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.

allow me to share the pic im my blog.
thanx