Tasting the thunder: How Thums Up rose to become a billion-dollar brand

If the Greeks have to recreate their mythology today, the choice for a parallel character in the world of business and branding to that of the phoenix would probably be obvious. Thums Up’s steep decline amid the onslaught from foreign multinationals and its majestic rise since to reclaim the stature that it deserved is nothing short of a resurrection story — like a phoenix reborn, rising from the ashes.

After being left in the sidelines to lurch for years, the widely popular cola brand finally made it to global arena in 2021, when it raked in over $1 billion (Rs 7,500 crore) in annual sales. The home grown brand today holds the rare feat of being one of the handful of beverage brands globally to have that pull. But it was not all hunky-dory for the giant that has been quenching Indians’ thirst for over four decades.

Launched in 1977 to fill the vacuum created by Coca-Cola, Thums Up soon became the de-facto cola drink for the Indian consumers. But by 1995 it was in dire straits after American behemoth Coca-Cola acquired it, along with a bunch of other home-grown popular brands like Limca, Maaza and Gold Spot from Parle. PepsiCo, that had entered the local market in 1989, four years ahead of arch-rival Coke, was already the market leader. So, when Coke re-entered the Indian market, in 1993, it decided to go all out to establish its flagship Coca-Cola brand. And that’s where Thums Up’s journey turned downhill.

With deep pockets and a global mandate to conquer the newly opened up Indian consumer market, the fierce battle for market share meant Thums Up was the obvious victim. In its search for a foothold, amid onslaught by Pepsi and Thums Up’s loyal followers, Coke decided to take charge of the brand. While, it started spending Rs 200 crore behind brand Coca-Cola - equalling PepsiCo’s budget for the Pepsi Cola, funds ran dry for Thums Up that it had acquired recently.

According to people directly involved in marketing of leading cola brands at the time, the comparison is “ludicrous”. “While, they were spending Rs 200 crore for Coca-Cola, same as PepsiCo was allocating for Pepsi Cola, in 1995 ad budget for Thums Up was a meagre Rs 1.8 crore. That’s even less than 1:100!”, said a source.

Ramesh Chauhan, founder and chairman of Parle Group and the original cola king of India, who had created the Thums Up, along with Limca, Maaza and Gold Spot, still recalls the attempts by Coke to kill the iconic brand to promote its own. “We had created these brands to fill the vacuum (following Coke’s exit from the India market in 1977). And we succeeded and did very well. But when I sold Thums Up to Coke, the funny thing is, they didn’t appreciate the value of the brand. And they actually tried to kill it. That’s a bit odd”, Chauhan told Business Today.

Chauhan, who was closely watching the developments after handing over his prized possession to the Atlanta-based Cola major in 1993, recalls that at least for the first two years Coca-Cola did not allocate any budget at all for brand Thums Up. “I was watching carefully. I was surprised to see, there was a strong afford to underplay Thums Up. They stopped advertising. Soft drinks cannot survive without ads!”, he recalls.

Apart from keeping it off the air, to make sure that its flagship Coca-Cola replaces Thums Up at the counters, Coke deliberately “cut down supplies in markets where Thums Up was strong”, he said.

But like in case of most success stories, Thums Up had its saviour(s) too. It was the brand loyalists; the thousands of Indian consumers, who for over a decade found an association with its appeal, its taste and the masculinity. And there was a crack team of branding and advertising experts, who even with a meagre budget began to turn the needle.

After touching the nadir in 1995, amid a fierce battle between brand Coke and Pepsi, the story of its turnaround really began when a team headed by Arvind Sharma, former CEO and Chairman of ad agency Leo Burnett, entered the picture. To cash in on the strong taste and strong fizz that Thums Up always had, Sharma and his team came up with the idea of re-establishing the brand based on its masculinity factor.

“The idea was to place it as a larger than life, adventure-driven brand that came together as very compelling package for the 18-35 years old group”, Sharma recalls. And thus came the ‘Bungee jumping ad’ that turned the tide. It was this analysis of the brand Thums Up that eventually proved vital for its survival in the following decades.

With the brand’s sales growing again, by 2002/03, Sharma and his team decided to take the battle head on to the market leader Pepsi Cola. To grow the consumer base further - from the adult, out-of-home consumers - it began targeting the teens in India with its immensely successful ‘Grow up to Thums Up Challenge’ campaign. “See, the last thing teens and young adults want to hear is that they are consuming kiddy stuff. So, the messaging was that while Pepsi Cola is a diluted, sweeter version, Thums Up is for the grown ups”, he told Business Today.

The rest is history.

By the end of the decade, Thums Up’s growing influence had to be recognised by the global management at Coca-Cola. And nearly after one and half decades, it was being considered as the flagship brand for the company - at least in the India market. Following which support for Thums Up started scaling up.

Today, the brand’s scale and size dwarfs all other aerated brands in the country. While Maaza that Coke had acquired from Parle along with Thums Up, contributed Rs 2,826 crore in sales last year and is larger than brand Coke in term of revenue. As per market research firm Nielsen, Pepsi Cola is the second largest brand, after Thums Up in India, followed by Maaza, Coca-Cola and Limca.

With its clout overshadowing every other brand, Coca-Cola management is not leaving it to the sidelines either. Not anymore. According to Sanket Ray, President for India and Southwest Asia at Coca-Cola, the company management’s seriousness about the brand is reflected at its recent initiatives like putting at the forefront for major sporting events like Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“Our local Thums Up brand has become a billion-dollar brand in India driven by focused marketing and execution plans. We are also investing in diversity, equity and inclusion for the next wave of growth. We are extremely proud of walking the talk with this vision and expanding it further in terms of our product communication, and partnerships as well. Our recent associations [Olympic and Paralympic Athletes for Thums Up ‘Palat De' & 'Taana Palata De'] are a big breakthrough in this new thinking”, he said.

Thums Up may have already won the toughest of its battles and has since established itself on a foundation that would be hard to destabilise. But brand and market experts believe, the $ 1 billion mark is just a milestone in its 45 years journey. “The brand has potential to grow much bigger - may be beyond Rs 10,000 crore in annual sales”, said Sharma.