Essay: Marketing Plan For Red Bull Air Race Launch In London.

Describe and identified market for Red Bull air race, relevance of the new identified market and outline of marketing plan for launch.

Red Bull GmbH is an Austria based company established in the year 1987. It manufactures energy drinks and is presently a popular brand in the west. Red Bull is a successful company with massive growth in sales and volumes. Every year Red Bull organizes a series of air races known as Red Bull Air Race World Championship. In this race, the competitors uptake a challenging course which is supposed to be navigated in the fastest time. The task of the pilots is to fly individually through slalom courses and complete tight turns in the shortest time possible.

The aim of the report is to prepare an event plan that informs about Red Bull’s launch of its Air Race in a new city for the year 2017. The report will give a brief overview of the Red Bull energy drink company. It will be followed by the identification of a target market for Red Bull Air Race supporting with the relevance of the new market through literature review. The report will detail the event theme and design. Lastly, the report provides an outline for launching the market plan for conducting the Air Race.

Dietrich Mateschitz established Red Bull in Austria to suit western tastes (Quincey 2016). According to Brown (2013), Red Bull energy drinks offer functional benefit to the consumers who find the brand to be incredible fascinating. The popularity of the brand has helped the company to create a completely new industry that achieves a turnover of $4,235 million a year (Brown 2013). According to Kurz et al. (2012), Red Bull is a “titan of the energy drink industry” and is more recognized for its values than its products.

The company’s marketing strategies are highly innovative. It makes great use of social media and internet to attract buyers. The company engages in Ambush marketing where it invests its time, creativity, knowledge, and energy to achieve its goals (Young and Kent 2013). The company adapts to external and internal market changes by strategic management. The company sustains its competitive advantage by turning its weaknesses into strengths (Crompton 2015). Majaro (2013) believes that the strength of the company lies in its brand image, presence across the world and massive sales growth. The weakness of the company lies in its premium price system which is easily substitutable by other competitors. New competitors are emerging in the market, which may decline its market share (Quincey 2016). Red Bull has numerous growth opportunities in Chinese and Asian Pacific market due to common trend of this region to prosper. However, Red Bull’s products lack alternative variant, which may be a threat in long run (Kurz et al. 2012).

Identified market for Red Bull Air Race

Red Bull is excellent in event organization. It sponsors several events such as Red Bull Flugtag, Red Bull Racing F1, Cliff Diving and other sports events (Gerritsen and van Olderen 2014). The significant investment made in these events in turn fetches high turnover and profit. It offers a great opportunity for the organization to attract the potential customers through annual brand interaction (Mahroum 2016). The prime focus of this study is the Red Bull’s Air Race. It is an international event where airplane pilots from different parts of the world compete to win the title of “World Champion Race Pilot”. In this race, the competitors uptake a challenging course which is supposed to be navigated in the fastest time. It is an effective marketing strategy tool to increase the consumer strength (Griffin and Pustay 2012). According to Masterman (2014) air race events are good source of generating high revenue with less expenditure such as building race airport or stadiums. The only challenge in these events is the maintenance of safety issues (Taks et al. 2014).

Red Bull is planning its next Air Race, which will be held in 2017. I am a part of the international events team for Red Bull, and I was assigned a task of selecting a new host city for the 2017 Red Bull Air Race.

The market selected for this event is London (UK). My aim is to perform a detailed SWOT analysis and analyze contemporary issues that may influence the success of the event. A thorough literature review will be performed to justify the facts and relevance of the identified market.  On the basis of the data analysis I will develop a plan for launching Red Bull Air Race.

According to Brown (2013), the chosen destination for Red Bull Air race has impressive skyline. It can provide excellent accommodation facilities as world-class hotels and resorts operate in this city (Terpstra et al. 2012). This city offers diverse cuisine experiences and a relaxed setting for the visitors to view top pilots battling in the sky (Czinkota and Ronkainen 2013). London already has a legacy of hosting sports events and it stands out from other cities. The city offers excellent transportation facilities and waterfront areas. Over the year, the city’s transportation system has developed extensively. According to Masterman (2014) 25% of the journeys in London constitute public transport and 40% of them are private services. Its public transport is a central hub for road, air and train transport for United Kingdom. London has several independently operating airports (Taks et al. 2014). British airways organize and participate in various sports events across the world. Such sponsorships complement their current business objectives.

Relevance of the new identified market

My personal interest in selecting this new place is the availability of multi-year deals and enormous revenue generating options (Griffin and Pustay 2012). In addition, people in London have highly optimistic attitude and exhibit openness to change and enjoy their life, as they want (Obloj 2013). I believe that optimism is good for any work environment. According to Mahroum (2016), London has sizeable portion of prospective pilots. In terms of population, it is the largest city in UK. The city is highly influential in its political, cultural and financial aspects (Crompton 2015). The approach to business relation occurs quickly consuming less time for negotiation and decision-making. According to the Dr. Hofstede analysis London maintains a social equity and has no differences in power levels in society, organizations and not even in families thus it makes a stable society (Taks et al. 2014). This kind of society holds equal opportunities for everyone. Therefore, foreign companies must consider this factor in their business practice and try to achieve similar work environment (Brown 2013). London has high tolerance for uncertain circumstances. It can readily accept changes and face consequences of risks (Masterman 2014). This approach is fine as no one can control the future. However, one should not completely avoid risk management. According to Zarantonello and Schmitt (2013) people here show “have to win attitude”. Therefore, they are aggressive to achieve their goals and this reflects in the promotion process of the work place. This factor is highly advantageous to start business here (Schlegelmilch 2016). It should be an important quality of any work place. The work culture is highly pragmatic in nature and best in addressing future challenges by keeping multiple options open (Obloj 2013).

The strategy will be to create mass awareness of the race event and increase the sales of tickets (Zarantonello and Schmitt 2013). Websites and social media will be extensively used to convert prospects into clients of London. The websites will include a dedicated page containing profiles of the performers. In order to give the event a freshest look, I will ensure that the color schemes are trendy and I have hired a professional designer for this purpose.

At every location of the Air race, a customized ready airport is required or need to build a race airport. I have already developed a strong resilient team to cope up with this development work. The aim is to design the arena in a way, which will make it a focal point of the entertainment. Visitors needing tickets at cheaper rates will be facilitated in General Admission Areas. People can enjoy the experience from selected viewing points in these areas. It also includes access to live commentary and video screens. These areas will be equipped with snack stores for refreshment of spectators. Red Bull Air Race plans to offer several different items to choose. These general admission areas will be subdivided into different sections for bleachers, visitors with unreserved tickets, or family. The merchandise shops at the event location will provide the visitors with souvenir of Red Bull Air Race (Majaro 2013). The race location will be designed to create a hangar view area to provide the fans with the opportunity to get glimpse of technical operations, race teams and airport operations similar to one made in Hungary’s Red Bull Air Race (Mahroum 2016).

Detail of event

The location of the race will contain multi-tiered grandstand similar to one arranged in Abu Dhabi (Czinkota and Ronkainen 2013). It will be designed to benefit the spectators with best view of the racetrack. The race experience will be enhanced with live commentary and will be supported with dedicated video screens to watch decisive maneuvers clearly (Zarantonello and Schmitt 2013). According to Mahroum (2016) London has sizeable portion of prospective pilots. Depending on the size of the participants, their accommodation will be planned.

My Plan is to try something new with the 2017 Red Bull Air Race Event. I have planned to change the T-shirt designs for the racers. The race shirts will be completely new and have freshest look with trendy logo of the company and in coolest colors. The shirts will make every participant proud and more enthusiastic. The Air race event is not merely a business but to provide the client with lifetime experience through race.

The possibility of an event to become successful depends on the strategic management (Young and Kent 2013). The steps to launch the event in London includes

• preparation of presentations say strategic marketing plan
• Stimulation of event launch brainstorms using the flashcards
• Use different combinations of flashcards (mix and match)
• Deal with the opposition from the stakeholders by explaining the benefits offered to the city by sports event
• Selection of best ideas and
• Launch of event (Zarantonello and Schmitt 2013.)

Once the stakeholders are convinced of the economic benefits offered by the air race event, the next step is to generate an online race registration form (Czinkota and Ronkainen, I.A., 2013).   I will make it sure that this process is simple enough and does not require accounts for users. It is a vital part of Red Bulls’s customer online experience. I will set the fees or charges after comparing the rates of top providers for race registration. At the initial stage, rigorous marketing of the event is necessary for promoting the air race event. The market segmentation includes areas mostly inhabitated by the sports professionals (Terpstra et al. 2012). Posters and fliers should be put up highly in the regions frequently travelled by the sports persons. If London is hosting any other race events then the plan is to email trade with those events by mailing the participants. It will be followed by the press release where the message for the target audience will be “Go! Have wings” (Mahroum 2016). All the new pilots should be able to meet the eligibility criteria set by Red Bull Committee to participate in the World Championship.

Strategic management is necessary for implementing the event plan. To achieve the set goals it is important to adapt to the changing trends in the global market. The implementation of the Red Bull air race event will include collating all the details from the planning stages and allocate all the collected resources (Czinkota and Ronkainen 2013). The next important stage is to win as much sponsorship as possible. The quality of the air race events in London can be enhanced by gaining products and services from local and national businesses. My next strategy is to benefit a charity and attract sponsorships (Zarantonello and Schmitt 2013). The crucial stage is to complete all the formalities and attain the required permits for air race event (Getz 2012). I would provide all the details of the insurance coverage to keep the company at a safe side. Hiring appropriate volunteers is the other major challenge. Other major risk area is safety issues. Air races have a possibility of accidents and disaster due to twists and turns of airoplanes. Therefore, all the medical arrangements and referral services will be well maintained. The primary source of havoc is the weather. In 2015, the race event in Chiba was highly disturbed due to high sea waves that caused a cycle of assemble and disassemble of the hangars (Clements and Casani 2016). I will lay a small team for monitoring racecourse till the day of event as well for monitoring the practice sessions of the pilots. Their role will be to maintain the safety of planes in addition to pre-race inspections of the equipments, hangars and arena (Obloj 2013).

Conclusion

The report has enhanced my knowledge related to Red Bull GmbH. It is the first company to come up with strategy of organizing sports events to generate mass media and increase its business. Red Bull Air Race events conducted so far in different cities have been highly successful and there is a hope that 2017 race event also turn out to be a remarkable event. Thus, the report has prepared a clear event plan that informs about Red Bull’s launch of its Air Race in a new city for the year 2017. The report has enhanced my knowledge regarding various aspects of international marketing and business development. The weakness of the whole process is that the company has less control over the presentation of events such as poor performance of the pilots. However, such sports events offer great opportunities to Red Bull to attract potential customers through brand interaction. Moreover, the company makes a significant investment in the race events and in turn obtains high turnover and profit. The major threats identified while conducting such air race events includes chance of negative publicity due to cost over-runs and corruptions.

The report has clearly described the Red Bull energy drink company and its background. London was identified to be the next target market for Red Bull Air Race supporting with the relevance of the new market through literature review. The report has clearly presented the details of the event planning. Lastly, the report has provided an outline for launching the market plan for conducting the Air Race.

References

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