INTRODUCTION
Over the past year, the market for energy drinks suddenly boomed, especially with the powerful advertising and promotional campaigns for Red Bull and then by Speed and Shark. Interestingly, Red Bull, the world leading energy drink was originally launched in Lebanon in 1999 but the product failed due to poor marketing. In 2002, the product was launched again and due to its success, other energy drink brands soon followed to take advantage of the sudden creation of the new market upsurge. Despite the debates over the side effects of such energy drinks, the market has grown at skyrocketing levels.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The objective of our research is to determine consumer awareness and perception of energy drinks, especially among the students of the Lebanese American University.
Our research question is: How do LAU students perceive energy drinks and to what extent are they aware of them.
SAMPLE DEFINITION
Our sample constituted 100 questionnaires distributed on LAU campus.
English: It is a picture of a fridge full of energ...
Some Reload -energy drink bottles.
Bunch of Energy drinksWe also selected LAU as our target research population because LAU students tend to represent the target market of energy drinks as they are characterized as the affluent, young, and highly educated members of the Lebanese society.
METHODOLOGY
Our questionnaire constituted of nine questions. The first question of the questionnaire aimed at determining the times and occasions on which customers consumed energy drink. We identified four major possible occasions namely playing sports, clubbing, studying for exam or when thirsty.
The second question aimed at determining the type of energy drink that the respondents consumed, and we gave them four major brand names namely Red Bull, Gatorade, Speed and Shark.
The third question aimed at determining the frequency of consumption, and we gave the respondents three potential answers, namely once to twice a week, three to five times a week, or...