---
title: "How to Surpass Red Bull?"
description: "01 Is Red Bull unbeatable? Recently, while chatting with a friend in the beverage industry, he shared his view that after years of observation, Red Bull is truly the ceiling of functional drinks and the absolute hard currency in the beverage market. Despite the fierce competition between Huabin and Tians, it seems almost impossible for outsiders to break into this market. Is that really the case? This sparked some thoughts in me: There are many new consumer entrepreneurs making tea, sparkling water, and soda, but why hasn't a new consumer brand emerged in functional drinks? The innovation capability of Genki Forest..."
author: "赵波"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2022-10-11"
language: "en"
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---

# How to Surpass Red Bull?

> 01 Is Red Bull unbeatable? Recently, while chatting with a friend in the beverage industry, he shared his view that after years of observation, Red Bull is truly the ceiling of functional drinks and the absolute hard currency in the beverage market. Despite the fierce competition between Huabin and Tians, it seems almost impossible for outsiders to break into this market. Is that really the case? This sparked some thoughts in me: There are many new consumer entrepreneurs making tea, sparkling water, and soda, but why hasn't a new consumer brand emerged in functional drinks? The innovation capability of Genki Forest...

**01******Is Red Bull Unbeatable?********
Recently, while chatting with a friend in the beverage industry, he shared his view that after years of observation, Red Bull is truly the ceiling of functional drinks and the absolute hard currency in the beverage market.
Despite the fierce competition between Huabin and Tians, it seems almost impossible for outsiders to break into this market.
Is that really the case? This sparked some thoughts in me:
There are many new consumer entrepreneurs making tea, sparkling water, and soda, but why hasn't a new consumer brand emerged in functional drinks?
Genki Forest's innovation capability is second to none in the industry, and they have launched many successful products, especially Alien Electrolyte, which is so successful. But why haven't they been able to launch a product in functional drinks that can compete with Red Bull?
Why, after Red Bull, hasn't this category seen a major consumption upgrade product, but there are many downgraded products below Red Bull's price, like Dongsheng Special Drink and Tizhi Energy?
Why do products with such unique personalities as Ghost Claw always hover around a few billion in sales, just selling lukewarmly?
In China, is Red Bull truly unbeatable?
**02********Tasks in Context Are the Real Needs**********
Many people analyze market opportunities from perspectives like consumer needs, market opportunities, and competitive environment. In recent years, many new consumer brands have added a new dimension: **consumption upgrade**, meaning consumers are now able to pursue better, more refined, healthier, and more emotionally valuable products.
This is understandable, but it's not enough. **Without a clear consumption scenario, all consumer needs are pseudo-needs.**
Why do I say this? Because only tasks in context are real problems consumers are willing to pay to solve.
Let me give you an analogy:
A slim woman who constantly says she's fat and wants to lose weight—is that her need?
Undoubtedly, yes, because she has clearly told you.
Then you recommend a special weight-loss pill on Douyin. Do you think she'll buy it? Maybe yes, maybe no. Why?
She will pay for her anxiety, but she may not spend money on her anxiety!
Let's add a scenario to her need:
She is taken by friends to an expensive buffet with lots of delicious food.
Do you think this slim woman, when hungry, will resist the temptation of this meal because of her weight-loss need?
I believe few women can resist such temptation in that scenario.
What will she do? She'll eat a lot, then feel guilty, and because of that guilt, buy a large low-sugar milk tea on the street.
Running, right? Working out, right? Then she'll diet crazily at other times when there's no food around, right?
So, when this consumer says she wants to lose weight, don't believe her; instead, watch what she does in specific scenarios.
**Her real needs are actually in the scenarios where she runs, works out, and diets. In those scenarios, consumers will spend money to solve their problems.**
**03**********Consumption Scenarios************
Red Bull's past consumption scenarios include mountain climbing, sports, staying up late for work, truck drivers, heavy physical labor, etc. These scenarios indeed require people who need high physical energy and alertness.
Among such people, Dongsheng Special Drink and Tizhi Energy have taken away part of Red Bull's market through price segmentation, but I think it's not just price segmentation; there are other segmented groups.
**Any new category or brand must emerge with new scenarios.**
From a broad population perspective, China currently has 100 million middle-class people. Once they have money, the first lifestyle change after consumption upgrade is running.
But their main need for running is actually weight control. Of course, it's not just running; most middle-class people exercise to control weight.
But people trying to lose weight cannot drink Red Bull, partly because Red Bull is too high in calories, and also because Red Bull doesn't quickly replenish fluids.
So you see, in new scenarios, Red Bull's original functions are no longer applicable. This requires entrepreneurs to provide a product that perfectly matches **new people, new scenarios, and new tasks**.
We can imagine a product suitable for this group:
It can quickly replenish fluids and electrolytes, with moderate caffeine and sufficient taurine to relieve fatigue while extending post-run fat burning. But this product must not contain sugar or anything unhealthy. Ideally, it has some magical plant extract that makes users perceive it as natural + high-tech, and makes them feel great when drinking during a run.
The flavor should be clearly differentiated from Red Bull and Ghost Claw. The price shouldn't be too cheap, at least 8-10 yuan. The packaging should be ergonomic and sporty in design.
For people with money and time to exercise, drinking a bottle after a workout is a natural thing. Let's summarize the points above:
  *  _**New People:** New middle class, with awakened health awareness, disciplined lifestyle, and certain exercise needs._
  * ** _New Needs:_**_Weight loss, health, and dopamine release from exercise._
  * ** _New Scenarios:_**_Light exercise like running, jogging, hiking, badminton._
  * ** _New Pain Points:_**_No calories, quick fluid and electrolyte replenishment, fatigue relief, alertness, and accelerated fat metabolism._
You see, are there such products on the market today? Honestly, there are similar ones, like Celsius, but none perfectly match.
But facing 100 million new middle-class people and a huge running population, I think there is still an opportunity to provide new segmented needs above Red Bull.
**04**********Communication Scenarios************
Above, we just used Red Bull as an analogy to study how any track long dominated by traditional big brands can use scenarios to carve out new market opportunities.
Looking at market opportunities from a scenario perspective, there are both new problems consumers need to solve in old scenarios and new tasks in emerging scenarios. This requires entrepreneurs to deeply observe and immerse themselves in consumer scenarios when observing and gaining insights into the market, and to deeply slice consumer behavior.
I think the biggest opportunity in today's market is that **not only do consumers have new problems in their original scenarios, but more importantly, the three major scenarios—communication, consumption, and transaction—have all seen a large number of new opportunities.**
Communication scenarios: A large number of fragmented media give companies the opportunity to connect directly with consumers. Many people love to do grassroots marketing on Xiaohongshu.
But I believe the biggest communication scenario dividend today is not in these fragmented media or finding unknown bloggers for grassroots marketing, but in community-based media!
**What is community-based media?** It's a place where a group of people with shared interests communicate and express themselves within the same community. These people ideally know each other, are familiar, can connect anytime, and have a certain frequency of interaction.
As a new product targeting a specific group and scenario, if it cannot gain the attention of core consumers in community-based media, it's often difficult to establish an early foundation for business development.
This is extremely important!
This is the offline base market. Without early user trial and feedback, and the first round of consumption support, there's no talk of subsequent development. I see many new consumer brands often neglect the management of core users in communities.
But it's important to clarify that community is not private domain. Private domain is one-to-many, with you as the center. Community is many-to-many, where many users can simultaneously contribute their views on the product and other matters. Through community fermentation, it brings about topic spillover effects.
That's the core value of community media!
**05**********Transaction Scenarios************
Teacher Chen Licai mentioned in his upcoming book "Qualitative Change - Leveraging Big Data to Connect All Channels":
There are at least seven types of existing channels. In today's market, channel types are increasing, and boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred.
Omnichannel thinking doesn't necessarily mean entering all channels. Every brand facing channels should think one more time: Which channels should we enter? In which segmented channels can we win? In which segmented channels is our operation more cost-effective?
Actually, flooding is relatively easier, while precise operation requires more effort. In a blue ocean market, claiming territory is the first choice; in a red ocean market, refined operation is required.
What is refined operation? I think one word can explain it clearly: **sell-through logic**.
That is, the sell-through logic is completely different in different channels. How to find the sell-through logic that fits the product on each platform and build a management closed loop truly tests the operator's real level.
**Summary:**
We don't really need to surpass Red Bull. In fact, the friend at the beginning was right: with existing products on the market, surpassing Red Bull is indeed extremely difficult. Consumers don't need more Red Bull; they just want to solve their problems within scenarios.
So, whoever can capture the post-workout supplement needs of the future 100 million new middle-class people may truly establish a foothold in the functional beverage market.
 _**-END-**_


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