Case Study - Brand Thums-Up

Born: 1977
History: Launched in India by Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd. Now owned by Coca-Cola.

India Status: Market share is a much disputed subject in the cola industry—yet some insiders, who claim
to be in the know, say that Thums Up accounted for 50 million of the 550 million cases sold in the
carbonated drinks segment in 2007, and the brand is the largest selling cola in India, with a share larger
than that of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
Brand story:

Thums Up was launched by Parle Agro Pvt. Ltd to fill the void left by the government ban on American
soft drinks giant Coca-Cola in the 1970s. The thumbs-up logo was adopted early on, but the brand was
positioned differently then.

“Thums Up was earlier positioned as a refreshing cola, with slogans such as Thums Up Makes it Great
and Happy Days are here Again. It was post-1996 that the brand moved towards a more individualistic,
masculine positioning,” says Kashmira Chadha, director of marketing at Coca-Cola.

Things changed post liberalization, when Thums Up faced stiff competition from Pepsi and Coke. After a
tough fight, the Chauhan brothers, owners of Parle Agro, finally sold Thums Up to Coca-Cola.

Though Thums Up enjoyed a market share of around 30% at the time, Coca-Cola focused all its energy
on promoting the Coke brand.

“Any outsider will not be able to fathom the equity that the brand Thums Up enjoys among its target
group. Coca-Cola did not understand it either. It was busy fighting Pepsi with its brand Coke,” says Arvind
Sharma, chairman, Leo Burnett India Pvt. Ltd, the creative agency that has handled the Thums Up
account since the 1990s.

While Coca-Cola refutes the suggestion that it tried to kill Thums Up in India, people in the industry think
otherwise.

“They tried to divert Thums Up loyalists to Coca-Cola in a concerted way,” says a person who used to
work with Parle Agro.

“By the time Coca-Cola and Pepsi came to India, a whole generation had grown up drinking Thums Up.
Their connect with the brand was not easy to break,” says a senior media buy er involved with the brand
who did not wish to be identified.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola also realized that about half its sales were on account of Thums Up; killing the
brand at a time when competition with Pepsi was intense would mean losing that much in sales.

Around 1995, Coca-Cola began focusing on the brand—its positioning changed, to a more masculine
brand. “The strategy was rooted in the simple insight that India is a market where most of the soft drink
consumption is outdoors, and a majority of consumers are male. Using the strong taste of Thums Up, we
repositioned the brand by marrying the taste to our target group,” says Sharma.

In the recent past, the 31-year-old brand has held on to its market share. “For a brand as iconic as Thums
Up, one does not need to innovate; it is consistency that won the consumers over and it is, therefore,
consistency that we offer them,” says Chadha.
Thums Up, as one would agree, is a truly relevant, resurgent and ageless brand which has
withstood the test of times. Born is 1977, it has seen several highs and lows in the industry.
The brand was present even when Coca Cola had earlier shut down India operations. Then,
Campa Cola and Thums Up were the only cola brands in the market. Since then not much
has changed with the brand and yet so much has.

According to Anand Singh of Thums Up, Coca Cola, the history of the brand makes it a cola
drink which was made in India, by India and for India. He spoke in details about the
evolution of the icon of Thums Up which depicts masculinity, not only physical but also
cerebral. Singh drove home his point by showing several advertisements from the erstwhile
Thumps Up to the modern day.
“Thums Up came up as a unique brand with an unique taste. It is a drink which goes well
with several food types. Over the years the brand has effortlessly blended into our lives and
has created a niche for itself,” he said.

“Today the brand embodies masculinity in both physical and cerebral aspects. Thumps Up
depicts an adventurer, it has machismo and in recent times, a retro-sexual feel. The brand
has effortlessly blended into all of these, he added. He also pointed out that how the brand
has stood for simplicity, which has been a mantra for its success. For the past many years
there has been several constants in the way Thums Up has positioned itself, be it in the
jingles or in the imageries that it drew. Singh concluded by quoting Leonardo da Vinci and
said, ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’.
How Thums Up became the ruling cola of India.
by BO B PA GE on 18 OCTOBER 2009

For very good reasons, the national cola of India — Thums Up — stars in a dozen case
studies on the intersection of global and local forces. These studies are a fascinating
combination of anthropology, sociology and marketing, where Thums Up usually symbolizes
the triumph of indigenous values.
If mythical gods get thirsty, their beverage of choice is probably Thums Up.

A little history: The Indian government gave an edict to companies such as Coca-Cola and
IBM in 1974: Hand over control to your Indian subsidiary, or leave. In 1977, rather than
comply with the new ownership law, Coca-Cola left. In its absence, several Indian
companies went after the national soft drink market. A government-run company named
one cola “Double Seven” after the year of the departure. Double Seven apparently captured
the essential flavor of government, and didn’t do well. Coke’s former local bottler, Pure
Drinks, created “Campa Cola.” Parle, a food and beverage company in Mumbai, created
“Thums Up,” with a distinctive, spicy flavor something like a betel nut. At least that’s what
they said. It tastes like a cola to me, but I digress.
Thums Up dominated, growing to 35 percent market share.

Then, in 1993, looser government controls enabled Coca-Cola and Pepsi to re-enter India.
Coca-Cola bought Thums Up from Parle. After a couple of years, deciding it was easier to
beat Pepsi with two brands than one, Coca-Cola invested heavily in Thums Up. New brand
messages celebrated local culture and values, including the way its spicy finish
complements Indian dishes. The logo’s simple thumbs-up gesture capitalizes on
resemblance to Manmad Hill in the Maharashtra region of western India.

Just a few weeks ago, in The Economic Times of India, two creative directors who managed
Thums Up advertising — Ashok Kurien and Elsie Nanji — wrote about how they turned
Pepsi’s playbook against them in the 1980s and 1990s. They scripted actress Pooja Bhatt to
pick Thums Up over Pepsi in a blind taste-test, taking claim to Pepsi’s usual tactic. They
signed actor Salman Khan to portray an Indian Air Force fighter pilot winning in the skies,
pre-empting a Pepsi promotion with Tom Cruise’s pilot from “Top Gun.”
Today, estimates give Thums Up 16 percent market share, with soft drinks Sprite at 15 and
Pepsi at 13. Coca-Cola just re-invested in Thums Up’s 20-year-old “Taste the Thunder”
campaign, naming actor Akshay Kumar as new brand ambassador.
The local guy, Thums Up, ultimately won the mythical fight for Indian cola supremacy
against Pepsi and Coca-Cola. It’s an unusual case of David and Goliath having a pre-fight
meeting, deciding everybody would be better off with David as the local hero, calling off the
battle, and then teaming up to beat the other guys.
Thums up is possibly India’s most resilient iconic brand. While legions of companies pump
large sums of money into their brands in the hope that they attain “icon” status, Thums Up
has done so with minimal fanfare. Launched by the Chauhan brothers Ramesh and
Prakash in order to fill the gap that Coca-Cola left when it exited India in 1977, Thums Up
introduced a bold new flavour that Indian customers instantly took to. “We first tried variants
that tasted like Pepsi and Coke, then launched our version with an orange base and more
fizz,” says Ramesh Chauhan. Apparently, colas have a base fruit flavour in the concentrate.
Pepsi and Coke are, according to Chauhan, lemon-based. “In our minds we had an image
of a man with an eye-patch. We wanted a different taste that would be the hook and the
differentiator for our brand,” he adds.
The stronger, fizzier carbonated beverage has ruled the ruthlessly contested cola category
for much of its existence. At first, Thums Up faced-off against local competitors such as
Campa Cola, Double Seven, Duke’s McDowell’s Crush and Double Cola, amongst others.
When the Chauhans sold Thums Up to Coca-Cola in 1993 upon the cola giant’s reentry, it
was forced to share shelf space with both Coke and Pepsi.

Here’s where the tale gets twisted. Instead of treating its number one
brand like a prized stallion—in 1993, when Coke entered India,
Thums Up had a 36 per cent market share versus 26 per cent for
Pepsi—industry sources say that Coke tried to kill the brand (The
company denies this allegation). This case of cola filicide resulted in
Coke India ceding ground to Pepsi, as Thums Up’s market share
began to take a precipitous dive.
Today, Thums Up is once again King of the cola hill, with a 16 per
cent share, and Sprite and Pepsi trailing it with 15 and 13 per cent
respectively. So, what explains this remarkable tale of chutzpah and
resilience?

Thums Up’s advertising has stayed clever and consistent, for one. In the 1980s, Thums Up
ads featured a hummable jingle, Happy Days Are Here Again—innocuous enough, but in
reality “this was a coded message that not only announced the availability of cola, after both
Pepsi and Coke had exited the country, but also signalled the end of the Emergency,” says
brand expert Anand Halve. This was followed by “Taste the Thunder” tagline in the 1990s
that is in existence till today.

Coke has been far from consistent in this regard. “I do not know what it’s trying to say,” says
Halve. The brand has alternated from its international messages, “Enjoy,” or “Eat, Sleep,
Drink,” to ones in Hindi such as Jashn Mana Le, Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola, and Sar Utha
Ke Piyo.

Most importantly, Thums Up’s “taste profile has resonated well with the Indian palette. It
offers a masculine appeal and its taste becomes biologically coded with this appeal after
sometime,” observes Santosh Desai, former Head of McCann Erickson. Still, question is,
can Thums Up continue to attract the Gen-Next audience who are so completely familiar
with Pepsi and Coke? “I do believe that it will survive and thrive,” says marketing expert
Harish Bijoor. Still, Coke’s Sprite has quickly become the No. 2 brand in the country and is
within spitting distance of Thums Up. If the brand wants to continue tasting the thunder, it
needs a strategy to compete with not just colas, but other flavours in the sparkling category
as well.

—Shamni Pande
Brand : Thums Up
Company: Coca Cola
Agency:Leo Burnett

What will you do after buying a brand which has a market share of 60 % for 120 crore?

a. Build it further
b. Consolidate the position
c. Extend the brand equity
d. Kill it

Well a company took the choice ( d) .

A company known for its marketing prowess, owner of an iconic brand which is
considered to be the most valued brand in the world. Does this choice seem totally …
idiotic?

That was what Coca-Cola Company tries to do with Thums Up…

Thums Up was launched in India in 1977 when the multi national giants coke and Pepsi
were asked to leave the country. Thums up ruled the Indian market for 16 years . A
brand owned by Ramesh Chauhan of Parle was a carefully built icon. It could withstand
the competition from Pepsi and was a market leader.
With the Cola war hotting up with the reentry of Coke into the Indian market in 1992, a
very unusual event happened. Ramesh Chauhan sold Thums Up to Coke for 120 crores.

There after we saw a very unusual happening, an event very rare in Marketing history, a
company killing a market leader bought for 120 crores to launch its global brand. In
marketing this never makes sense. Why should you kill a leading brand for launching
your own brand? Are you so smart ? Over confident?
History proved other wise….

Thums up even after 13 years sells more than coke and Pepsi. The brand is so strong that
it has refused to die. After 1985 “ New Coke” failure, this is the greatest marketing
blunder that Coke made.

Thums Up was our very own Indian brand. Launched as a very masculine brand with
the baseline “ Taste the Thunder” stole the heart of millions of Indian youth. Thums UP
is a strong tasting cola targeting at young adults. It has the highest carbonation among

the cola brands which appealed to the palate of

Indians. The brand is very popular in Andhra Pradesh , Maharashtra Gujarat, UP , West
Bengal, and Karnataka with Andhra contributing 30% of the sales.

The brand personifies victory,achievement and celebration.

With Thums Up; the largest selling cola at its fold, Coca Cola initially tried to kill the
brand to pave the entry of Coke. But they found that only Pepsi will benefit with the
withdrawal of Thums Up and retracted the strategy. The new owners tried to reposition
Thums Up as a manly brand. The famous tagline “Taste the Thunder “was changed to “I
want my Thunder” But that change was a flop and the company retracted the old tagline.
Later they again changed the baseline to “ Grow Up to Thums up” in tune with the
strategy of blind taste campaign depicting Pepsi as a sweeter brand , hence not for men.
It is said that the campaign was successful.
Right now Thums Up is degraded as a flanking brand for Coke. Coke is using it just to
bash Pepsi. Coke has been using all macho film personalities like Akshay , Salman and
Sunil Shetty to position this brand as a macho brand . We see sporadic bursts of
promotions of this brand but one can see the dilemma of Coke about this brand. Full
scale promotion of the brand can take away the share of coke which they cannot afford
to do. Taking this brand away will help Pepsi. So he only choice is to push it along till it
dies on its own.

Coke was never fully into the promotion of the brand. Half heartedly they tried to
market the brand making all sort of repositioning and experiments. Even after all these
messing up, the brand is strong. May be the consumers are not willing to let go the
brand. This is a classic case of a brand getting an iconic status. A case where the
customers take the ownership of the brand. Now Coke no longer owns the brand ,
consumers own it.

Had Coke promoted the brand, Pepsi did not have a chance in Indian cola market. By
looking inwardly and taking a blind eye towards the consumer, Coke has compromised
on the basic principles of marketing. Coke could have ruled the Indian market with
Thums Up. But they could not stand the thought of Coca cola playing a supporting role
to another brand.

Coke is trying to create a separate market for Thums Up. It is playing the regional game
and in areas where coke is strong, slowly Thums Up is withdrawn. As a marketer I don’t
see a future in this brand. This icon is going to fade into the annals of History of Brands