You won’t be surprised
to learn that Red Bull was founded by a former marketing executive. Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz graduated with a marketing degree
from the University of Commerce in Vienna at age 28. Subsequently, he worked
for Unilever and Germany’s Jacobs Coffeee, before becoming the international
marketing director for Blendax, a German company (later bought by Procter & Gamble) that sold toothpaste,
skin creams, and shampoo.
Mateschitz, who
traveled around the world for his job, told Forbes’ Kerry Dolan in 2005 that it was on one of those trips
to Thailand that he discovered a jet lag-cure in a type of syrupy tonic drink
that was already successful across Asia. In 1984, Mateschitz quit his job and
teamed up with Chaleo Yoovidhya, who owned a drink company in
Thailand. Each invested $500,000 into the new business and took a 49% stake
(plus 2% for Yoovidhya’s son Chalerm).
Mateschitz ran the company,
though, and for three years he tinkered with everything about the drink, from
the formula to the packaging. He named it Red Bull, carbonated it, and placed it
in its now-iconic slim blue-and-silver can. A friend came up with the slogan
“Red Bull gives you wings,” which, after Sunday, seems prophetic. Mateschitz
scoffed at a research firm that told him people didn’t like the taste, the
logo, or the brand and proceeded anyway.
“When we first started, we said
there is no existing market for Red Bull,” Mateschitz told Forbes in 2005.
”But Red Bull will create it. And this is what finally became true.”
Source: Forbes.com
Determination.
ReplyDeleteL.M.