Ever Wondered Why The Soft Drink Brand ‘Thums Up’ Has A Missing ‘B’?

While the logo of this soft drink brand is suggestive that it’s a Thumbs Up, the spelling begs to differ. The company uses ‘Thums’ instead of ‘Thumbs’ to name its brand. In one of our articles, we discussed at lengths why certain businesses choose the wrong spelling names or drop a syllable in their brand names. The foremost reason behind this marketing strategy is to stand out amid the crowd. Some even are ardent believers of numerology and believe that naming their brand in a certain way can bring them success. Well, let’s see what reason does this Coca Cola brand has to drop a ‘B’ from its brand name.

Story behind Thums Up: the popular brother of Coca Cola

Before jumping to the reason, let’s read something about brand Thums Up. Thums Up is a Coca Cola brand of soft drink introduced in 1977. It was launched by the parent company to compete against Pepsi, owned by Pepsico. As of 2012, Thums Up is a leading cola manufacturer in India with a market share of approximately 42%.

Thums Up quickly became a household cola brand among many Indians. It acquired near monopoly in Cola brands after Coca Cola, which it enjoys the rank of being the most preferred in India. The brand name Thumbs Up faced a lot of criticism because back in 1970s, this gesture was not considered decent in India.

However, Ramesh Chauhan who is the domestic partner of the brand went with his instinct and named it Thumbs Up. To make it look unique and not commonplace, his team of lawyers advised the company to drop the letter ‘B’ from the brand name. Thus, it was shortened to Thums Up from Thumbs Up.

Chauhan explained,

“We were hesitant, because the name seemed to signal a sort of ‘Up yours’ and I didn’t want it to become derogatory. I thought only westernised Indians, who were familiar with the gesture, would recognise it as a positive thing. We struggled a lot with that. But our ad agency leaned heavily in favour of the name, so we went with it.”

Thus, just like Reddit, Flickr, Tumblr, Ramesh Chauhan went with the wave and dropped a syllable to make his brand more unique and ‘Hatke’.

Also read: Ever Wondered Why Brands Use Misspelled Words In Their Names?

A Mountain Named Thums Up

Another story that goes around on the internet is about a hill that looks exactly like the Thums Up logo. A peak in the Manmad Hills popularly known as the Thums Up Mountain or the Thums Up Dongar. It is because its peak resembles the logo of this popular Cola brand. The brand name also made an appearance in the book Eat, Pray, Love and its 2010 film which had Julia Roberts and James Franko among the star cast.

Many celebrities have been a part of brand endorsement for Thums Up. The list of coveter stars includes Salman Khan, Mahesh Babu, Ranveer Singh, Vishal, Akshay Kumar and Chiranjeevi.