Brands - Ramesh Chauhan - Thumbs Up - Bisleri

In the year 1991, when India was forced to open its economy thru LPG , one of the dominant brands was Thums Up. Launched in 1977 by Mr. Ramesh Chauhan to fill the gap left behind by a departing Coca-Cola, it commanded an 85% market share. Parle owned only 4 of its 60 bottling plants - when Coca Cola came back to India, it gave such tempting offers to the vottlers which they could not refuse.  FInally, Mr Chauhan realsied that it wasnt worth fighting this battle of deep pockets and so, sold his brands for $60 million

(It is another story that Coca Cola wanted to undermine Thumbs Up as a brand, realised its folly - sensing that if Thumbs Up was withdrawn, consumers would prefer Pepsi to Coca Cola - read page 119 to 122 of the book "Brands and the Brain" by Prof Arvind Sahay )

Now, the 82-year-industry veteran who had purchased Bisleri as a brand from the Italian owner in 1969, sold off the brand to the Tatas for ~850 mn USD. Was he ahead of the curve, realising that the packaged water segment might be seeing a lot of consolidation - and Tatas with brands like Himalayan, Tata Water Plus, Tata Copper Plus, might be best positioned to take care of his brand. ( also ill-health and lack of daugher's interest are cited as reasons). I always also wonder that all it takes for a counterfeit business is to recreate the labels - and sell nirmal RO water as Bisleri- what are the checks here.

Mr Chauhan has been the master of building iconic brands without VC money - and new-age startup owners must learn from him

#startup #business #india #brands #marketing