Interdisciplinary extended essay for the IB.

Extended Essay Planning Form

1. Title (This should be fairly general, and not phrased as a question)

Ex: An Exploration on the Effect of Social Media on Adolescents Ability to Socially Interact

How redbull used psychological principles to promote their brands identity.

1. Potential Research Question (this will evolve, but should be focused and phrased as a question):

Ex. To what extent does TotalEnergies reconcile its CSR objectives when it comes to the

Tilenga/EACOP project?

To what extent did psychological principles of social proof and group identity contribute to the effectiveness of Red Bulls grassroots seeding strategy during its early market entry?

1. Aims of the research (why your EE is worthy of study)

Ex: This research is relevant as it highlights changes in the environment that impact us directly both physically (health) and emotionally, OR with fewer resources, companies will need to develop new technologies that are created using alternative methods that dont compromise the environment.

This EE aims to research and put to light how red bull used psychological principles and mechanisms to influence the target audiences perception of the brand and its identity. Understanding these factors is important as it could promote us to analyze the world around us, and understand what could be part of a strategic marketing stunt.

1. What are the important or key theories/theorists and concepts you will be incorporating?

The theories and concepts that I will be using are Social Proof (Robert Cialdini, 1984). Redbull’s seeding strategy relies on a perceived image of the brand, influencing people to think that the drink is more popular than it really was at the time. I will also refer to Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), as this marketing strategy influences the youth and target audience to buy into the trend and culture, not the drink itself. Thirdly I will write about the bandwagon effect (Leibenstein, 1950), it is relevant because people bought the product for its perceived popularity, joining the bandwagon. Finally, I will also incorporate the Word-of-Mouth & WOM Diffusion (Arndt, 1967; Katz & Lazarsfeld, 1955) as this is essentially what the seeding strategy is.