In an article in the Publican Magazine published yesterday 09/11/09, Wetherspoons, the Pub operator accused Red Bull of ‘Wide Boy’ tactics in trying to get their drink back into their pubs.
Last month, Wetherspoons, had delisted Red Bull in all of its 783 pubs and replaced it with Monster Energy. This brand is one of those ones that has come out of nowhere by sponsoring all sorts of monster truck and drag bike events.
What Red Bull have been doing is sending in students, with a can of Red Bull up their jumper who were then briefed to say they had to do it because they didn’t like the taste of Monster Energy. For me, this is exactly the sort of subversive and slightly naughty idea that you would expect from Red Bull and despite the fact that they have now been caught, I say good luck to them.
In a taste test, both Monster and Red Bull would come out as a bit horrid and sugary and more like a cough medicine than a drink, so it is more about the image than the taste. The only reason that I can see that Red Bull has been delisted is for purely commercial reasons. They have been given a better margin or a bigger incentive to stock Monster, who are obviously trying to ‘buy’ their way into the Wetherspoons estate. If this isn’t wide boy tactics, I don’t know what is.
Johnny Lyle's new brand thinking 