The bulls are not cattle but wild gaurs, a bovine species native to South Asia. The drink was created by a Thai pharmaceutical expert, Chaleo Yoovidhya. In 1984, Dietrich Mateschitz entered into a partnership with Chaleo, and three years later, the two launched a drink export version labeled Red Bull (RB).
Chaleo provided the original formula and adapted it for Western tastes under Mateschitz’s guidance. The Austrian was responsible for marketing.
Simple and targeted Marketing
Sensing the commercial opportunities of the drink, Mateschitz turned Red Bull into a world market leader among energy drinks. The company´s marketing strategy was simple and successful. They went straight to their target audience, which was 18-35-year-old males, and visited college parties, libraries, coffee shops, bars, and other places where young people hang out.
“Giving their audience free samples helped them put the product right in their consumers’ hands. That got their audience talking, spreading the word about their product for free,” writes Coschedule, the US marketing provider. “Today, they still employ a similar strategy: they go wherever their audience is.”
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The most successful Energy Drink
The Red Bull website says that 11.582 billion cans of Red Bull were sold around the world in 2022. It is the most popular energy drink brand and the third most expensive soft drink brand, after Coca-Cola and Pepsi. It has a 43% market share.
Extreme sports were very important to Dietrich Mateschitz from a very young age. Because of this, his company bought or started several sports teams around the world. Red Bull is always advertised as having the right kind of mental and physical qualities for risky sports. Since many years ago, Red Bull has been linked to winter sports, skydiving, surfing, and cliff jumping.
Formula One
But the real world of fame came with the entry into Formula One. Two racing teams and constructors, Red Bull Racing and the sister team Alpha Tauri, are the key players in the racing industry.
The German racer Sebastian Vettel won the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix for Red Bull for the first time. In 2010, Red Bull Racing won the Formula One World Constructors’ Championship, and Vettel won the Drivers’ Championship.
This repeated the next three years: 2011, 2012, and 2013. Eight years later, they won the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship again with Max Verstappen in the 2021 season. Next year, Verstappen won the title, the sixth by a Red Bull driver.
Every sports club Mateschitz bought was renamed after Red Bull. So, for example, the football teams RB Salzburg, RB Brasil, or RB Leipzig; in ice hockey, EC RB Salzburg and EHC RB München.
Spinal Cord Research Philanthropy
His philanthropic activities include co-founding the Wings for Life Foundation, which supports spinal cord research. Mateschitz personally donated 70 million euros to Paracelsus Medical University in Salzburg, Austria, for a research center on spinal cord injuries.
Before his death in October 2022, the billionaire with an estimated net worth of USD 27.4 billion lived in Fuschl am See in Austria and owned the island of Laucala in Fiji. He spent millions to acquire and conserve houses and castles in the Austrian Alps, saying, “I want to enjoy these places myself, but I also want to take care of them”.
