Targeting Teenagers Essay Example for Free

Targeting Teenagers essayWhen taking a look around at the night life of any city of the western culture we may come to a purpose that pubs and party places atomic number 18 stuffed with under aged children down the stairs 20 or even 18. These kids need more(prenominal) than muscularity to survive the rush of the nightlife therefore it is non unusual to see them pledgeable cypher drunkennesss or even mixing it with alcoholic swallows. Do the producers and marketplaceers of such zip drinks like wild talk through sensations hat or Monster think of the unhealthy effects of these drinks on girlishs?A perception gouge be made that such boozings argon high uply effecting and endangering the health of their pine awayrs teenagers and adults however, their producers are tushing at the most vulnerable and willing to spend audience the teenagers of the western cosmopolitan cities. The long destination goal of producers and marketers of energy drinks is non l ess but to own as high percentage of the market share as possible, using any kinds of marketing tools, without taking into consideration ethics and the health risks caused by energy drinks. Health Effects.It is a sound-known fact that energy drinks such as ablaze(p) horseshit or Monster contain ingredients that could be wounding non only for teens but for adults as easy in the long run. According to pharmaceutical studies of Clauson et al. (2008) ginseng, taurine, guarana, bitter orange, and caffeine key ingredients of energy drinks may move with each new(prenominal) in a way that screw cause symptoms varying from headache, insomnia, high blood-pressure, stroke, or even heart attack. Various sources from the Internet show evidence that teenagers health was harmed after consuming energy drinks.In Colorado Springs, several(prenominal) high school students last year became ill after drinking Spike Shooter, a high caffeine drink, prompting the principal to veto the beverages . In March, four mediate school students in Broward County, Florida, went to the emergency room with heart palpitations and sweating after drinking the energy beverage reddishline. (Parker-Pope, 2008) Three years ago, Ross Cooney, 18, from Ireland, died after he shared four senss of departure pig bed and played in a basketball match. (Nordqvist, 2004).In the mean time it must be mentioned that not only the ingredients green goddess be harmful and risky for the teenage consumers but the lack of responsibility during drinking energy drinks plays an classical role as well. While adults are or should be able to keep their limits, teenagers act in the most unexpected ways. But the biggest worry is how some teens use the drinks. Some report downing several cans in a row to get a buzz, and a freshly study found a surprising number of poisoncenter calls from young people getting sick from too untold caffeine. (Johnson, 2006).Other sources underline that another factor effecting adolescents is strongly in connection with their behaviour. Energy drinks may negatively affect those teenagers, who are more aggressive by nature, High consumption of energy drinks is associated with toxic patron behavior, a constellation of risky and aggressive behaviors including unprotected sex, substance abuse and violence. (Parker-Pope, 2008) Based on the above risk factors and several other additional ones numerous countries and states have already banned or move to ban energy drinks, however, they were not able to sustain the state of rejection for a longer time span.For congressman France, Denmark and Norway have banned blood-red red cent for a certain amount of time the ban was upheld by the European Court mainly because the caffeine levels were considered to be safe and negative effects of other ingredients were not supported. The European Union enforced Red Bull and other energy drink providers to warn their consumers of the high caffeine nitty-gritty (Nordqvi st, 2004). In the United States there have been several attempts as well to ban energy drinks to protect adolescents, but the law does not make any restrictions possible.Energy drinks, which are classify as dietary supplements, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That instrument they dont have to follow the same strict limits that the FDA places on potentially harmful ingredients such as caffeine (a primary component of energy drinks) that soda makers must follow. (Park, 2011) Based on the above studies a conclusion can be made that even though energy drinks contain ingredients that can be harmful if consumed un-responsibly, the level of ingredients are still considered to be safe.Teenagers must be taught that consumption of such beverages should be kept below a certain limit or should be avoided. Attracting Teenagers Why is it so attractive for teenagers to consume Red Bull, Hell, Burn, Monster, or any other energy drinks? Most probably because these dr inks are considered to be the drink of popular, young, successful people mostly delightsmen. Goodmans video about The Merchants of cool (2001) describes this situation clearly be cool is essential to teenagers to be in the spotlight.Marketing cool became very popular these days, due to the well known fact that teenagers of metropolitan cities tend to use eat, drink, wear whatever they believe is cool and in the mean time their parents are willing to pay for these items. In the sudden a product becomes push-down list or becomes un-cool according to these teenagers, they are not willing to purchase them anymore. The teenagers who are willing to pay for the products compensate a strong and rich audience. Therefore marketers should keep this in front of their eyes when designing new marketing strategies, mostly when talking about brands that tend to target the teenagers.If we gull a look at what the energy drink brands represent, it is visible that they are either committed sp onsors of extreme sports, other popular sports, (Ho, 2006) or position themselves in the centre of leisure and parties (Arlidge, 2004). This certainly is cool amongst adolescents. It can be stated that Red Bull, Monster, or other beverages are the representatives of cool. Which cool teenager would not like snow boarding, skate boarding, devil trucks, air shows, Formula-1, cross motors, car racing or any other knockout extreme sport like skydiving?(Helm, 2005) Therefore these producers target teenage buyers exactly they way they should be targeted. Does this seem unfair, or is this an example of perfect targeting? It must me mentioned that these energy drinks give the message to teens never to rest and always do something to be always on the move. Today a usual American watches television approximately 4 hours 45 minutes per day (Shea et al. 2010, p. 165) hours per day. By the age an average teenager reaches the age of 21 he or she has watched more than 20 000 hours of television already.Most teenagers use the Internet throughout the day, however, only 28% of them looks for fitness and health tips (Oblinger, 2005). It is also stated that over 155 million children are stalwartness military man wide, similarly in the United States and in the European Union, approximately 35% of adolescents are considered to be overweight or obese. (Shea et al. 2010, p. 166) Red Bull spends annually billions of dollars on not only sponsoring sports, but also structure its own sports teams (Ho, 2006).Varying from numerous different sport categories, Red Bull attracts millions of teenagers towards these sports. For instance skate boarders Ryan Sheckler, Zered Bassett, Joey Brezinski, or Nick Dompierre are well known endorsers of Red Bull. They have millions of fans worldwide and hundreds of teenagers started skate boarding because of them. We can mention thousands of examples where an energy drink brand sponsored sport idol became the hero of teenagers. Because of these idols teenagers later on started doing sports quite of just sitting at home.Should parents thank Red Bull or Monster for doing this? Red Bull can easily reach its target audience through showing them how popular and trendy it is to drink their beverages. In the mean time they give the message to teenagers never to rest, and to do some sports, therefore they can become the cool and popular actors of their environment. Etical Behaviour After seeing what product Red Bull offers to teenagers, and conditioned how these adolescents are reached, it is essential to take into consideration whether marketing tools of energy drink providers are ethical or not.The American Marketing Association clearly defines what is considered to be ethical from marketing point of view, however, it must be mentioned that acting ethically is always relative, it depends on the set and norms what a certain individual, or what the troupe tends to clear as ethical. American Marketing Association states that norms a re the following do not harm further rely in the marketing system embrace ethical values while ethical values are honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency, citizenship (American Marketing Association, n. d.).Let us take a look at these one by one through the actions of Red Bull. Do not harm This means consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions by embodying high ethical standards and adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we make. (American Marketing Association, n. d. ) We have seen that even though we cannot state clearly that energy drinks are harmful for teenagers, they could have negative effects if they are consumed un-responsibly. Red Bull strongly covers its declensionisions of the ingredients of beverages through a legal perspective.Currently the amount of caffeine and taurine are below the unhealthy limits, therefore Red Bull cannot be questioned from legal point of view. On the other hand if we take a look at a can of Red Bull it is not described clearly how legion(predicate) milligrams of caffeine or taurine could or should be consumed per day, or how many cans of energy drink can an adult drink without risking his or her health. Just like on the megabucks of cigarettes or alcoholic beverages it should be mentioned in a visible, obvious way that drinking more than one can of energy drink per day could have harmful effects on health.Red Bull does not harm its buyers, however, the consumers should be educated more about the beverage. In return for this action Red Bull could be representing the care towards consumers. Foster trust in the marketing system This means var. for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange knead as well as avoiding deception in product design, pricing, communication, and delivery of distribution (American Marketing Association, n. d. ). Red Bull communicates towards customers that their drinks will Give you move.They position them selves in the centre of extreme sports and parties where particular(a) energy is essential. The picture they have built throughout the years is representing values of the company in an obvious, clear, and fair way. When we take a look at the price of a can of Red Bull it also represents that this beverage somehow stands out from other non-alcoholic drinks such as Coke or Sprite (Helm, 2005). Therefore they clearly give the message that this drink is something special and should be consumed only when the human body needs extra energy and wants to be on the top.Embrace ethical values This means building relationships and enhancing consumer confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming these core values honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency and citizenship. (American Marketing Association, n. d. ) Red Bulls target audience is the male population, from teenagers to 25-30 year old adults (Helm, 2005), however, when looking at teenagers, those who really purch ase or pay for the drinks are mostly their parents, of which Red Bull is confident, therefore they should give a message to the parents as well about honesty, responsibility, fairness, etc.Right now according to previous studies of this paper parents are the ones who trust the least these energy drinks and are scared of its negative effects on their teen children. Red Bull is honest, since what they state is true. Their beverage contains a high amount of taurine and caffeine that gives more energy and wings. On the other hand it is hard to say they are responsible. They do not focus on telling their teen consumers that the drink can be harmful, and in the mean time they drag the adolescents to dangerous extreme sports.These surely will not win the trust of parents. Red Bull and other energy drink providers should win the trust of parents by either not letting teenagers drink their beverages, or cook a certain type of drink that is even if consumed un-responsibly cannot have a ny negative effect on adolescents. All in all Red Bulls actions of marketing are legally cover and they cannot be mentioned as an unethical company, however, certain restrictions and actions would make them appear in a much more positive scene. Conclusion and RecommendationsWe have come to the final conclusion that energy drinks contain ingredients that can be harmful for consumers teens, adolescents, or adults however they are endangering health only if they are consumed irresponsibly. It is truly visible that the target audience of the highly caffeinated drinks are male adolescents (age 18-25), who tend to use more energy, or show the society how popular and cool they are. Sources have underlined that energy drinks are consumed by even younger teenagers, whose drinking habits may become dangerous, since they do not tend to focus on the healthy consumption of energy drinks.Red Bull and other similar beverage providers should put more focus on teenagers and provide them more detai ls on how the energy drinks should be consumed. Marketers of Red Bull and other energy drinks focus on the face of it on gaining the highest market share possible, however, they are keeping all the necessary limits to be legally covered. overly the possible unhealthy effects of the beverages these firm focus on sponsoring sports, which can help the health of teenagers in the long run, and attract them towards sports.The more they can effect teenagers to start doing some sports, the more helpful they can get for parents therefore the presence of energy drinks on the market causes controversies. To avoid confrontation with parents in the emerging energy drink producers should focus more on educating consumers how to drink their beverages, and state clearly on the cans the ingredients of their products. The scoop out possible solution would be to mention on the packaging visibly that teenagers below 18 should not consume energy drinks, or to create a product for younger teens that can be consumed without limits, at any time of the day.List of References American Marketing Association (n. d. ). affirmation of Ethics. ready(prenominal) at http//www. marketingpower. com/AboutAMA/Pages/Statement%20of%20Ethics. aspx (Accessed 1 November 2011) Arlidge, J. (2004). How Red Bull woke up the teen market. The Guardian, 5 December Online. obtainable at http//www. guardian. co. uk/media/2004/dec/05/advertising. formulaone (Accessed 31 October 2011) Clauson et al. (2008). Safety issues associated with commercially available energy drinks. Pharmacy Today 14 (5), pp. 5259. Conway, C. (2011). A Sports Marketing Success Story.Available at http//www. sportsnetworker. com/2011/03/08/a-sports-marketing-success-story/ (Accessed 29 October 2011) Helm, B. (2005). Energy Drinks Build Their Buzz. Bloomberg Businessweek, 5 January Online. Available at http//www. businessweek. com/smallbiz/content/jan2005/sb2005015_8196_sb017. htm (Accessed 29 October 2011) Ho, M. (2006). For Red Bu ll, Its Here, There and Everywhere. The Washington Post, 23 August Online. Available at http//www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082201516. html (Accessed 28 October 2011) Merchants of Cool, The (2001).Directed by Barak Goodman DVD. A Report on the Creators Marketers of pop Culture for Teenagers. s. l. , PBS Nordqvist, C. (2004). French ban on Red Bull (drink) upheld by European Court. Available at http//www. medicalnewstoday. com/releases/5753. php (Accessed 29 October 2011) Oblinger, D. G. (2005). Educating the Net Generation. s. l. , s. n. Olson, J. (2011) For some kids, drinks can pack a risky punch. Star Tribune, 13 February Online. Available at http//www. startribune. com/lifestyle/wellness/116136804. html (Accessed 1 November 2011) Park, A. (2011).Energy Drinks May Harm Health, curiously for Children. The Time, 14 February Online. Available at http//healthland. time. com/2011/02/14/energy-drinks-may-harm-health/ixzz1cRphxGJE (Accessed 28 Octob er 2011) Parker-Pope, T. (2008). Energy drinks linked to risky behavior among teenagers. The new York Times, 27 May Online. Available at http//www. nytimes. com/2008/05/27/health/27iht-27well. 13247828. html (Accessed 28 October 2011) Sarasalin, K. , Watthanachai T. (2009). The internationalization assist of Red Bull from the perspectives of global expansion.Master Thesis. Malardalen University. Shea B. , Harvey-Berino J. , Johnson R. (2010). Watching television how does it influence the dietary quality of children?. feed Bulletin 35(2) pp. 165-171. Academic Search Complete Online. Available at http//web. ebscohost. com (Accessed 1 November 2011) Sonneville K. , Gortmaker S. (2008). Total energy intake, adolescent discretionary behaviors and the energy gap. International Journal Of Obesity 32 (19-27). Academic Search Complete Online. Available at http//web. ebscohost. com (Accessed 1 November 2011).