What can Red Bull teach us about business

Rationality is a fetish of the twentieth century; we are not allowed by our culture to admit true irrationality as an explanation of our behaviour. Yet the majority of religious and political systems, as well as such aspects of human behaviour as loyalty, love, and affection, are all irrational.
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That’s not me taking. That’s Ernest Dichter talking in his remarkable book The Strategy of Desire.
Case in point: Red Bull, the maker of a so called energy drink.

The question is, what can we learn from Red Bull?
What’s rational about buying a can of Red Bull?
In one breath, the company says “Red Bull gives you wings.
And in the second one it says that it does not.

You guessed it: there’s no rational reason for buying a can of Red Bull.
So then what does Red Bull really sell? Here’s a couple of suggestions:

a. Minimally, Red Bull = a novelty beverage;
b. Maximally, Red Bull = an unmistakable and instant authentication of the buyer’s personality.

Either way, Red Bull sells a shortcut. You see, as Ernest Dichter suggests in the above book, every person wants to be more than he/she really is. This is why Red Bull positions itself as the drink for the crowd of happening risk-takers, if you will.

My 2¢:
Is your business a short cut?
Why not?
Because shortcuts are:
There when you need them.
Experts in their own little corner of the world.
Happy to help make you successful.

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