By Parker Schooley
Over the past week, I’ve conducted an experiment with the purpose of finding the favorite energy drink of every grade level on campus and why. I came into this experiment with expectations that Monster and Redbull would be the most popular as they are most commonly seen in stores in our area. According to google, Redbull spends around 25-30% of their revenue (approximately $3 billion dollars every year) just on marketing. They also sponsor various athletes and have multiple competitive racing teams, which is another reasonI was expecting them to be the most popular. It’s estimated that Redbull makes 40-45% of all energy drink ads. On the other hand, Monster focuses most of their advertising on sponsoring athletes as well as in store displays. This makes up 30% of their total energy drink advertisement. Monster focuses its $500 million budget towards more of a lifestyle aesthetic, drawing in athletic people as well as famous or well known athletes for advertising.
The data from the freshman class surprised me, as it was the only class that had Alani as the majority favorite. When I asked the people who voted Alani why it was their favorite, they almost always said it was because of the flavor. However, what surprised me more was when I asked how they discovered Alani. They mostly said it was either because their parents keep it stocked in their homes, or they’d seen it on social media. I hadn’t considered the possibility that parents might unintentionally help shape their children’s opinions on energy drinks, based on their own.
The sophomore data was more anticipated. I expected to see Monster and Redbull at the top based on their marketing tactics, and because they’re the most popular energy drinks. I was not expecting a tie because of Redbull’s popularity. I’d expected Redbull to be the #1 option for all 4 of the grades. When I asked Jonas Tue-Abejuela who is a sophomore why his favorite energy drink was Ghost over the other 2 options, he stated “I like ghost energy better than Monster and Redbull because they have better flavor collaborations and more caffeine.” This made me start to think that Ghost energy marketing might be onto something. No other energy drink brands are doing collaborations like they are. Ghost has done collabs with brands like Sour Patch Kids, Swedish fish, Bubblicious, 7-up, and A&W Root Beer, just to name a few. This got me thinking about how Ghost might be reshaping the industry with collaborations like these. Instead of companies collaborating with a famous athlete or just a celebrity in general they’re collaborating with companies that make popular candies that stand out. On the other hand, when I asked Phoenix Patla who’s in 10th grade about why he said Monster energy is his favorite he said “Monster is my favorite energy drink because it tastes better than coffee but has the same energetic effect.” He also said that he discovered Monster at his local grocery store because of a cool floor display, which makes sense because Monster’s primary marketing strategy is floor displays and sponsoring extreme athletes.
The junior data was the first that had Redbull as the obvious winner. This interested me because I’d noticed a trend in the data. As I went through the classes I’d started to notice that the amount of people who chose Redbull as their favorite had been steadily increasing and it made me wonder why. So I started to do research and found out that from 2009-2010 in California, Redbull dominated all energy drink sales in California with Monster only sitting at 16%. This made me start to think about it when I asked the freshmen why they liked Alani and they said that their parents kept it stocked. This helped me make the connection that maybe since Redbull was the most popular energy drink in California around when the juniors were born, that they could’ve been exposed to more ads or people in general drinking Redbull which may explain why Redbull was more popular.
The seniors’ class data shocked me because Redbull made up 50% of all responses which were nothing like any other class. This was exactly what I’d noticed earlier because redbull has just kept getting more popular. So again I went digging and found out that Redbull made up 47% with Monsters still sitting at 16%. So this in my opinion solidified my idea that since they’ve been exposed to it while it still made up almost almost all energy drink sales in California. This means that they’d be exposed to more of it and it would maybe sway why it’s their favorite.
In conclusion Redbull was the most popular energy drink among all the grades and it was mostly because of marketing tactics as well as being exposed to it in a social setting. We can also assume that parents can shape people’s favorite energy drinks because as we saw with the freshman data they can influence what they see and what they try.
beniciapaw.com 