Thums Up - Background

Background

During the late 1970s, the American cola giant Coca-Cola abandoned operations in India rather than make a forced sale of 60% of their equity to an Indian company. Following this, the Parle brothers, Ramesh Chauhan and Prakash Chauhan, along with then CEO Bhanu Vakil, launched Thums Up as their flagship drink, adding to their portfolio of older brands Limca (lime flavour) and Gold Spot (orange flavour).

The Thums Up logo was a red 'Thumbs Up' hand gesture with a slanted white sans-serif typeface. This would later be modified by Coca-Cola with blue strokes and a more modern-looking typeface.

The picture of the hill shows the Manmad Hills, popularly known as the "Thums Up Mountain" or the "Thums Up Pahaar" (in Hindi), because it has a natural top like the "Thums Up" logo and is a popular sight from trains. Its famous caption until the early 1980s was, "Happy days are here again", coined by then famous copywriter, Vasant Kumar, whose father was spiritual philosopher U. G. Krishnamurti. The caption became "I want My Thunder", which is currently "Taste the thunder!"

Thums Up enjoyed a near monopoly with a much stronger market share often overshadowing its other rivals like Campa cola, Double Seven and Dukes, but there were many small regional players who had their own market. It even withstood liquor giant United Breweries Group (makers of Kingfisher Beer) McDowell's Crush, which was another Cola drink, and Double Cola.

It was one of the major advertisers throughout the 1980s. In the mid-80’s it had a brief threat from a newcomer Double Cola which suddenly disappeared within a few years.

In 1990, when the Indian government opened the market to multinationals, Pepsi was the first to come in. Thums Up went up against the international giant for an intense onslaught with neither side giving any quarter. With Pepsi roping in major Indian movie stars like Juhi Chawla, to thwart the Indian brand, Thums Up increased its spending on Cricket sponsorship. Then the capacity went from 250ml to 300ml, aptly named MahaCola. This nickname gained popularity in smaller towns where people would ask for "Maha Cola" instead of Thums Up. The consumers were divided where some felt Pepsi’s mild taste was rather bland.

In 1993 Coca-Cola re-entered India after a prolonged absence from 1977 to 1993, spurring a three-way Cola War between Thums Up and Pepsi. That same year, Parle sold out to Coke for US$60 million. Some assumed Parle had lost the appetite for a fight against the two largest cola brands; others surmised that the international brands seemingly endless cash reserves overwhelmed Parle. Thums Up had a 85% market share when sold.