Market Research

Energy drinks are generally popular with the younger audience, where approximately 65% of all drinks sold are from the ages of 13-35 years old, with the majority being male. Energy drinks have raised awareness in schools and colleges, as parents and teachers are worried that students are consuming too much at a time. Many students admit to drinking energy drinks simply to stay awake, or to write an assignment.


US
By 2001, the US energy drink market had grown to nearly 8 million per year in retail sales. Over the next 5 years, it grew an average of over 50% per year, totalling over $3 Billion in 2005.
The energy drink market became a $5.4 billion dollar market in 2007, and it was predicted that it would hit $10 billion by 2010.
Within the United States, Gatorade accounts for approximately 75 percent market share in the sports drink category.


UK
The UK sports and energy drinks category grew 15.6% in the 12 months to October 2010 to £827.6m, according to Nielsen Scantrack.
Lucozade Sport is worth £103m and has a 62% market share of the Sports drinks segment. Lucozade remains the No.1 brand in the UK Sports and Energy market, with nine times the annual sales of Powerade or Monster and 31 times the annual sales of Mountain Dew. Lucozade sports popularity is largely due to its partnership with the premier league. Coca-Cola's Powerade also witnessed a decrease of 4.6% in 2009, with sales of £34.4m. The next biggest brand is Powerade, launched by Coke in 2001. Seven years on, and with the might of the Coke distribution model and the share is 19%. Gatorade has just 1.2% of the sales in the UK.


Worldwide
Gatorade is now the World’s No. 1 Sports Drink, worth over $1billion and has a 48% share of global Sports Drink market.
The demographic can be broken down as both committed exercisers and social players who tend to be 25 – 44yrs old with a male bias. They spend most of their free time out of home; as such they consume a lot of out of home media and are light TV viewers.
As sports enthusiasts they also consume a lot of media either about sport (magazines) or whilst in a sporting environment (gyms or ‘on the field’). However additionally the aim was to increase frequency and penetration with existing buyers and bring new users into the Sports Drinks sub-category.
Powerade grew 25% overall to obtain a 27% market share.

The graph below shows the market shares of 5 of the most popular energy drink brands in the UK: 'Red Bull, Lucozade, Powerade, Gatorade and Monster'. It's clear from the graph that Lucozade holds the majority of the market share, this is due to their different range of products and their celebrity endorsed advertisements.