Streamlining all different businesses– Ola Electric, Ola Cabs, Ola Share, AI-startup Krutrim, upcoming battery cell, quick commerce business, Ola Coin, amongst other businesses– under one umbrella, Ola Cabs has rebranded itself as Ola Consumer.
What started as ride-hailing services to now encompassing a wide range of consumer services, the rebranding highlights the company’s move up the value chain.
CEO and founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced the rebranding during Ola Electric’s annual event ‘Sankalp’ and shared that the new entity, Ola Consumer, aims to provide a range of consumer services to enhance the accessibility, affordability, and efficiency of e-commerce.
By attaching the category descriptor, cabs with Ola, the brand was restricting itself to a single category, thus impeding its future growth prospects through expansion and diversification. Now, they have announced their intentions to the public by symbolically clearing the path for the future.
The good thing is that it will not be all disruptive for its current consumers, as most, if not all, refer to the brand as simply Ola, and not Ola Cabs, points out Samit Sinha, Founder and Managing Partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting.
At the event on August 15, Aggarwal announced the relaunch of Ola Share – the ride-sharing service, which already has gone live in Bangalore and soon expand to other cities and also the launch of Ola Coin – a loyalty program being offered by the company for customers across all its services.
It also has introduced Ola Pay, which uses UPI on the Ola App to pay for rides, food, and groceries.
Announcing the plan of deploying 1 lakh two-wheeler electric vehicles over the next two years, it launched three electric motorcycles. That apart, plans specific to Krutrim, the AI startup launched by Aggarwal, were also shared.
The company will soon introduce offerings in the retail and e-commerce spaces while competing in the quick commerce space with the launch of automated dark stores, which will be available for all kiranas and brands in the ONDC network and not just for Ola.
Aggarwal is looking at the larger vision of Ola as a group, say experts. It’s much like in a sense how Google rebranded the company to Alphabet and how Facebook rebranded the company to Meta.
“Ola is looking at going up the value chain,” says angel investor and business strategist, Lloyd Mathias.
However, one concern is that should some of these sub-businesses fail and does not take off, it could impact the larger group objective because right now is very sharply positioned as being a ride-hailing service.
“If there’s a big if for whatever reason or things go awry in one of the businesses, that could impact the core business which has been established now for more than 12 years and is doing quite well,” Mathias adds.
While the move signals the growth prospects and aspirations of the company, the rebranding, experts say could be a risk if the company loses sight of its core business i.e. ride-hailing via Ola Cabs, while focusing on new services.
Its mobility business, which reported a standalone profit of Rs 250 crore in FY23, enjoys strong brand awareness and satisfaction levels– which took over a decade to be built.
Brand guru, Jagdeep Kapoor, Founder Chairman and MD, Samsika Marketing Consultants, suggests, “As long as Ola Cabs retains its core goodwill, it would provide a positive halo effect to the rest of the Ola Consumer businesses assuming the new consumer businesses provide equal or superior consumer experiences that customers have received from Ola Cabs.”
Although an exercise to rebrand the corporate brand with a broader category name is natural when the core product portfolio expands.
In the tech industry, Apple did something similar after the success of the iPod and the day of the launch of the iPhone, when it changed its name from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.
Kapoor notes that this is a signal to the market, and to internal and external stakeholders that Ola as a corporate brand is no longer associated only with cabs, and that the Ola Cabs business is but one of the larger brand portfolio offerings of Ola, which is aiming to be positioned as a homegrown cutting-edge Bharatiya consumer technology brand.
“Ola wishes to be known not as a ‘Cabs Brand’, but as a consumer technology brand that happens to also be in the cabs business, amongst others. The Ola Cabs brand hence becomes a child brand of the mother corporate brand that is Ola Consumer,” he adds.
The quick challenge
The company, Ola Consumer, will soon be introducing offerings in the retail and e-commerce spaces competing in the quick commerce space with the launch of automated dark stores.
Aggarwal said that the company has launched a 100% automated dark store to help it build its quick commerce business which also encompasses an automated warehousing solution, which it claims is 90% cheaper than existing dark store operators. The same will also be available on the ONDC network.
It already has partnerships with several brands including ITC and Marico for efficient and automated warehousing operations.
With this, Ola Consumer is soon to enter the quick commerce market, which has become highly competitive with Zepto, Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart, Big Basket Now, and Flipkart Minutes.
The quick-commerce market in India which will be worth $40 billion by 2030, has seen and continues to witness major roadblocks including supply chain vulnerabilities and logistical complexities- all of which Ola Consumer is planning to resolve.
Read more: Dark side of dark stores: Q-comm brands like Blinkit, Zepto are quickly losing consumer trust
Additionally, it is also to be noted that other major quick-commerce platforms have been under the scanner for unhygienic and unsafe practices. While the focus on valuation is significant for brands like Blinkit and Zepto, neglecting operational standards can be detrimental, denting consumer trust and brand value.
Mathias notes that Ola Consumer will certainly have to keep such an aspect in mind, especially on the operational and maintenance side.
“It’s a very challenging space, and even the existing players who have been in quick-commerce for a while are still struggling to make that work,” he concludes.