March is finally here, which means college basketball to most American sports fans. The NCAA March Madness Men's College Basketball Tournament is upon us and sport bars across america could not be more crowed. This Basketball tournament has been around since 1939 and since then it has grown to become one of America's most watch television series of all time, just coming short of the super bowl. This tournament is not limited to just one day though. The games will continue for 3 weeks until the National Championship on April 6th. With so many viewers watching these games, companies around the globe pay networks that broadcast the games such as CBS, millions of dollars just for 30 second commercials. It is calculated that just for a 30 second ad to be shown on one of the games it would cost about half a million dollars. For a final four game it would cost about one million dollars and for the national championship it would cost about one and a half million dollars. Over the past two years it is said that advertisement spending has increased 66% in just the past two years. Everything is marketed from the Capital One pre-game show all the down to the Werner latter the winning team uses to cut down the net after winning. 

This year it is estimated that over 1.3 billion dollars will be generated from the advertisements over the course of the 3 week tournament. Companies are willing pay all this money because they see the value in the viewership with these games. On social media alone 1.5 billion conversations include corporate partners that are affiliated with the NCAA tournament throughout the three weeks. Companies such as Capital One and AT&T will create there own social media campaign to drawn in the media posts. They offer numerous prices when using certain hash tags or when you sign up for a credit card and use it at certain restaurants such as Buffalo Wild Wings. Buffalo Wild Wings is the official Bar sponsor of the NCAA tournament and has created a new line of commercials which feature popular comedians just for the 2015 tournament. All companies who have time slots in the tournament create new and appealing commercials to catch the millions of viewers attention.    

Big businesses are not the only ones making deals during March Madness. Small local sport bars all across the nation see a higher amount of customers during the tournament. Many will offer deals with beers, or half off when wearing a college team shirt, and so on and so on. Many bars even go as far as giving away free big screen televisions to people. Sports are becoming the leading area where companies are now spending their money. Americas seem to be easily swayed during sports and companies are taking full advantage with over a billion dollars pumped into this 2015 tournament.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8BXH3SJn0 

Red bull was founded in 1987  and since then the company has evolved from an Australia energy drink, to a billion dollar company that owns major league sport teams, such as The New York Red Bulls and a British Formula 1 racing team. Red Bull sponsor a variety of athletes who cover a wide range of sports including rock climbing, chess, wind sailing, volleyball, rugby, sailing, snowboarding, skiing, and many others. Red Bull is a globally recognized brand that has markets in over 100 counties. How did a company such as Red Bull become one of the world's most recognizable companies on the planet? The answer is simple, Red Bull created a strong marketing campaign and a solid business model.

"We are dedicated to upholding Red Bull standards, while maintaining the leadership position in the energy drinks category when delivering superior customer service in a highly efficient and profitable manner. We create a culture where employees share best practices dedicated to coaching and developing our organisation as an employer of choice."

Red Bull uses something called "buzz marketing" to sell  their product. Red Bull is one of the best social media companies out in the market. They use the media in all different ways by creating youtube series with famous athletes, and creating documentaries that are critically recognized. Red Bull's most iconic documentary Flight as seen on netflixs, had a budget of two million dollars and  was viewed by millions. On Estimate every 10 seconds of the video the Red Bull logo was shown at least 2 times. Not only does Red Bull have their own extreme sport leagues and documentaries, they also sponsored the highest jump any human has ever made. Felix Baumgartner made a 125 kilometer jump just outside the lower atmosphere. The jump has over 50 million views on youtube and was even broadcaster on new stations across the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5N7R9Wbe_E

Let us not forget this company was once only sold as energy drink. Now Red Bull's market branches out into many others which include clothing, events, and even lifestyles. Red Bull has became a lifestyle, the once Red Bull gives you wings  slogan has evolved to, Welcome to my world the world of Red Bull. There are no longer any more iconic television commercials where someone drinks a Red Bull and starts to fly away. Advertisements for Red Bull now include extreme sport athletes wearing the brand, showing off the logo and selling their lifestyle. The idea is to bridge a connection with the consumer and ideals who have extraordinary qualities. It is almost amazing how many athletes Red Bull has under them. Any sport that you can think of, Red Bull has a athlete sponsored wearing their logo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh29_SERH0Y

Red Bull takes to social media with many accounts on instagram, facebook and twitter. Each Red Bull account is followed on average by over 15 million people. That gives Red Bull a huge loyal consumer base. They follow in the lifestyle and follow in the product. It is one of the reasons Red Bull has become so successful over the years. It is because of that and also the fact that almost any alcohol mixed with Red Bull taste amazing such as jager.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoSVI7ovEIw- New

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BscxtCS0uMI-Old

Marketing Segmentation 

Marketing segmentation is one of the most important strategy a company can use to sell a product to a group of specific consumers. A book definition of market segmentation is strategy that involves dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers, businesses, or countries who have common needs and priorities, and then designing and implementing strategies to target them. These segmentations can be broken into more concentrated areas that separate by groups by culture, location, race, gender, age, and so on. The more market research that is conducted on these segmentations, the easier it is to sell to them. Companies big or small all do this. For example McDonald's has many different segmentation such as Asian, Hispanic, Black, White, Young, Mothers, Fathers, Kids, Teens, Elderly, and others. Each segment has a marketing director who is in charge in conducting marketing research and discovering trends in with the group. The better they know their consumers, the easier it is to sell to them. For example, McDonald's found out that the Asian audience prefers more variety and different flavors in their products compared to other groups. Commercials that were targeted towards Asians would have more products with different flavors such as a southwestern salads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcRFBVIvJHw

McDonald's commercials are not the usual commercials. McDonald's always makes an effort to include all race sin their commercials. They will usually have a black male, asia female, and hispanic male all in their early 20s or so. They are targeting young people all over the globe just by that one commercial.

McDonald's does a good job at bringing a younger audience in by having iconic cartoons in their commercials. For example the iconic minun cartoon characters were used in McDonald's  commercials and even given out as toys in their happy meals. By noticing a popularity in these cartoons with young children, McDonald's made a deal with the movie studio and made a contract to both promote the movie and McDonald's  all at the same time. These deals happy all the time with franchise companies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4-tVdpLas            

Hours and hours of research go into market segmentation. Marketing Campaigns are all based off of the consumers. To understand a consumer one must first target the consumer, categorized one, group interest together and then try to seem appealing. There is so much that can be said just by giving your race, age, gender, and location. Companies take full advantage of these traits when trying to target certain groups. millions can be spent on this process but also millions can be potentially made off this process.

"Share a Coke"

A simple yet genius idea of simply putting a few names on a can or bottle of soda was one of the best market strategies Coca Cola has come with in the past couple of years. In this day and age soda companies like Coca Cola are plateauing due to lack of sales. A shift in trends in the market has hurt the soda business hard. Soda companies are being taken out of schools and restaurants to create a healthier lifestyle. In 2013 sales on soda products have dropped by 3%. It was the 9th consecutive year of decline of sales. Clearly something need to change. In 2014  the Share a Coke marketing campaign was put into action all over the globe. Coke took 250 popular names and put them on individual bottles. It was met with a positive reaction from the consumer base and increased sales by 2%. Consumers got the feeling of a treasure hunt when looking for a bottle with their name on can. The idea behind the campaign was to take one of the world's most recognizable logo and turn it into a personal name that consumers can relate too

"A Coke can or bottle is the most iconic design in the world and the fact you can impact that with your name has a huge curiosity and wow factor,'' said Dean Crutchfield, an independent branding consultant. .  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X8Bd3-G6IU
In total Coke has spent 4.3 billion dollars in advertising in 2014 globally. Coke committed a lot of time and money to the Share a Coke campaign because it was not just limited to the cans. There was a whole social media media side and even has customal name making machines. This Campaign was very successful because it was appealing to everyone and all ages. Young adults and small teens were influence the most though. The young adult and teen audience for soda has been shrinking over the years and this was a perfect way to draw them back. The use of social media  in the campaign was huge success to bring in a younger consumer base. Many kids loved the fact that they are drinking a drink with their name on it. Even Phrases such as friend, family, and wingman we put on the cans. 

Coke has done a good job at adapting to market shifts by investing in other no soda markets to be a lasting a healthy company that can trusted to last. Even though they are in the soda business Coke has made many pledges to help support causes such as diabetes and obesity. The company has made a statement that says in 2025 all Coke drinks will be limited to 250 calories. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2kn9MwicDQ
The soda business is a losing market and Coke knows this. They are doing everything they can do to try and shift with these market trends to stay relevant in the world.