Red Bull just introduced (at least here) a new bigger can to complement its litter sister:
From a logistical/production perspective, I’m sure this move makes sense. A bigger can always gets you more scale benefits (well, not indefinitely, the cans need to stack as well) and offers the customers more variety, which can sometimes boost sales.
But still, I can’t help but think that this is a bad marketing move. Red Bull’s small size has a lot of meaning latched to it. I always thought the smaller can made people understand what it was but also what it definitely was not: soda. Because the can was smaller than a normal soda can, it meant that it’s more “potent”, in a way that you shouldn’t be drinking more than 0.25l at a time. Of course people WOULD drink more, but that was the whole idea. Also, the unique shape and size of the can made it stand out: it was a purple cow in the beverage shelf, especially compared to a lot of other energy drinks. Now they have a new bigger can on the shelf, which basically says that “sure, you can drink as much of this stuff as soda”. Also, the new can is big enough that it’s not remarkable anymore.
It’s similar to when Volkswagen tried to boost sagging Beetle sales by introducing the bigger Super Beetle (besides, I HAD to work some Cultural Branding linkage here!). The whole charm behind the Beetle was that it was small, and un-car-like. Making it bigger wasn’t the answer. I doubt the same is the answer for Red Bull.
Hi there,,, good post.
I’m from Kuwait and I just saw this big can at my nearest supermarket. I think alot of people here will go caffeine high from this stuff. including me.
allow me to share the pic im my blog.
thanx
sure, go ahead.
Having a couple of years experience from the company and now several years from the beverage business, I have a different perspective for the whole thing.
First of all, Finnish energy drink market is very “soda-like” in other terms as well. There’s a variety of different tastes and package sizes have been going bigger for a while, also in bottles. The size issue is quite global, taste issue is more local. Unlike in many other countries, Red Bull hasn’t been the market leader here and has not been able to change the direction of the category (the size&taste issues). The developers of main competitors are as well multi-beverage-companies and have been treating their energy drinks like any other beverages. This is not the case in many other countries, where energy drinks are more clearly a different category.
When most of the competitors already are selling the big can/bottle as their #1 SKU, it’s very hard to compete with small can. It is impossible to sell half-size can with the same price, when all the other products start to be 0,5L and even cheaper price. It is even more difficult when the target group is mostly teens. E.g. in US, it starts to be difficult to even find smaller cans and I believe that this will be happen in Finland as well. Being a purple cow in FMCG business usually leads to situation that you will be kicked out from the shelf because people buy what most of the other people are buying (well, not always the case).
The bigger can has been developed to compete against hundreds of competitors who are mostly coming out with 0,5 can or bigger. In Finland, Red Bull has only 10% of the market and cannot jump out from the direction of the category. If they hadn’t introduced it, I believe there wouldn’t be Red Bull in Finland anymore in end of 2010.
BTW, I didn’t check the date and thought that this was written this year when Red Bull launched the 0,5 can.