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Introduction
Thums Up is an Indian cola brand. A red thumbs up is used as the logo.
It was launched in 1977 to compensate for The Coca-Cola Company's
exit from India. Coca-Cola eventually purchased the brand and
relaunched it to compete with Pepsi.
Despite its excellent overall equity, Thums Up was losing popularity
among the main cola-drinking age group of 12- to 25-year-olds, owing
in part to a lack of promotion. Coca-Cola first reduced promotion and production for Thums Up
in order to attract people to their main brand, but soon realised that if Thums Up was removed
from the market, customers would switch to Pepsi instead of Coke. Rather, Coke chose to deploy
Thums Up as a competitor to Pepsi.
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Customer Value hierarchy
To determine and boost consumer satisfaction, marketers must address five product levels. Each
level increases the worth of the customer, forming a customer value hierarchy.
Core benefit: The service or benefit for which a customer pays is known as the core benefit.
Thums Up's main benefit is that it quenches thirst.
Generic product: The major benefit is reduced to a basic product with well-defined
characteristics and features. Thums up is a cola drink available in a variety of sizes across India
Expected Product: At this point, the product includes all of the features that a customer could
expect when purchasing something. Thums Up customers would expect a low-cost cola drink
with a distinct flavour that is widely available.
Augmented Product: During this phase, a marketer's job is to provide a product that meets or
surpasses client expectations. Brand positioning and competition are often discussed at this stage,
while they may be discussed at the Expected product stage in Indian markets. Thums Up has a
strong cola flavour and is priced competitively using an FMCG delivery model.
Potential Product: Marketers should focus on future operations at this time. To please
customers and ensure the product's distinctiveness factor, all possible improvements and
additions are reviewed, and creative ideas must be produced at this point. Pricing changes can be
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made while keeping competitors' pricing in mind. Thums Up, a low-calorie diet, can be added to
the product mix to provide variety for health-conscious consumers.
Product Classification
Thums-up has classified its variants based on Durability and Tangibility, Consumer-Goods
Classification.
Durability and Tangibility: Thums up variants are non-durable and tangible goods (drinks) that
have a shelf-life of 6-9 months.
Consumer-Goods Classifications: Thums-up comes under convenience goods brought
frequently, immediately, and with minimal effort as it is easily available at nearby locations.
Product Differentiation
Form: It has differentiated its product packing in different shapes and sizes. The company has
introduced its products in PET bottles, tin, etc., in various sizes. It will help the company’s
product to reach the global markets.
Conformance Quality: All the produced units are identical and meet promised specifications.
They are produced according to the guidelines provided by FSSAI.
Style: The packaging and logo which is red thums up is appealing to the customers, which
makes it stand out among its competitors.
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Product Mix
The variety of all products and items given by a vendor to a consumer is referred to as product
mix. It is made up of product lines (related products sold individually).
Width, length, depth, and uniformity make up the product mix. The number of different product
lines offered by the company is represented by the line width. The total number of elements in
the product mix is represented by the line length. Line depth refers to the amounts of
subcategories (variants) a product has, line consistency to how similar the goods are, and line
vulnerability to the percentage of sales and profits generated by a few products in the line.
Thums Up's product mix consists solely of packaged cola drinks. Thums Up has a deep line that
includes cans, glass bottles, and pet bottles of various sizes. Thums Up has kept its line
consistent by keeping to a blend of less common yet popular variations.
Product Map
The Product Map compares our product, i.e., Thums up with various competitors in various
segments. In 10 Rs packaging of Thums up it was seen that it provided only 300 ml of the drink,
but on the other hand, its competitor Mountain Dew is providing 330 ml. Under 20 Rs. Segment
the product was performing on par with its competitors as all were giving same quantity that is
250 ml, under 40 Rs Thums up is providing 300ml and 600ml can and plastic bottle respectively
which was same as its competitors like Coke and Pepsi. In 65Rs. Segment thums up provides
1250ml of the drink, which is also the same as its competitors. Under 100Rs segment thumps up
is providing two varieties that are 90Rs. And 95Rs. Giving quantitates giving 1750 ml and 2000
ml respectively, in 90 Rs segment there are no competitors and 95 Rs. Segment all of the
competitors provide the same quantity of the drink.
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Product Packaging
Thums up has used environmentally friendly and sustainable packaging, such as returnable glass
bottles, aluminium cans, and has taken advantage of technical advancements to reduce packing
weight. It encourages people to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Thums up introduced a fully
recyclable plant bottle that substituted up to 30% of the petroleum used in PET bottle
manufacturing with materials sourced from plants such as sugarcane.
Pricing Strategy of Thums up
₹20 (250ml) ₹8- ₹10 (330 ml) ₹40 ₹40
₹40 ₹65 ₹90 ₹95
Thums Up's pricing strategy is influenced by the factors listed below : -
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Prices are set based on public demand for the product.
Prices should be set at a level so that maximizes revenue for the company.
The pricing should not be too low or too high in comparison to the price charged by the
competition.
Initially to determine the price of the Thums UP, cost-based pricing strategy was incorporated.
Once the price was set based on the cost, to attract larger number of consumers while there is a
competition against major players such as Pepsi, price should be kept around the same level of
the competitors to not to lose market share.
Alternate pricing strategy used by Thums Up are as follows:
Going Rate Pricing- There has always been pressure in the soft drink industry from one product or
another, so they have adopted a gong rate pricing strategy. Being non-alcoholic, the price of the beverage
is close to those of competitive products.
Market Penetration Pricing - Thums up operates in an untapped market which has geographical
dispersions and low-income households, with low prices and smaller bottle units. For example, the 200
ml bottles which are perceived to be economical and low priced.
Product form pricing - Different versions of Thums up is priced differently based on different
packages and size irrespective of the cost incurred. In the above pricing table, you can see that size
and price of the product do not appear to be in proportion.
Promotion Strategy
Thums Up uses a variety of promotional and advertising tactics to boost the demand by
associating its product with customers’ lifestyles and behaviour with value-based advertising.
Advertising- Thums up Invests aggressively in advertising through television, magazines,
billboards, etc. to generate demand by creating Ads with unique messages which attract the
customers’ attention.
Celebrities like Akshay Kumar, Mahesh Babu, Salman Khan, and Ranveer Singh are the
brand ambassadors for thums up which help the brand to penetrate the market effectively.
The first slogan of thums up- Happy days are again here, re-positioned the brand in the
market. Apart from this, some slogans like ‘Taste the Thunder’, ‘Aaj kuch Toofani
Karte hai’ and ‘Main Hoon Toofani’ have taken place in customers’ minds.
Recently, the campaign ‘Toofan wahi hai jo sab palat de’ was aired to celebrate 100th
years of participation of India in Olympics.
Sales Promotion-
Customer-centric sales promotion-
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Thums up gives discounts, cashback, rebates, free samples to customers to increase the
sale and promote brand.
Thums up use the concept of unique codes which are generally printed on the inner cap
of the bottle, Users can send unique codes via SMS to win prizes.
Buy 2-liter bottle get 600ml free was campaign by Thums up to promote the brand.
Trade centric sales promotion-
Thums up gives discounts to wholesalers and retailers to promote their brand.
It provides free gifts, trips to motivate the wholesalers to boost sales.
It provides refrigerators at less price for the retailers.
Personal selling-
Thums Up has a large number of sales representatives to communicate, sell, and establish
connections with clients.
Sales Representatives promote promotional offers and sell products to customers or
retailers.
Public Relations- It includes a variety of programs to promote or protect a company’s image.
Thums up signed an agreement with Human being, a charitable foundation by actor
Salman Khan to promote and execute social activities jointly.
Thums up has accounts on social media like Instagram, Twitter, etc where it provides
news and information about the brand.
Thums Up, Being Human Foundation, CNN-IBN, and American Indian Foundation
launched an initiative “Being Veer” is a fund-raising and awareness initiative for disabled
individuals that began in 2014. The initiative sought to employ 1000 people with
disabilities.
Online Marketing- Thums up uses online marketing for the promotion of its products.
Thums up uploads its advertisement videos on Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, etc to
create engagement about the brand.
It communicates to its customers through its website also.
Events and Experience- The company sponsors activities or programs to enhance the brand-
customer relationship.
Recently, Thums Up was the worldwide partner of Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Thums Up was an exclusive non-alcoholic beverage partner for ICC Men’s T20 World
Cup 2021.
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Distribution Model
Hub And Spoke: Thums Up makes use of a hub and spoke distribution model. Stock is sent
from bottling factories to hubs, which are subsequently delivered to spokes in cities and small
towns. Stock is purchased by retailers from spokes. Stock is transported using large and medium
commercial vehicles. Point to point distribution is another name for hub and spoke distribution.
Various Channels Of Distribution:
COBO stands for Company Owned Bottling Operations, which are run by the company. Thums
Up has 59 bottling operations in India under the Coca-Cola umbrella, the largest of which is
Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (P) Ltd.
FOBO stands for franchise owned bottling operations. For example, in UP, Brindavan Agro
Industries (P) Ltd., and in Amritsar, Kandhari Beverages Ltd.
Warehouses: Company-owned warehouses serve specific geographic areas. Stocks are delivered
to these warehouses from bottling plants, where they are then delivered to C&F centres and
distribution points.
C&F centres are owned by the company and carry and forwarding agents or salesmen work for
the company.
Wholesalers: Stock is sent directly from the company or franchise to smaller centres and
distribution points. They are independent points of sale.
Retailers: Large chain retailers like Big Bazaar, Small individual retailers like mom n pop
stores. All other channel members contribute stock to these.
Salesmen/C&F Agents: Visit outlets, handle cash, negotiate discounts and communicate
schemes.
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Slums: Smaller units than wholesalers within deep penetration regions.
Distribution Programming
Contractual VMSs (Vertical Market Systems) are in place, consisting of separate enterprises at
various levels of production and distribution that integrate their functions on a contractual basis
in order to maximise sales impact. The three types of VMS are as follows:
Voluntary chain established by wholesalers: To standardise selling procedures and prices.
Retailer Cooperative: A customer-facing point of contact. All other channel members
provide stock to retailers.
Franchise Organizations: Independent firms are granted permission to sell a company's
products if they achieve certain sales and service requirements.
References
• www.coca-colaindia.com
• http://marketingbloggers.in/2013/01/26/thums-up-a-thundering-success/
• http://marketingpractice.blogspot.in/2006/02/thums-up-taste-thunder.html
• http://www.drypen.in/case-studies/case-study-brand-thums-up.html
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