
Results
The test persons mainly answered Monster - which means they prefer the test of Red Bul.
This experiment has shown us, that even if Red Bull has a strong brand image, it is not only the brand which makes them a leader in the energy drink sector. They also convince with their taste as they have been chosen as the better tasting energy drink without knowing that it is Red Bull.
You can see below the responses and reactions of our test persons and a video summary of our experiment. Have fun watching it!
by Theresa
Article & Summary of responses: Theresa
Experiment: All team members
Video Cut: Guillaume
Competition
Points of Parity and Points of Differences
As the market is obviously not the same depending on the country you study, we decided to compare some of the attributes between most important brands in France & in the USA. As Redbull and Monster dominate both markets, Burn seems to be the 3rd wheel in France whereas Rockstar is in US.
The tab underneath made us able to disclose points of parity (POP) and points of differences between Monster & Redbull.
By Guillaume.
Sources:
http://energydrinks.factexpert.com/882-energy-drink-industry.php
http://www.preceden.com/timelines/66113-the-history-of-energy-drinks
http://www.beverageworld.com/articles/full/16850/energy-drink-reboot
http://www.zenithinternational.com/articles/1012
http://www.planetoscope.com/boisson/1527-consommation-de-boissons-energisantes-en-france.html
http://www.researchbeam.com/global-energy-drink-2014-2018-market
http://www.notre-planete.info/actualites/3813-Red-Bull-danger-sante
http://fr.slideshare.net/CreativeDunning/red-bull-marketing-campaign
