RED BULL vs. MONSTER
Brand Audit on the two famous energy drinks
Take a look at the positioning of Monster.
Can you see how it differentiates itself from RedBull?
By Gladys
Now, check out the 5 levels of meaning of Monster products
By Gladys
As previously evoked, it eventually occurred to Sacks & Schlosberg that Hansen’s image was not much adapted to the selling of an energy drink like the one they introduced. The fact of having a very clean, all-natural, “good-for-you” reputation for their product was obviously very positive but ironically, not for this segment and its associated core target.
Within the rebranding of Hansen Natural for Monster Beverage Corporation, the Monster Energy, which is the core product sold by the company started to develop a new brand image in order to dissociate clearly from the “good-for-you” image of Hansen Natural. The brand personality, reflection and values are now completely different as it used to be within Hansen. They “unleashed the beast” since that time and now they advocate a very particular style which tends to be clearly represented by their website’s presentation:
“Most companies spend their money on ad agencies, TV commercials, radio spots, and billboards to tell you how good their products are. At Monster we choose none of the above. Instead, we support the scene, our bands, our athletes and our fans. We back athletes so they can make a career out of their passion. We promote concert tours, so our favorite bands can visit your home town. We celebrate with our fans and riders by throwing parties and making the coolest events we can think of a reality.
At Monster we are all about the things you care about. What kid dreams about landing a 9 to 5 job? We all dreamed about being pro athletes, musicians and living the life. We know it takes encouragement and support to make that dream a reality, so we created the Monster Army to back the next generation pros, the future Ricky Carmichael, Jeremy McGrath, Dave Mirra, Danny Kass and Rob Dyrdek’s.
Some companies won’t let you have any gear unless you’re on the payroll. We’re all about our fans rockin’ the Monster logo the way they want - on hats, shirts, MX bikes, trucks, gear, or even on themselves. Our idea of a promotion isn’t giving away a TV you already got. Our promos offer exclusive VIP access, insane trips hanging with top musicians, athletes, and real gear like dirt bikes, snowboards, BMX bikes, rims and helmets.
In short, at Monster all our guys walk the walk in action sports, punk rock music, partying, hangin’ with the girls, and living life on the edge. Monster is way more than an energy drink. Led by our athletes, musicians, employees, distributors and fans, Monster is...
A lifestyle in a can.”
As we can observe, they put forward the fact of not trying to “play with the customer’s mind” through marketing strategies implemented by marketing agencies. Instead, they prefer talking about who they really are and what they stand for. You can also find this kind of feeling by looking at their advertising campaigns (videos, social networks, billboards, posters…): you can see girls, extreme sports, a strong message or all three.
There is also some kind of a mystery around the brand identity of Monster Energy. As a matter of fact, it has been brought up by several people over the past few years that the brand was in fact secretly promoting a satanic purpose.
This theory finds its basis in the packaging of Monster’s products and especially in the logo of the brand. For some, the logo of Monster has been put together in this way in order to promote the Beast through its mark 666. When you look at the can, there’s no sign of 666. But it appears that the big green M is composed by three lines which are very similar to the “vav letters” in the Hebraic alphabet. The big green M would then stand for a big green 666, which is the mark of the beast.
In a viral video which came out few days ago, a woman who believes in this theory talks also about the iconic slogan “Unleash the beast!” which would confirm this theory and also about the “o” of monster which would look like a reversed crucifix when you drink the can. This reversed crucifix would also be a mark of Satan.
In the end, if this was completely involuntary from Monster’s marketing managers, this seems to be a very weird coincidence that can be actually positive for the brand since it would develop a mystery which surrounds the brand and make people talk and wonder about it. If this was made on purpose, this appears to be very clever since it’ll participate to develop the brand image by spreading a mystery around it. The appropriate response from Monster should be to remain silent in order to maintain that mystery.
Check out Monster’s youtube channel by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/monsterenergy
By Guillaume
Sources:
http://beginningandend.com/monster-energy-drink-secretly-promoting-666-mark-beast/
http://thenameismelissa.blogspot.fr/2011/09/brief-history-of-monster-energy.html
http://fortune.com/2012/11/05/how-hansens-natural-created-a-monster/
http://www.monsterenergy.com/fr/fr/home/#!/pages%3Aabout
By Gladys
Monster's touch points
Does Monster’s packaging match with its branding strategy?
The packaging covers three functions: containing, informing and aesthetics.
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Containing
This is the rational function. A packaging contains and protects the product that is inside. Thus it has an incidence on the use, the protection, the conservation, the transport and the storage of a product.
Monster’s cans are made of aluminum whose unique properties make it ideal for holding carbonated beverages. Monster’s aluminum cans weigh less than half an ounce. Aluminum's shiny finish also makes it an attractive background for decorative printing, important point for Monster that tries to attract the attention of consumers in a competitive market.
Regarding the shape of the can, it is less thin and less light than Red Bull.
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Informing
It’s the legal and the key information the customer needs to know.
On the back of the can, every ingredient is mentioned and
the energetic property is deeply detailed. This is particularly important
for the rational consumers, specifically the ones who care about their health.
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Aesthetics
That is essential to work the visual aspects of the packaging to generate
emotions. We can see that Monster really worked the design to make the
packaging unique and hard to forget. It understood that a good packaging
is as important as a good product. It has a beneficial effect on self-services sales. The colors, mostly black and green (or another color depending on the flavor) are less catchy to the eye than Red Bull’s but the M logo and the general design still differentiates Monster’s cans from its competitors. To open the can, there is a tab on the lid, like on most cans. However, when we went to observe the different packaging on the energy drinks shelf, we noticed that Burn had a very good idea. It made a closing system so that even once the consumer has pulled the tab, it is still possible to close the can thanks to a plastic component. This way, the consumer can carry the drink everywhere and is not forced to finish it at once. Last but not least, Monster’s packaging is the same everywhere in the world; only the language varies from a country to another. This strategy enables to save money since it doesn’t have to adapt its packaging to each market it targets.
A communication tool
The packaging is part of the branding strategy of a Monster since it’s a real communication tool. The shape and the design of the can make it easy to identify to its product environment. It has the same material and the characteristics of the other energy drinks so that the consumer who doesn’t know this brand can guess that it is an energy drink. Moreover, the brand is easily identified on it of the packaging thanks to the famous M-shaped logo and the name of the brand below.
Besides, just by observing the packaging, we can identify the positioning chosen by Monster. The packaging is quite sophisticated and shows that Monster’s targets are people who think that a brand that promotes meanness is cool. Thus we can say that Monster positions itself as a quite good quality brand with values that a few persons share necessarily (be mean, violent, intense…) in order to appear special to the consumers.
Furthermore, the packaging is part of the story-telling built by the marketers from Monster. It is very consistent with their message transmitted clearly through their slogan “Unleash the beast”. The can reflects very well this message because the main color of the can, black, and the font style evoke evil and terror. Black is a meaningful choice color. It is a color directly associated with mystery and negative feelings in the consumer’s mind. This common belief might stem from the Christian religion. As a matter of fact, in the Bible, black is primarily associated with the negative aspects of human experience such as death, disease, famine, sorrow and sin. Some people are attracted by mystery and evil and some of them want to look mean. Generally people who want to impress or look nasty, including anarchists, athletes, hipsters, geeks, road warriors, and metal heads, and or even bikers. When these groups of people see this packaging, it may create this specific emotional impulse.
Consequently, the goal of the brand to appear mean is reached also thanks to its packaging which definitely helps to sell more Monster energy drinks to the desired target.
Distribution channel
The company chose to follow an intensive distribution strategy which means that Monster sells through as many outlets as possible, so that the consumers encounter their drinks virtually everywhere they go: supermarkets, drug stores, gas stations…Monster drinks are sold in all the convenience stores, the supermarkets, mass merchandisers and drug stores in France. Monster drinks can be found at the beverage department, among other energy drinks, in a supermarket.
Sources:
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Aluminum-Beverage-Can.html#ixzz3JjgXL81z
http://www.monsterenergy.com/us/en/products/
http://www.ridingthebeast.com/articles/colors/
http://www.beveragemarketing.com/reportcatalog7h.html
By Gladys
Monster Energy is a brand of energy drinks which was initially launched by Hansen Natural in 2002. Hansen Natural was founded in 1935. At this time, it provided juices and natural sodas in the state where it settled: California. It wasn’t much known outside of this state at this time and was in fact just a little beverage company with a fully state centralized activity.
But when Rodney Sacks and Hilton Schlosberg, a South African lawyer and a countryman decided to purchase this company with their group of investors in 1992, it began to change very quickly. If the company observed quite satisfying results at first ($17 million for a dozen employees), it was only the case for a tiny company and since Sacks and & Schlosberg had bigger plans, they had to figure something else in order to step out of the line drawn and try to stand out in the beverage market.
“We needed to create something different” remembered Rodney Sacks when he was interviewed on this matter and asked how they came with the idea of launching an energy drink.
It seems that the success that met Redbull in Britain had also a lot to do with it and thus he decided to introduce an energy drink on the US market. He began more exactly by “introducing an energy smoothie in 1996” with ginseng as a stimulant basis in order to gauge how this type of product would be accepted by U.S consumers.
He finally launched a “stand-alone energy drink in 1997” and observed that the name of the company which kind of meant that what you drink is natural, healthy and “good for you” worked as a turn off for his core target (“young, edgy energy-drink consumers”).
That’s why, with the help of a salesman named Mark Hall, he settled on the rebranding of the product with the name Monster Energy after some researches and thanks to employees and consumers responses as for expectations.
They took this “rebranding thing” as an opportunity to make a big move on the market which was very fresh, like Pepsi did in his time against Coca-Cola: propose twice as much for the same price.
It is ironic to see that in august 2014, the same Coca-Cola company purchased 16,5% of the company for the amount of $2,15 billion which had as a direct effect the rise of Monster shares to $87,40. That being said, it is safe to say that the Sacks and Schlosberg, with respectively 18,43 million and 18,30 million shares in the company are today energy drink billionaires. And that is even if those shares are to be “divided up into a dozen different holding companies and limited partnership”. That would make of Monster the second wealthiest energy drink company behind Redbull.
By Guillaume
Sources:
http://www.beverageforum.com/2014awards.html
http://www.thanksmailcarrier.com/2012/08/hansens-natural-soda-review-giveaway.html
http://thenameismelissa.blogspot.fr/2011/09/brief-history-of-monster-energy.html
http://fortune.com/2012/11/05/how-hansens-natural-created-a-monster/
http://www.monsterenergy.com/fr/fr/home/#!/pages%3Aabout
Monster Energy - A story of success !
Who is Monster Energy?
Customer insight
Based on the results obtained from the questionnaire, we can conclude that the consumers associate Monster with the idea of partying (46% of the answers) but also with extreme sports, youth and rebellion. However, many consumers perceive Monster drinks quite negatively. Actually, 19% of our respondents associate Monster with health problems and 24% to danger. Many also relate the brand in their mind to madness and addiction. And 32% of our consumers claim that they don’t like Monster energy. Then the brand perception is quite negative in the consumers ‘mind. They see the brand as dark, dangerous, frightening and some of them even as disgusting.
Yet, that’s precisely what the brand wants in order to distinguish itself from its competitors. It seems ready to lose a lot of consumers with their very special communication to attract a narrow share of the market. In reality, athletes, rock lovers, rebellious, grunge, punk, geeks represent the target Monster tries to reach in priority through its original marketing strategy. This market segment is not very large but is more likely to be attracted to the brand and tends to be extremely loyal to Monster’s products.
As a consequence, to the question which of the following brands
do you consume the most, a very few answered Monster whereas
a lot answered Red Bull. But let’s keep in mind that our survey
was sent to mostly French citizens. Therefore, this outcome is not
a surprise as we already knew that Monster was less well-known
and then less established than Monster on the French market.
By Gladys
Brand promise
The marketer’s promise could also be that thanks to Monster, the target can maximize their lifestyle and be as powerful as a monster. Indeed, if you drink Monster you’ll fill revitalized in such an efficient way that you might feel as strong a monster. Of course, the rational consumer knows it won’t happen like that if he drinks a Monster energy drink but it will still help him to differentiate the brand from the others in his mind. He might associate it with a monster and then imagine that it works better than any other energy drinks.
By Gladys
Brand values
Monster promotes freedom, dynamism and boldness. It encourages young individuals to take risks and be what they want to be. Monster’s values are clearly Occidental.
By Gladys
Monster's unique personality
According to Aaker, there are 5 types of brand personality: Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness. We already know that Monster Energy targets people who like extreme sports, who are party goers and gamers. Monster has built its image around extreme sports, motorsports, gaming and also the Monster Girls. In fact, the brand personality has strong roots in this universe mixing sports, games, girls and parties and is developing itself throughout this specific universe. Consequently, Excitement and Ruggedness would be the two most adapted adjectives to describe Monster’s personality.
By Gladys
Brand perfromance
On the American market, as soon as it was launched in 1997, Monster Energy becomes one of the leaders of the energy drinks market, competing directly with the giant Red Bull.
It was successfully welcomed in France as well when it arrived on the French market in 2001. Monster generates 15 % of the annual sales of a segment estimated at € 112 millions in small and large supermarkets. Nevertheless, it is still far from Red Bull whose market share is almost 60 %. Yet, Red Bull can still take some market shares from smaller and less successful energy brands on the French market.
Below is a graph representing the energy drink brand market share on the American market in 2013. We can see that Monster owns the second biggest share and that it is following closely Red Bull.
By Gladys
Sources:
http://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-15-top-energy-drink-brands
http://www.lsa-conso.fr/produits/monster-energy,133433
Keller's Customer-based brand equity model
Monster Energy is the result of a thoughtful, creative and extremely imaginative strategic planning.
A model marketers from Monster might have used is Brand resonance model from Keller. It probably helped them devise branding strategies and tactics to maximize profits and long-term equity. We can analyze this model in order to describe how far went Monster to build its identity and culture to encourage intense loyalty relationships with its customers.
Brand salience:
We can assert that Monster has to improve its awareness as only 10% of the respondents answered Monster to the top of mind question. The brand is rarely evoked maybe also because Monster Energy is not as well known in France as Red Bull. It may have been way more different if we had sent this questionnaire to American citizens.
Brand meaning:
Monster is associated to extreme sports, rock and darkness. These associations are rather consistent with the image the brand wants to give, which is related to the idea of freedom, recklessness and living life on the edge. We don’t know if those associations come from the customers own experiences and contact with the brand or indirectly (through advertising or word of mouth) but they match with the message the brand attempts to convey. Thus even though Monster doesn’t have necessarily a strong brand awareness nor an established favorable brand association, it has a definitely unique identity in the customers’ mind.
Brand responses:
Most of the respondents didn’t respond positively to the brand but perhaps because a lot of them don’t really know it or just don’t like it. Our sample is not really representative as a very few or none of the respondents are not the exact target Monster tries to reach. Actually they are “common” students and are not used to do practice extreme sports or go to rock festivals.
Brand judgments:
Overall, the customers don’t have a very positive personal opinions and evaluations with regard to the brand, but once again, this can be explained by our unrepresentative sample that does not include Monster Energy actual target. Then the feelings towards the brand are either negative or inexistent since customers don’t know the brand or don’t care about it. Nevertheless, the marketing programs and sponsored events in which Monster is involved must probably generate positive feelings with respect to the brand among the people who participate in these events.
Brand resonance:
The usual consumers of Monster _contrary to most of the persons from our questionnaire sample_ seem to have built a strong relationship with the brand. They do feel connected to the brand somehow. As a result, some of Monster’s customers have an extremely high degree of loyalty but those loyal customers might be a few in France and very numerous in the USA, where the brand awareness is way better. Nonetheless, extreme sports athletes must feel really connected to the brand and interact with it. They might want to share their experiences with others. Indeed, we observed many videos promoting Monster from the fans of the brand.
By Gladys
By Gladys
Last but not least, take a look at
Monster's SWOT analysis!
By Gladys