Redbull Slogan “RedBull Gives You Wings”

Marketers can utilize the Redbull slogan "RedBull Gives You Wings" as a classical conditioning idea of consumer behavior to persuade their customers. The classical conditioning theory proposes that people learn new behaviors by associating two stimuli that are linked together to produce a new learned response (Stuart, Shimp & Engle, 1987). As a result, learning is concerned with both the creation of stimuli and the response to that stimulus. The marketers' purpose in using the tagline "RedBull Gives You Wings" is to have consumers identify Redbull energy drink with the sensation it gives them.  The marketers want to make the consumers associate Redbull in their daily lives to the “flying” feeling they get when they drink it, which means that they want to get a conditioned response from the consumers.

Redbull is an energy drink that makes the user feel activated or energized. Whenever an individual is energized, he or she is roused into activity, and feels as if he has been given wings to fly into greater heights that he could not have on his own. The slogan “RedBull Gives You Wings” makes the consumer associate drinking Redbull with the having the energy and provokes the sensation of being activated to fly, which in turn brings them back again to buy the drink because of the desire that they will have the same feeling again when they drink Redbull (Till & Priluck, 2000). Redbull is an unconditioned stimulus that creates the feeling of flying in individuals that take it. Therefore, whenever the consumers encounter the slogan “RedBull Gives You Wings”, they end up buying the drink. When the slogan is repeated over and over, the conditioned response, which is buying more Redbull stays for a long time and the Company is able to sell more of its products. The marketers pair the feeling towards Redbull, which is the unconditioned stimulus with the slogan, which is the conditioned stimulus to make the consumers buy Redbull unconditionally (Unconditioned response). With many repetitions, the consumers get conditioned to have Redbull every time they want to get energized (Olson & Fazio, 2001). The consumers will be persuaded through peripheral route as it more efficient to attract them. Through the use of the slogan, the consumers do not need a lot of thinking as they will be conditioned into buying the drink through classical conditioning, which is unlike in central route where the already involved consumers have to be persuaded based on logic.

Positioning: Why and how consumers choose Redbull 

The marketers have already created a Redbull brand in the minds of the target consumers perfectly over the years. The marketers have achieved positioning of Redbull by emphasizing its features, and have set up a premium price among its competitors like Monster, Relentless or Rockstar. The marketers have recognized that in order to market Redbull and make consumers choose it among other competitor products, emotion is required. This is why they have elicited affective cues and a need for social conformity in the product by associating it with symbols that exemplify values thereby making the consumers choose it because by using Redbull, they will have the feeling it represents (Naude, 2012). Redbull has promised to revitalize and rejuvenate the mental and physical fatigue of its users in straining and nerve-racking situations through its potential to increase its users’ performance, concentration, metabolism and alertness and awareness provided by its health conscious ingredients including taurine, glucuronolactone, sucrose or glucose sweeteners and caffeine that enhance energy. The consumers of this product are active, have a drive and are dynamic, which means that the target group is determined by a state of mind of the people that want to be mentally and physically fit and wide awake and in turn, this implies that the real product benefits of Redbull justifies a premium price (Appendices 1).

References

Naude, R. (2012). Positioning of the Red Bull brand in the future markets of South Africa (Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University).

Olson, M. A., & Fazio, R. H. (2001). Implicit attitude formation through classical conditioning. Psychological Science, 12(5), 413-417.

Stuart, E. W., Shimp, T. A., & Engle, R. W. (1987). Classical conditioning of consumer attitudes: Four experiments in an advertising context. Journal of consumer research, 14(3), 334-349.

Till, B. D., & Priluck, R. L. (2000). Stimulus generalization in classical conditioning: An initial investigation and extension. Psychology & Marketing, 17(1), 55-72.

Appendices 1: Redbull Benefits