Careem, is a multinational transportation network company, an app-based car service provider,

was founded in the year 2012 by Mudassir Sheikh and Magnus Olsson. Since its beginning,

Careem targeted metropolitan cities for providing its services and now is operating in more

than 30 major cities of the Middle East South Asian region. The company started its business

in one of the busiest countries of the world i.e. UAE, and then expanded its horizon to Egypt,

Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, North Africa and Pakistan.

With the remarkable success in the Middle East, Careem, was launched in Pakistan in late

2015. The company started its operations initially from Karachi but soon extended it to Lahore

and Islamabad. They are planning to expand it even further to cater Hyderabad, Faisalabad,

Gujranwala, Peshawar and Multan for which they have already planted the seed in terms of

their promotional activities, especially Careem Campus Ambassador Drive in the universities

situated in these cities. Over and above that, Careem, has successfully tailored its services to

meet the needs of the customers.

The pillars of the company are; the captain and the vendor. Captain is a driver who is associated

with his respective vendor. They are designated to work under the vendors who have registered

themselves under Careem. A vendor is registered with Careem as a separate legal entity (Limo-

company), who brings his own car(s) along with driver(s). He is responsible for the car and

the driver (Captain) along with all the overheads and expenses which include internet cost, fuel,

maintenance cost, and captain’s salary. Vendor can grow his limo company at any time i.e.

recruit new captains and bring in new cars. Profit distribution follows 20-80 ratio. Careem gets

20% of the total of what the vendor has earned in a month. Whatever income the vendor

generates by servicing under Careem, he has to pay Careem 20% of his profit.

Careem communicates its branding strategy through loud and vivid means. A good example is

its recent billboard campaign demonstrating a “meme” with “Why You No Use Careem”
written on it. The idea is to get people talk about it. For young market segment who are also

enthusiastic social media users; it turned out to be an extremely relatable advertisement.

Careem runs ad campaigns on Facebook networks. The marketing team uses Facebook’s

Lookalike Audience tool to target mass audience. Based on the customer’s profile, location

and personal details, Facebook gives access to “Lookalikes” of already existing customers who

might be interested in the given product or service. Careem uses this feature to target audience

in the three major cities of Pakistan (Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad). The targeted audience

gets to see Careem’s promoted ad of its app and page on their timeline, on other pages and as

“suggested page” along with the promotion codes and discounts. Careem wishes to avoid

spamming so they ensure that right audience is being targeted.

Careem has successfully completed its one-year operation in Pakistan and has morphed its

business model according to the market needs and consumer behaviour. The company’s main

brand development objective is to create positioning which reflects its values proposition:

I. IT IS EASY TO USE

II. IT IS YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

Careem has made travelling easy; its quality service has increased its customer demand. It has

dedicated a great effort to provide a well-heeled environ not only to its customers but also to

the vendors and captains. It currently has about 6 million registered users and continues to

spring up its customer’s base by functioning efficiently.

In today’s dynamic market, Careem, recognizes the need to be ingenious to enrich the well-

developed customer relationship.