Define how space inside a Meru Plus car can be used to represent the Meru Plus brand to travelers. Make new branding collateral - printed or otherwise fabricated - that can be placed/fitted inside Meru Plus car and represents the Meru Plus brand. The idea of the project is to bring alive the Meru green colour inside and outside Meru plus cabs through detachable design elements.

Sample areas where branding can be done on the interiors of the cab: headrest, handles, windows, billing meters.

Sample areas where branding can be done outside of the cab: stickers can go under the lights, on door sides and at the back of the car.

Reason for branding exercise

MERU was the first company to launch metered Radio taxis in India. MERU is now making its foray into a tourist car model, which combines the bests of Tourist Taxi & Radio Taxi, through a brand extension “MERU PLUS”. In this model, unlike Tourist Car, the Meru Plus car is point to point service with metered price / fare (per km charge for distance & per min charge for retention) and unlike radio taxi, Meru Plus can go outside city & can wait even through out the day. From business point, the car is not owned by the company and the expansion will be through the asset light strategy, where the car will be owned by the business partner under a revenue share model. Given this, there are challenges painting the car with the ‘Meru Green’ colour (Colour that all MERU Cabs are painted with has become a distinct brand differentiator in consumer minds with the Meru green colour - (CMYK = C:47, M:04, Y:37, K:00 ) or (RGB = R:00, G:170, B:146) or (Pantone 359C). Please go and identify the colour with any “MERU Cab” in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore or Hyderabad) may not be possible. The project is to bring out the Meru Plus brand's connectivity with the Meru brand, alive through design elements that can be attached and detached from the car easily. These design elements need to be attached in strategic area in the interior of the car and also could be attached to the exterior.

The key to the success of this project will be two-fold:
• Design elements such that the 'Meru Plus' connectivity with the brand “MERU” comes alive through the Meru Green Colour
• These elements can be easily installed and detached from the car. This will be required because cars may be frequently attached and detached to and from our platform

We are looking for the best of your spatial design and graphic design skills

Level: A concept sketch of the inside and outside of the car with indicators of detachable design elements
Leve2: Actual implementable designs of the various elements proposed and selected by Meru Cabs

Emotional connection with the consumer
The brand Meru stands for its 'Reliability'. It is the service reliability towards its customers, towards its drivers, towards its employees & vendors and towards the society. For consumers, the reliability in terms of pre-travel, travel & post-travel experience about all the facets of service, which fair, transparent, ontime, committed, safe, customer service & efficient working with standard policies & process all across. Personification: The brand Meru is Dependable, Intelligent, Friendly, Confident & adaptable. But it is not Introvet & Opportunist. The brand core is 'Uncompromising reliability'.

In addition to the brand Meru which stands for reliability, the brand Meru Plus offer the 'flexibility' to its customers, to service providers (business partners) & to its drivers. Reliability along with Flexibilty, is the brand promise of Meru Plus. We explained realibility above. Now the flexibility to consumers, means the customer can use these service as per his/her travel needs. With no rigid pricing packages (8hr / 80 km etc), no restiction of waiting time & with ability to go out of city limits, the Meru Plus adds in flexibility to its consumers.

International brands we look up to
• Uber Cabs, Hailo Cabs, Comfort Cabs

Domestic brands we compete with
• Ola Cabs, Easy Cabs, Mega Cabs

Customer profile

DEMOGRAPHICS		PSYCHOGRAPHICS		BEHAVIORAL
30 yrs-45 yrs		Social person		Multiple meetings in the city
Male & Female		Balances professional & personal life		Business & personal use
SEC A1/ A2		2nd in line Managers and above		Self paid/ reimbursed
Married		The Corporate High- flyer		Intercity for business purpose
Professional, post graduate		Mr. Do-it-all		Retention trip with family

You can refer to standard car interiors (Tata Manza, Toyota Etios or Maruti Swift D'zire) and design material that can help create Meru Plus brand property inside the car.

Outside of the car: You could propose to work with stickers that can be used on the outer body of the car and can be removed once the car is out of the Meru Plus network.

Before submission, evaluate your designs on the ease of printing/fabricating in mass quantities at low costs

You can also refer to standard car exteriors (Tata Manza, Toyota Etios or Maruti Swift D'zire) and design material that can help create Meru Plus brand property outside the car.

Initial submissions can be JPG images or PDF files to illustrate concepts

Upon finalization, we will need relevant Vector (artwork) files

Our brand colours are Black & Yellow. While we have a Olive green color used as a packing for Meru Cabs, which has become the product identity for Meru Cabs.

Taking a queue from this, we can show the connectivity between Meru & Meru Plus using Meru Green colour

Also look at colors used by some of our competitors - especially domestic - and try to differentiate Meru Plus from them

Colour specifications
• Meru Green: (CMYK = C:47, M:04, Y:37, K:00 ) or (RGB = R:00, G:170, B:146) or (Pantone 359C)

Submission of ideas, concepts, sketches showing where and what kind of branding material will come inside & outside the car

10th January, 2013

Level 1: 25,000

Level 2: 25,000

Untill 5th January entries are open only for level 1.