The human touch in Uber’s branding 

What is common between Tiffany Baxter, an ex-psychotherapist from Sydney, and Mohammed Tariq, a technician from New Delhi? Both are ‘Driver Partners’ for Uber.

What differentiates them from a regular cab driver? For Uber, which has been facing a lot of flak on social media over trip cancellations, a lot rides on its “driver partners” as they are an important ally in its brand building effort. Therefore, it is expending all effort to put across the message that its driver partners deserve respect.

As communications consultant Dilip Cherian puts it, “Uber can succeed only if there are enough riders and also drivers. And Uber is aware of it.”

A tough ride

Uber driver partners are a diverse set and face a lot of challenges. Take the case of thirty-five-year-old Shivani. She is a single mother of two sons; the only bread earner in her family, who took up driving with Uber because of its flexibility. She says she gets to hear taunts. “Many customers cancel bookings because it is a ladki car driver,” she says.

A similar story is narrated by 24-year-old Kavita, a Uber cab driver from New Delhi, who complains, “People keep watching you.”

Kavita

Then there are those like Tariq who have gravitated behind the wheels to become an Uber driver partners - from being a technican in Maruti once, because of the flexibility it offers.

“For companies like Uber it is part of their social engineering of their target audience to try and label them as partners rather than drivers...,” Cherian says.

Changing the narrative

“Uber is totally right in its stance. The stance of centre-staging the driver partner is strategic and correct. For Uber, everything else is app-led and inanimate. The driver is the big animate! Drivers make or mar its brand image. Making the drivers the hero, is making them take centre of the cab aggregator economy. Good move,” says branding expert, Harish Bijoor. 

Mohammed Tariq

The idea behind branding Uber drivers as partners is to generate feelings of camaraderie and two-way respect. So has Uber managed to change the narrative? It’s early days still.

As Brazil-born Jessica Bruzzo Lopes Caldas — ex-nurse and care worker — an Uber driver today in Sydney, says, “You meet all kinds of people. Some are disrespectful, but then you have to draw the line. You have to tell them,  I am doing a job.”

Mukesh

Certainly people like 36-year-old Mukesh Bharti, a specially-abled Uber cab driver from Ahmedabad, who struggled for eight years to support his family through data operator and call centre jobs, before shifting behind the wheels, deserve respect. “My house was not running with that salary, so I decided to go on my own to sustain my family. My neighbour was an Uber driver, and I was convinced by him.”

As Mike Orgill, Senior Director, Public Policy and Government Relations, APAC at Uber says, “Uber provides people a low-barrier entry into the workforce, reliable earnings and flexible work opportunities. We want to continue to touch the lives of millions who are looking for a respectable earning opportunity.”

In India, to make it more attractive, Uber has been pitching for peer-to-peer ride sharing. But, while it continues its dialogue with the government, companies like Uber have a bigger challenge in getting its partners — who number some 6 lakh as per last published figures — recognised as professionals worthy of respect.

This is why Uber India CEO Prabhjeet Singh himself occasionally makes trips, picking up passengers and creating customer delight. But it’s a long road ahead.

As Madhuvanthi Sundararajan, an executive with a start-up, gushed on LinkedIn, “Prabhjeet Singh /Uber, you made my day :) This is a superb initiative. Huge respect for wanting to understand things on-ground.”

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