Red Bull sells an emotion, not an energy drink

Red Bull was created in 1987 by Dietrich Mateschitz, who found a similar drink in Thailand and licensed the formula. From the start, the product was priced at three times the cost of a Coca-Cola, making it aspirationally expensive rather than mass-market. Mateschitz explicitly positioned Red Bull not as a beverage but as a performance-enhancing lifestyle brand — funding extreme sports events, owning Formula One teams, and producing content. Red Bull's media company now reaches more people than most traditional media brands. The drink is almost secondary to the brand identity it sells.

Source: Gschwandtner, The Miracle of Red Bull, Selling Power magazine (2004)