We tend to think of branding as a discipline practised only by the kinds of large consumer companies that invented it. Companies like Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Coca-Cola – and, these days, Apple, Starbucks and T-Mobile – all come to mind as icons of the arcane art.

But of course branding happens at all levels of business and culture, from the global to the local, the institutional to the personal, the intentional to the unintentional. It is this last category – the one where branding happens whether you intend it to or not – that I would like to explore.

All kinds of businesses populate this category, but in North America, one standout is the taxi business. For these companies, almost no marketing or branding happens above or below the line. They don’t advertise outside the Yellow Pages, they don’t do direct mail, they don’t have sexy websites, loyalty programs, customer service departments or formal training programs for frontline operators.

Given all that, it is no surprise that when it comes to brand experience, they are generally atrocious. One would expect that the basic rule of driving a cab is to get your customer safely from point A to point B in the shortest possible time, using the most direct route, like on a train or in an airplane.

If only that were the case. If you live in Toronto or, to some extent, Montreal and Vancouver, chances are that’s the last thing that will happen. Your driver will likely have far less familiarity with the city than most of his customers do. The result is usually a longer, more expensive ride, and not because he is driving within the speed limit; more often than not, you feel like you are in a high-speed chase on the backstreets of Kabul. No, it’s because the guy just doesn’t know where he is going.

It really irks me that I have to pay extra for a driver who takes longer to get me to my destination. So the other day, while stuck in the back of a particularly smelly cab listening to a hardbitten dispatcher spout off in tones of exasperation over a crackly two-way radio while trying to manage his fleet through the morning rush hour, I wondered: why the devil hasn’t anybody figured out how to do this better? How hard can it be?

There are certainly great examples in other cities. Take London, England. To qualify for a cabbie’s licence in that town you have to spend two full years studying. At the end of that, you are tested on your knowledge of the city, and on your ability to find the most direct route to your customer’s destination.

There’s a cab company in London for women customers only called Pink Ladies. The drivers are all women, trained in self-defence, customer care, first aid and working with the disabled. Drivers always wait until the passenger is safely inside her destination. Every car is equipped with GPS. None of them carries cash. You become a member for one pound sterling. It has been so successful that it is being franchised in other cities.

In Prague, there is a company called AAA. All you need to do is call them once from your mobile phone, and after that they greet you by name. They also know whether to speak to you in Czech or in English. You can even text them with your order if you prefer.

So here’s the formula: start a cab company that thoroughly trains its drivers, not only in the lay of the land, but also in customer service. Capture customer data and use it in a way that makes them feel like you actually know them. Equip your cabs with GPS to assist drivers in route selection and keep them abreast of traffic snarls that could deter their progress.

If you did all that, you could damn well charge a premium! People would gladly pay more if they were treated well. Then your template could be replicated in any number of major cities across the continent. Maybe the world.

Look at WestJet: it was started by a guy who was simply fed up with the deplorable experiences he had on what was then the only available airline. Why not pull that model out of the air and put it to work on the street?

Will Novosedlik is partner at

Toronto-based Chemistry, a brand collaborative which links strategy to communication, organizational performance and customer experience. will@chemistrylab.ca.