The founder and co-owner of Red Bull Dietrich Mateschitz passed away at the age of 78 (1944-2022) after battling illness for some time. It is indeed a sad day to see one of the best brand builders the world has ever seen pass away. Our thoughts are with his family and his near and dear ones at this time.
Red Bull, his life's work will live on, not only in the energy drink and the sports teams, but also in the lessons learnt from his approach to brand building.
Born in Austria on 20th of May 1944, Dietrich Mateschitz, graduated with a degree in Marketing in 1972 and started working in the FMCG space with Unilever marketing detergents. In a subsequent job, he then moved to now owned by Procter & Gamble german FMCG company Blandex.
While selling essentially commoditised products in detergents across multiple brands, his insights into brand positioning and use of marketing to create a brand image were starting to form.
