Evolution of Car Hailing Service - Careem

Written by: Asma Aziz, Mehreen Islam, Mina Khalid, Sonia Altaf, Subha Khalid
With increasing population, improved global economy and while the world was witnessing huge
technological reformations, Careem, chauffeur driven car booking service, came into being.
It was started by 2 ex-consultants in Dubai, Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson, who used to
travel a lot. They saw that while the hotel and flight bookings were seamless, arranging a
reliable car for the team’s transportation needs was a huge pain point.

So, they left their job and started a company in July 2012 with pre-scheduled bookings so that they
could have buffer time to arrange a car, not having a loyal fleet yet. They first started supplying
pre-scheduled cars to firms that had their people moving a lot around the region to unlock a lot of
demand at one go and also to ensure a steady stream of revenue as they were bootstrapping. The
value proposition to these big companies was a user-friendly interface to book a car in any city,
reliable guaranteed on-time service and tailored invoice with all data on their usage patterns. These
business people started using Careem for their personal travel as well and that is when the need
for on-demand bookings arose. $350M was invested in this startup which has currently spread to
12 countries & 50 cities.

Careem started offering a wide range of interesting services to customers. It became a platform
(not a service provider); ride hailers and providers connected with each other using this technology,
but that does not make them a transport company.

“The important thing to note is that not a single car is of Careem. Careem only provides a
technology to support micro-entrepreneurs of Pakistan who can afford one or two cars to come
forward. Careem has succeeded to bring a community together. People from private sectors are
investing in public transport sector.”, commented Junaid Iqbal, Managing Director of Careem.

“It started with getting rent-a-car companies on board. Then we utilized a powerful tool Facebook
to hold Careem sessions thrice a week. People were attracted towards “become a Careem
Captain” campaign, then we trained and checked background of drivers. The moment they become
online, they become captains of their economic future… This provides sudden employment to
people who are unemployed. If someone wants to donate blood, then free ride is available for them

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 and we marketed it via social media. Almost 1000 people donated blood via that. It is miracle of
technology that it has helped galvanized this platform. As the size is increasing, our team considers
it a responsibility rather than a company.”, said Junaid Iqbal during an interview.

Careem in Arabic means “generous”. The philosophy is to be generous to customers, captains and
colleagues while working with the regulatory authorities. It also reflects the business concept with
CAR-eem.

Careem’s Launch in Pakistan:

Careem started toying with the idea of launching in Pakistan in early 2015, and various pilots were
run that year. They began a test launch in October 2015 launched in March 2016.

“We observed that there is a very big problem that is unsolved and there is no credible and reliable
public transport which a common man can use to commute. We analyzed the problem set with
various solutions and affordable price points. We finally came up with idea of Careem”, said
Junaid Iqbal.

The factors that motivated Careem to enter Pakistan is the fact that Pakistan is severely
underserviced when it comes to public transport and yellow taxi cabs were holding a great
monopoly. Establishing Careem in Pakistan was a great way to create jobs. The technology is
‘Made In Pakistan’ (since the founder is a Pakistani), so it is only fair that our people should benefit
from it.

After entering Pakistan, Careem quickly became a leader in car-booking services in the country.
It also acquired taxi-hailing and ride-sharing startup Savaree in March 2016. With Uber stepping
up its efforts in the country, Careem tried even harder to hold on to its lead by introducing various
promos and car types.

Operating Model
In order to make their business model successful they had to do a lot of operational changes to suit
local needs.

1. Customer call centre– The people of Pakistan are much less tech savvy hence they had to build
an entire call centre so that people who didn’t use apps could call in to make a booking. People

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 also could report any issues by calling in. Having someone to call up at a company just reinforced
their trust in their service. This was supported by the fact that in a developing country like Pakistan
they could get people to work at salaries much lower than in other countries.
2. Pay by cash– The credit card penetration is also very low Pakistan because of both the security
perceptions and the fact that interest is not considered good in Islam. Hence to grow their business
they had to tweak their operating model to start accepting cash by riders like they would pay in a
taxi. It had a lot of underlying logistical issues that needed to be put in place but everything worked
out perfectly because they had B2B bookings on invoice and some B2C bookings on credit card
for which they needed to pay the captain whereas other B2C cash bookings where the captains
needed to pay them. This mix of bookings was such that the net transfer was from them to the
captain at month end so he just needed to collect the cash from the rider but was not needed to do
a trip to their office to drop the cash. Also, since the captains had extremely low working capital,
they were happy to be paid a part of their earnings before the usual pay day.
3. Our own locations database– The Google Maps in Pakistan were are not as accurate as they are
in other developed countries and there is frequent construction so, routes keep changing every few
months. Hence in order to ensure a good quality of service, they had to build their own database
of locations so that customers could choose from that dropdown list for a pickup location. This
was especially important because one couldn’t just drop a pin for later booking which might
originate from a different location where you were while making the booking. A typical later
booking was made anywhere from a couple of days in advance to an hour in advance of the pickup.
4. Book for someone else– This feature was a key because most of the B2B bookings were made by
assistants for their bosses or by businesses for their clients. Also, a lot of people used to book
Careem to pick up kids from school or take elderly people in the household around town. So their
web and mobile apps allowed people to book for others using either cash/ other’s credit card/ their
own credit card or invoice as the payment method.
5. Pricing – Their business model is both B2B and B2C with 2 main products – pre-scheduled and
on-demand bookings. They charge clients on a per km and per min basis much like taxi cabs.
Charges are calculated automatically by the Captain's Careem App as follows:
• An initial starting fee, based on the Car and Booking type selected
• A moving charge, when the vehicle is moving over 16KMPH, calculated per KM traveled
• A waiting charge, when the vehicle is moving under 16KMPH, calculated per minute

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 • All Car and Booking types have a minimum ride cost. All rates can be seen within the
Careem App in Menu > Settings > Rates.
• There are additional charges that are may be applicable depending on location, city, Car
and Booking type:
• Initial waiting, when the vehicle has arrived at the pickup location but ride has not started
yet
• Airport Surcharges
• Surcharges
• Tolls charges
• Peak - a cost multiplier which is automatically activated at times of high demand and low
supply. This is to incentivize Captains to stay online and accept Careem bookings at busy
times. Customers are always informed of the Peak multiplier before booking a ride.
6. Captain call centre– The captains who initially applied belonged to different areas so they faced
problems in figuring out the right route to take and since majority of them were not well educated,
they had issues in understanding English that was the only language being used in their application.
Also, there were some security concerns from customers, specifically females. Hence they decided
that captains were not given the customer’s contact information to ensure both security and a better
customer experience. They incorporated anonymous calling feature where calls were dialed with
masking rather than original numbers of both the parties involved.
Careem also guided the captains so that he/she could reach on time to the pickup location. As
more and more captains had this on job training, an average captain started earning much more
than they did before, the churn reduced. Some of their captains quit driving and joined their call
centers for a better lifestyle.
6. Captain Loyalty–More the captains, better will be the ETAs resulting in attracting more audience,
bringing in more business. Hence, earning the loyalty of captains was the key. Careem put a loyalty
system in place and set targets for the 4 different tiers. A captain was supposed to be online on his
device for a minimum threshold and accept a certain percentage of bookings they offered to remain
in a given tier or move up a tier. If he did his part, their algorithm ensured that he would make a
certain amount per month which increased as he/she moved up the tiers. They were able to do this
because they had pre-scheduled bookings which they could assign to a captain far from his target
irrespective of his location because these bookings were atleast 1 hour out. Using this they were

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able to promise them a certain earning every month in such an uncertain market which their
competition couldn’t. They also did quarterly events for their captains to get their feedback to
tweak their system and to make them feel heard. They usually used to communicate within a week
the changes they did in their system based on their feedback which made them an owner in their
success and also made them proud. And then irrespective of how much money their competitors
used to promise them, they believed they owed it to Careem to not work with their competition.
Since the operating model of Careem is very well aligned with the context of Pakistan. It has
identified exact pain points of this country and has turned them to its advantage, they are clearly
the market leader in all standards since the inception of this digital taxi concept.

Careem Captains and Cars

In Pakistan, Careem cars are divided into three categories –Go, Go+ and Business cars. Each
category has specified car models and each car is inspected by CarSure (a car inspection service
and subsidiary of PakWheels) which uses various tech devices to check the engine, suspension,
breaks, steering control, tyres, lighting and the exterior and interior among other quality
parameters. A car is inducted only when it has CarSure’s certificate of approval.

After the success of economy, business and WiFi cars, Careem launched Tezz, Careem’s rickshaw
initiative in Nov 2016. Careem initiated this pilot project in Lahore and Karachi. Tezz is available
to limited users at a base rate of Rs60 and a minimum fare of Rs75.

According to Omer Javed, Careem plans on picking up all mediums of transports. They have
launched Dabba service in Abbottabad in Dec 2017. The company announced that it will be
launching about 30 ‘Dabbas’ (Bolan vans) initially. The tagline of Careem, for Careem Dabba, is
‘Chalo Chalo, Dabba pa Chalo’.

The ride-hailing service has now added a motorbike service which will enable its users to travel in
the cheap manner, with an average ride costing around Rs 70. Bykea, one of the first motorbike
hailing services, could be used for fast and cheap transport for people and parcels but it did not
gain as much popularity as Careem. The motorbike service seems to still in the rollout phase and,
at the time of writing, is only available in Karachi and Islamabad/Rawalpindi.

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Careem’s drivers come from a wide spectrum, ranging from the lower-middle, middle and even
upper-middle SECs – including professionals in between jobs and well-off retirees who want to
be more financially independent. In his opinion, in Pakistan, where unemployment, especially
among the young is high, job creation is fundamental for the social welfare and prosperity of the
country. On an average, if they drive six hours a day, 30 days a month, captains driving Go cars
can earn up to Rs 45,000 per month; Go+ captains up to Rs 58,000 and Business captains
approximately Rs 72,000. They also earn bonuses based on their customer ratings and the total
trips made per day.

Although reluctant to give the precise number of drivers associated with Careem, he says, “our
target is that by December 31, 2018, we will have created one million employment opportunities,
and I can confidently say that we are on track.” He further adds that in the past 18 months,
Careem has created more jobs than any large bank or industrial group.

Challenges

Government Laws

As a disruptive tech company, Careem has faced a number of challenges. The foremost are
Government laws and regulations. In January 2017, the Punjab Provincial Transport Authority
announced that both Careem and Uber were operating outside regulatory boundaries and hinted at
a ban. A notification was issued in this regard to the Chief Traffic Officer of Lahore and to the
Chief Executive Officer of the Lahore Transport Company.

The notification stated that the two companies had been offering transport services "without
registering the private cars with any regulatory body”. The notification also stated that the
utilisation of private cars by Uber and Careem for commercial purposes is a violation of the city's
local laws. The provincial government also stated that the failure of Uber and Careem to obtain
required fitness certificates and route permits for their fleets had resulted in "great loss to the
government."

Careem’s response was to clarify that the company, although significantly impacting
transportation, is in effect a tech and not a transport company. In a message broadcast live by
Careem's Managing Director, Junaid Iqbal, after the ban was announced, the company said it is

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open to working with the authorities on laws and regulations to document what it says is a "new
economy". Iqbal sums up Careem’s position by saying that “a new kind of business requires new
laws, and we are working with the Government to help regulate this

Mapping Solutions

Another challenge is the absence of mapping solutions that provide precise housing addresses and
not just street-level mapping. Then there is the issue of attracting women captains; although almost
70% of their customers are women, the company only has 12 women captains so far. In this regard,
Careem plans to launch a campaign aimed at attracting women captains.

Awareness Creation

Moreover, Careem also faced challenges in creating awareness amongst the masses and attracting
people to apply as employees. Omer, GM North Careem, stated that the target audience is anyone
and everyone, and to fulfil everyone’s transportation needs. However, people were not aware that
they could hail a hide by a touch of a button. Even if they did, they could not wrap their heads
around it. The primary motive behind services like Bakra on Wheels and Rishta Aunty was to
create a buzz in the market, and hence to raise public awareness of the service.

Security

Ride-hailing services, especially in a country like Pakistan where security is a big issue, are
supposed to be a safe haven for those looking for a reliable and secure method of transportation.
However, the start-up has received a lot of heat regarding harassment allegations against the
drivers. Careem has, in this regard, issued a statement saying that the customer’s safety is of utmost
importance to them. “At Careem, Safety and security of our customers is a top most concern. Daily
1000s of customers use Careem in Pakistan, 60% of which are women, and we ensure safe and
secure transportation services. We apologize for such untoward incident with our customer and
will thoroughly investigate and take immediate action. We have already contacted the publisher
to share the details of the captain and the customer, so that immediate action can be taken and
customer can be assured of our promise of Safe and Secure transportation for all.”

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It should also be remembered that reported cases of harassment against Careem in the one year of
their operation in Pakistan have been very less as compared to the great feedback they have
received. These hiccups along the road are bound to sprout up.

Competitors

Limofied:
Limofied, an Australian owned, rapidly growing car hire and car ride hailing app has been
launched in Lahore on the 17th of December 2016, where the passengers are able to book a car for
point-to-point travel, airport transfers, weddings or special events for corporate clients and leisure
travels

An added feature offered by Limofied is “La femme” exclusively for the female passengers, are
the female Car drivers, promising the ultimate security and peace-of-mind to the female
passengers. With a sophisticated app, website and service center, customers can access reliable
24/7 facilities, seamlessly connected to its network of professional drivers.

Daewoo Cab:
Unlike Careem, Daewoo cab offers only business cars (Toyota Corolla XLI or so), deeming it
much more expensive in comparison to competition.

A similar route costing Rs. 230-250 on Careem would be equivalent to Rs. 480 through a Daewoo
Cab. Granted the service offers business cars only, not everyone is willing to pay that much on
every trip. Currently running in nine cities of the country, it aims to target a niche with its luxury
ride-hailing services in the market.

A-Taxi:

Touted as the new pet project of the ruling family in Punjab, Albayrak’s A-Taxi was launched
within a fortnight in February 2017. Boasting new Honda City and Suzuki Swift vehicles (a first-
time role for both of these cars), A-Taxi promises to revolutionize domestic travel.

Currently operating in Lahore, A-taxi offers continuous cost display on the rear-view mirror- a
highly convenient feature enabling riders to jump out in the middle of the journey in case they run

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out of cash. This may serve as a competitive edge over other hailing services in town which only
have to offer post- ride cost calculation.

However, there are certain downsides of the app including poor service, automatic cancellations
and flawed call center service. Despite the delays and rude staff, customers still get slapped with
a high and mighty bill making it the less popular among the masses.

The battle of taxis however, is between Careem and Uber which have greatest market share in this
country, relieving commuters from the nightmare of local tuk-tuks and buses. Both services are
competing relentlessly against each-other- which one is better is still subject to debate.

Careem vs Uber

Careem and Uber can be compared on every front from fares to marketing strategies. “It’s a two
horse race”, says Omer Zabit “and Careem, by far, is taking the lead in all major cities of Pakistan”

Fares

The market price for Careem and Uber both are competitive, however Uber stills holds an edge
over Careem as it 10% to 20% cheaper than Careem. Currently, Uber offers three services to
commuters: Auto, Go and UberX.

UberAuto, otherwise known as Rickshaws or tuk-tuks, are very cheap with a base fare of PKR 45.
While waiting, UberAuto charges PKR 1 per minute and while traveling a rate of PKR 4 is charged
per KM. The minimum fare of UberAuto is PKR50. In case, you cancel the ride for any reason
you have to pay the minimum fare i.e PKR50.

For UberGo, the minimum fare is PKR 120. The base fare is PKR80 and additional charge of PKR
6 per Kilometer. While waiting, UberGo charges PKR 3 per minute. If for any reason you cancel
the ride, you will incur the minimum fare of PKR 120.

UberX, otherwise known as the premium ride or the business class, charges a base fare
of PKR 110(PKR 30 more than UberGo) and additional charge of PKR 9 per kilometer. It charges
PKR 3 per minute of waiting. The minimum fare is PKR 150 and likewise, if you cancel the ride
for whatever the reason, you incur the minimum fare of PKR 150.

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Careem offers CareemGO, GO+, Business, Bykea and Tezz.

At CareemGO, the minimum fare is PKR 100. The base fare is PKR 75 and the moving rate per
kilometer is PKR 9.33(PKR 3.33 higher than Uber). The waiting rate is PKR 3.8 while Uber
charges PKR 3per minute. If you cancel the ride for whatever the reason, you incur the minimum
fare of PKR 100.

At CareemGO+, the minimum fare is PKR 150. The base fare is PKR 110 and the moving rate
per kilometer is PKR 12.00. The waiting rate is PKR 4.58 per minute. If a ride is cancelled for
whatever the reason, rider incurs the minimum fare of PKR 150.

At Careem Business, the minimum fare is PKR 250. The base fare is PKR 160 and the moving
rate per kilometer is PKR 23.00. The waiting rate is PKR 6.16 per minute. If a ride is cancelled ,
rider incurs the minimum fare of PKR 250.

At Careem tezz, local rickshaw service, with minimum fare of PKR 70. The base fare is PKR
65 and the moving rate per kilometer is PKR 8.80. The waiting rate is PKR 3.6 per minute. If a
ride is cancelled, rider incurs the minimum fare of PKR 70.

Bykea, motorbike service launched by Careem seems to still in the rollout phase and, at the time
of writing, is only available in Karachi and Islamabad/Rawalpindi.

The cost breakdown incorporates minimum fare of PKR 50, base fare PKR25, moving rate per km
is PKR4 and waiting cost of 4 per minute. Though bykea can be used for fast and cheap transport
of people and parcels but it didn’t gain as much popularity as Careem.

Careem’s wallet service is also one of a kind where rider can pay more than the fare, leaving the
net amount to be included in wallet to be used later. Uber offers no such service.

Peak Surcharge Factor

Careem having more captain and vehicles have reduced their peak factors charges. However, for
Uber, due to less number of cars available, situation is worse making it nearly impossible for

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service to be used due to highest peak surcharge in rush hours. Careem also offers monthly
packages for customers who use this service daily with no peak surcharges incorporated.

How vendors see it

Careem offers a daily guarantee to vendors and drivers upon completion of certain conditions, and
a fare split of 80:20, whereas Uber offers no daily guarantee and a split of 75:25 (with the larger
split going to the vendors). More vendors find Uber more affordable and more consistent when it
comes to matters of policy but that’s changing.

Coverage Areas

Careem does not operate in some areas of Karachi but is available in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar,
Faisalabad, Hyderabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Abbotabad. Uber on the other hand, is
only available in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Hyderabad, Faisalabad and Gujranwala.

Customer Services

Careem has customer care centers however Uber has no physical outlets for customer which is a
big drawback. Careem has recently closed its phone service for booking to be only done through
the app but it remains prompt when it comes to solving customer complaints and queries. When
filing a complaint, Careem however ask a very detailed email with Booking ID, while for Uber
only a ‘Need Help’ button under the history tab can solve the problem.

Security

Ride hailing services require communication via SMS or call.

With uber, rider can track the ride even when app is closed. Additionally, it even tracks the route
during the ride. In contrast, Careem doesn’t provide a live response once the app is closed. Most
of males living throughout Pakistan prefer Uber whereas females prefer Careem as Careem
observes strict and careful scrutinization of drivers prior to selection which isn’t the case for Uber.

Call Masking feature has been introduced lately within Careem app. Captains will no longer be
able to get customer’s mobile number. If a rider aims to hide the number, a private call can be

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initiated to the captain. This feature adds another layer to security though for it to work, rider has
to call from the registered number against Careem account.

Marketing Campaigns of both Services

Marketing stunts like Rishta Aunty Service, Bakra-on-Wheels, Qurbani Hides, Careem Air are
popular for being quirky incorporating latest social media trends whether they are about politics
or local traditions. “We take pride in being a local company and find ways to celebrate our culture,”
says Naqvi- Head of Communication for Careem. Such campaigns depict the fun element in viral
fever in spite of intrusive nature of campaigns. Uber on the other hand, avoids localized marketing
strategies maintaining similar brand impression across the globe.

Marketing Strategy

Brand Pillars

Careem Pakistan has played around four brand pillars which include being Bold, Localized, the
good guys and having a Startup Energy. In one way or the other, the company’s marketing
campaigns consistently revolved around these four pillars. They have been proactive whenever it
came to a much-localized cause and have tried to enable any echo system they could support using
their startup for example the donation of Qurbani Hides to Shaukat Khanum. Going into the bold
aspect, Careem has heavily relied on Social media marketing since its inception and most of the
campaigns have been polarizing at best. One can either love them or hate them, but one cannot just
be indifferent.

Being the Good guys, they have focused on partnerships with local agencies like offering
promotional codes on Rangreza Movie screening, Tedx Islamabad event, Coke Festival and other
similar sorts of happenings around the cities; generating a positive brand image.

Digital Analytics and Social Media Marketing

Careem has not relied much on ATL promotional activities. Rather, the prime focus has been on
online marketing mainly using Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

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With the launch of Careem in Pakistan, the initial target was to raise brand awareness amongst the
masses. Careem’s biggest challenge was getting the target audience notice it and has its presence
felt. Accordingly, the brand’s marketing strategy was to generate a buzz through bold marketing
tactics and then capitalizing on the viral promotions. The campaigns were successful in creating a
strong opinion among the audience and most of the campaigns went viral generating the kind of
awareness initially desired.

Apart from few TVCs for “Become a Careem Captain” campaign, Careem never opted for offline
promotional channels. The focus had heavily been on digital marketing and analytics as it was
easier to gauge the conversions online. Moreover, Careem being a tech startup, the marketing
budget was limited and hence was invested in digital channels where KPIs and conversions could
be readily and easily monitored.

Careem had a team of digital analytics experts that was centered in Dubai which managed the
analytics for all regions. The analytics deployed by Careem used Facebook and Google Analytics
and some other in-house tools. However, this did not mean that all the ideas also originated from
the central team. Localization was at the heart of Careem Pakistan’s branding and all the ideation
and creative content along with the marketing calendars for cities were localized. Any ATL
campaigns were always at a national level however, predominantly all the BTL activities were on
a city level.

Careem believed that their product required a bit of handholding as people cannot simply convert
by watching an advertisement on social media. So, along with the viral marketing campaigns,
highly customized campaigns with a smaller reach were also rolled out which mainly constituted
of different promotional campaigns which provided promo codes to the customer.

As Careem expects to grow and expand, it has a vision to explore and venture more into ATL
marketing as well.

As per Omer Zaabit, General Manager of Careem’s North Region, “Like most of the tech startups
in tech space, there is a general apprehension towards spending on offline mediums, because you
can’t track it. So, there is not really a great way to monitor the kind of spending done on radio,
TV mediums and track it to any ride of the first time users. If you spend on Google and Facebook
analytics, you can track it to the points that where the lead was generated from and if he moved

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on to take the first ride or not. But as we have grown, we have explored offline mediums as well.
So, there is a new Careem campaign going live in a day or two. We have started to spend on TV
and broader ATL mediums.”

Women Empowerment

Careem’s initiative is to defeat the social “shock factor” of women driving. The company claims
60% of its customers are women, and by January 2018, it wishes to induct at least 1,000 female
captains across the country. Taxis driven by women will pick up both male and female customers,
operating in cities of Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. “We want to give women the same
opportunities and the same chance that men have of leveraging our platform to generate healthy
income,” said Careem’s Pakistan General Manager Ahmed Usman.

Careem’s recent initiative with the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Scheme (PMYBL)
finances women to secure a loan, enabling them to take ownership of their vehicle.

A great social impact is that the women feel safe now. They can go out fearlessly rather than
standing by roadside and negotiating rates with untracked rides.

“60% of our users are women. There was no option with them previously.”, said Junaid Iqbal.

Popular Marketing Campaigns

Careem has majorly relied on Event marketing and promotional codes and recently moved into
celebrity endorsements for various services promotions as well. They believe in being at the top
of a consumer’s mind by consistently rolling out different campaigns. Some of the popular
campaigns include Bakra on Wheels, Rishta Aunty and Careem Air among others.

Bakra on Wheels is an example of event marketing where Careem offered the consumers a hassle
free option of buying Bakras from the ease of their home.

Rishta Aunty was a very innovative yet funny campaign which went completely viral and was
covered from UK to Japan. Even though the campaign was launched in Pakistan, it went viral
across the global footprint of Careem. Actual conversions from these particular campaigns were
not very high but according to Careem’s brand tracking the campaigns were quite successful in
creating awareness about the Transport provider company. The KPIs showed that Careem’s “Top

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of mind recall” was good and successfully fulfilled the campaigns objective of creating buzz
around Careem.

On the other hand, there have been targeted campaigns which resulted in actual rides and were not
as viral.

When Careem expanded their portfolio to Bykea and Careem Dabba, they utilized different
promotional tactics as well. With Bykea, they moved on to celebrity endorsements and signed
Shoab Akhtar as a Brand ambassador. Careem’s marketing team believed that Shoab was really
into bikes and an amazing fast bowler and fitted perfectly with the brand image. A bike rally was
organized in Lahore to introduce Bykea and similar stunts were carried out in major operating
cities of Careem.

With Careem Air, a limited time partnership was struck with Lahore Flying Club where they ran
much curated 15 to 30 minutes tour of the city, in air. Careem’s GM explained it as an experimental
gig with youth firms to promote tourism. He expressed the desire to do the same in other major
cities of Pakistan.

At Careem, the performance of these promotional stunts is gauged through impressions on social
media. The response to events is monitored closely as they usually get a lot of eyeballs and
mentions on social media. Careem attributes a portion of the overall growth to these stunts as it
believes heavily in top of the mind recall. If a potential customer wants to hail a ride and if
Careem’s name comes first in his mind, he is sure to convert. It will be highly likely he will come
to Careem’s platform compared to competitors.

All in all, Careem’s strategy is brand focused and is targeted around improved marketing to
stimulate trial, retention and loyalty, including more precise assessment of customer segments and
usage occasions which is expected to result in greater brand differentiation. the question is will
Careem maintain to be the leader in this direct war? Will Careem ever need to take support from
conventional marketing? Has Careem taken enough precautions to counter market entrants? Only
time will tell.

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Teacher’s notes:

• What are the marketing strategies adopted by Careem and what could they do more to
improve it?
The approach is non-conventional and very innovative. No idea of Careem goes unnoticed.
They should have TVCs too to promote their idea. They can also hold a contract with
schools for pick & drop to increase customer base.
• What is Careem’s target audience? Do you think in a country like Pakistan where 70%
population is rural, Careem needs to come up with some big innovation to capture that
opportunity?
Careem’s target audience is mainly youth and women. It also targets mini-entrepreneurs.
To capture rural market, awareness needs to be created since usage of smart phones is
necessary to use any online application.
• Reliance on outsourced drivers can cause security problems. What would you do to address
this issue?
I would record the calls/text message conversation between driver and customer to know
whose fault it is. Also, I would install recorders in cars to be checked by quality assurance
team randomly.
• Can tables turn over if Uber invests in Marketing heavily in Pakistan?
Yes, since globally uber is doing quite fine. In Pakistan, uber doesn’t market much and if
it does, there is a solid chance of turning of tables since the rates of uber are comparatively
low.

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