Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

their brand through social media has lead to growth in areas such as sales figures, number of

employees, and the number of sponsorships towards other individuals and groups, among

other areas, proving to be an overall success. ! Through the development of their social media marketing campaign, Red Bull have been able

to create innovative content, such as extreme sport videos, high quality photographs, as well

as provide sponsorships towards other famous brands and athletes, spreading all of this

through social media in order to create brand awareness and perception for themselves, both

positive and negative. Red Bull’s social media marketing campaign is rather significant as it

demonstrates how in today’s business world, major brands can be built on social networking

platforms, which was not possible twenty years ago. However, it must also be considered that

despite Red Bull’s clear sales success through social media marketing, this tactic cannot be

utilized by the majority of businesses, other energy drink companies included, and is not

practical in every business environment. Additionally, there is much more to the marketing

mix than just social media, as social media only covers a few areas within functions of

marketing. Although there can be consequences for companies by not adapting to the rise of

social media, there can also be consequences for abandoning the more traditional means of

promotion. Nonetheless, since 2014, promotion through social media has been the primary

contributing factor toward the increase in sales of Red Bull’s products. Whilst there are

additional factors contributing to the increase, such as promotion through sponsorship and as

well as Red Bull’s high brand value compared to other energy drink companies, the use of

social media has been the strongest influence regarding the substantial increases in Red Bull’s

sales.

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