Sprite dethrones Thums Up as India's largest soft drink brand

The Indian market for fizzy drinks has been dominated by Thums Up for nearly three decades, a brand that Coca-Cola bought from Parle several years ago. But, this year 'lime and lemony' Sprite, also a Coca Cola brand has overtaken the market to become the largest selling soft drink brand.

Industry officials saying that Sprite has been outselling Thums Up for three months now, reports Economic Times.

According to the latestNielsennumbers,while Thums Up's share for August was 15.3 percent, that of Sprite was 15.6 percent.

So, how did Sprite beat Thums Up?

[caption id="attachment_1159225" align="alignright" width="380"] Industry officials saying that Sprite has been outselling Thums Up for three months now.[/caption]

Ramesh Chauhan, the man who created Thums Up in 1977, says it's all about clever ad campaigns. "Cola is an acquired taste... and to a large extent colas owe their success to very aggressive advertising and marketing through the years," he said. "On the other hand, lemon is a taste that's natural and something almost every household consumes," he told Economic Times.

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However, contrary to what Chauhan says, the advertisement spending on Thums Up is the most among all other Coca Cola brands in India withbrand endorsements by Bollywood's most expensive stars like Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan.

On the other hand, Sprite, has never used big stars to endorse it.Instead, its cheeky ad campaign, sometimes taking on Mountain Dew seems to have worked for it.

Earlier, aBusiness Line report noted that Sprite's success has to do with the fact that consumers are quaffing more clear drinks than cola and also by the fact that the drink tastes fine even when it's not cold, unlike a cola.