In a fast growing and highly competitive category, Meru recently launched its first TVC. Rathin Lahiri, CMO, Meru and MeruGenie Cabs talks about using marketing for brand building and becoming the preferred cab service for customers in India
BY SALONI DUTTA
Q] Why did it take so long for the brand to use TV for marketing?
We expanded our national footprint from 6-7 cities last year to 17 cities currently, and will be in 22 cities by the end of March. Earlier we only had the sedan model, now we have the hatchback category, Genie. We re-launched our app with a high decibel campaign in October. We have focused on increasing app downloads and bringing a whole new consumer segment whose introduction to Meru has been with the app. Now the app constitutes over 50% of our business. It’s not just an app, it’s the most important business channel. Once we laid this foundation, we began thinking how we can reach the next bunch of users which is why we thought this is the right time for the TVC.
Q] What was the insight behind the TVC?
The insight was simple that universally there is only one way to hail a cab, by waving your hand. We wanted to own this one property and gesture. That is the simple premise and everything else is its creative rendition. We don’t have the budgets of a mega brand. Right now our target audience is in the age group of 25-30 years who are the ones that will adopt the app. To communicate to that segment, we needed to make something that was quirky, in your face, and made the brand’s personality stand out.
Q] How has the brand evolved since its launch in 2007?
Meru launched as a premium service and was one of the pioneers. Our core proposition was around reliability, and our basic brand tagline, Rely On Us, still stands. The brand has gone through its ups and downs while the category has evolved as well.
Initially we introduced the concept of booking a cab via phone, from there it went to the web, and in the last 18 months apps have become an integral part of a consumer’s life making the job easier for a lot of brands like us. The consumer’s adoption of technology and apps has changed the entire game for us. There is increased competition but there is also increased opportunity.
People are getting used to the service and we find that our usage on the weekend is turning out to be higher than on weekdays.
Q] What is the media mix used?
For the current campaign we are primarily using TV and Digital followed by Radio as a support medium. On TV we have used the ICC Cricket World Cup and have taken the HD feed as that audience fits our target base. We are present during all the India matches and have taken a certain ratio of non-India matches as well. We have also taken a bunch of others channels such as news, business, music and movies. On Digital we are on YouTube and Facebook to build the brand. The rest of our marketing is very ROI focused, getting downloads and activations going. We also have a lot of in-mobile advertising as it gives a lot of accurate metrics on performance and delivery.
We are confident TV will deliver in terms of building brand awareness and brand preference and that is important because we are in a bunch of new markets where consumers may not necessarily know Meru.
In our yearly marketing budget, the biggest chunk is Digital (almost half), followed by TV and then Radio. We have also done collaborations with Flipkart, Nokia, and are doing something with ICICI bank and a couple of other brands.
Q] How are you making use of marketing for brand building?
Brand building is key to all our marketing initiatives. A lot of our initiatives are on Digital since half of our business is there. Through our data bank of customers, we can use highly segmented and relevant communication. We also use our app for segmented communication, I don’t need SMS or email which have a limited open rate. These targeted communications drive the bulk of our business which is why for the last 8-10 months we have not done ATL advertising. It was also because we felt it is really important to get our acquisition and CRM engine right, before looking at mass advertising.
We also do in-car branding and associations with brands for advertising opportunities with Meru. One such successful example was Kellogg’s Breakfast Cabs. An association with Kellogg’s to serve our customers breakfast on the go. We did a digital activation with Nokia in July when we launched our app on the Nokia Windows platform. We partnered with Nokia and did a co-promotion where Nokia promoted the Meru cabs app on their base, to their social Facebook base, and we promoted the Nokia’s Lumia 3630 to our base.
Q] How do you manage operations?
We began by owning our own cabs and have a very few number of those cabs now. We have a large fleet of cars where we have turned the drivers into entrepreneurs. So the driver owning the cab works for Meru and is invested in the cab service, as he knows he is going to make a living out of it. We have also started taking part in the aggregator model because that is the way of scaling up fast.
Driver training is also something we do and something that a lot of our competition has not really focused on. We have two levels, one is in terms of hard skills, and second is soft skills and etiquette. We have also instituted a bunch of softer benefits such as college and higher education scholarships for children of our drivers.
Q] How do you see the category growing in the coming years?
Currently the category is in a hyper growth and competitive stage. Since it’s a basic need we are catering to, as long as we are able to deliver the service right, we are always going to have a viable business. We recently commissioned a brand study and from a top of mind recall and preferred brand recall, we are still by far number one.
The category also has multiple types of players. There are a lot of strong regional competitors but they are under tremendous pressure. Due to the lack of a national footprint, they are unable to leverage a lot of synergies which national brands do. Then there are app aggregators. For a pure play aggregator, it is a highly underpenetrated market. The cab industry is around Rs 80,000 crore. Approximately 5% of it is organized, and the numbers are expected to grow to about 15% in the next 3-5 years. This means there is a huge opportunity for everyone and the key is to offer a high quality service. The category has become a consumer technology business and is no longer about cabs or call centres. There is a brand element which gets new consumers in the category but it is a service business and to deliver it, is all about getting the processes, operations, data and technology to work seamlessly.
Q] What is the way ahead for Meru?
This year has been our fastest growing in the last seven years. Therefore we feel that if we are able to maintain our brand scores, keep getting new users to our brand and deliver on Rely on Us, we will have a large business. We want to be a contemporary brand with its core proposition being reliability and the preferred choice for anybody wanting to take a cab in India.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Meru Cabs was launched in April 2007 in association with India Value Fund in Mumbai. It pioneered the concept of GPS/GPRS enabled cab service in India. In December 2013, Meru launched its MeruGenie service in Hyderabad, followed by Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi, Chennai, Chandigarh, Vizag, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Recently, Meru launched Meru Eve, a cab service exclusively for and by women. Currently Meru offers its cab service across 15 cities in India. Recognized by The Limca Book of Records as the largest fleet taxi operator in the country, Meru has completed more than 35 million trips across India.
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CMO FILE
Rathin Lahiri joined Meru Cabs in 2014. He brings with him 22 years of experience in sales and marketing and running Digital businesses. Lahiri started his career as a Management Trainee with UB Group and managed the Premium Spirits Category. His other key stints have been with HUL, eBay and Microsoft. Prior to joining Meru, he was the CMO of a start-up which was engaged in launching a coalition loyalty program. His key achievements have been receiving the Chairman’s award at HUL and launching eBay in India.
FACTS
Creative Agency: Enormous
Media Agency: OMD
PR Agency: Genesis Burson-Marstellar
Digital Media Agency: Interactive Avenues
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
