Carnival cruise case study

Implementation One of the problem plaguing the cruise industry is lack of brand recognition. There are at least 17 different brands in the industry with very little differentiation between them. While there are different categories including contemporary, destination, premium, and luxury, there is not much to separate one brand from another in these categories. Many people will decide that they want to go on a cruise and choose one of these categories without considering what the differences are teen the brands.

Carnival is considered to be a party ship in many people’s eyes.

The history of the company is what has given people this perception. In the past the Carnival Cruises have been known for beer drinking contests, people in their ass’s running around intoxicated, hairy chest contests, etc. This perception may have kept a lot of potential guests off of the ships, especially the families with children. Carnival has recognized that this is a deep market that they would like to have more access to. They must now decide what the best way is to market to this segment of the population and how to et them on the ships.

By advertising themselves as a more family friendly option in the cruise industry, they may be able to see more families on the ships.

They may need to consider having more kid friendly activities. Having child care services that are known to be the best in the industry will also help to get families interested in Carnival. Having guest appearances by celebrities that are popular on kids television shows could also be a big selling point. If you were to book an act with a celebrity like Salina Gomez, Children may be more interested in the cruises and more likely to push their parents awards choosing Carnival over an alternative.

Another idea could be having characters from shows like Sponge Square pants or other kids programs if this is possible without causing a lawsuit. There could be a market for more specialized cruises.

A consideration could be to create cruises that are geared towards specific groups. One example could be people that are into fitness. There could be activities that are designed to promote fitness. Rhea could have cross fit classes being offered and maybe yoga classes taking place on the deck. There are many activities that could be offered to entice people to come n this type of cruise.

It could be for people who are into this type of lifestyle or for those that are interested but don’t know much about it.

It could also be a way to get started if someone has wanted to get into a routine but have had trouble getting started, a week out at sea with plenty of fitness activities may be what they need. There would be plenty of healthy eating options. There could be various types of healthy eating options that many people may not be aware of. Cooking classes could also be offered with information about nutrition being provided to better inform the guests on what to look tort and avoid when preparing a healthy meal.

This is Just one example of a themed cruise.

There are plenty of other options available. Having appropriately trained staff that is knowledgeable about fitness would be required but shouldn’t be too costly. Carnival says that they are unsure of who their core guests are. Not knowing who {Our core guests are makes it difficult to market to those people. There needs to be research conducted to find out who the people are that choose Carnival as their preferred cruise line and why.

Is it Just by chance that they choose Carnival over there alternatives or is their specific reasons that they chose Carnival.

Since there is little differentiation between the brands, maybe it is by chance that they ended up on Carnival Cruise. Maybe they are repeat guests and have been on many cruises before. If not already in place, there should be a guest loyalty program to help grow the relationship between carnival and their guests. These are all things that need to be known by the company in order to better seek out those people that may be Interested in cruising with Carnival.

These recommendations specifically address concerns pertaining to brand connection, brand perception, and identifying core guests.

Carnival is known as the ‘Fun Ship. ” That is great but how do we further differentiate the brands. It is necessary to offer guests an experience that is different from the experiences that the other cruise lines are offering. What is it that sets Carnival apart from the rest of the crowd? What can they do to make themselves recognizable not Just as another cruise line but as the cruise line of choice? To differentiate themselves they will need to find their target market. The brand is the biggest for a reason, so they shouldn’t throw that away and start over.

What needs to be done is some expansion of the brand. There needs to be a wider variety of cruising styles. Active people may find a cruise to be boring with more bars and clubs available than options that would bring a person to be physically active. A murder mystery cruise could be exciting to the people who constantly find themselves reading and watching mysteries. It could be an interactive experience that would have their adrenaline pumping and ready to book their next cruise before they even step off the ship.

Look at the success of Coming.

People travel from all ever the United States for a chance to meet writers and actors from some of their favorite movies and books. How much would these people be willing to pay to go on a 3 day cruise with these same people following this same theme for the length of the cruise? These would need to be testing done prior to going all out and attempting to book 2,000 units for a cruise that may not be attractive to more than a few hundred people. It may be a good idea to send questionnaires to previous passengers requesting feedback on their level of interest in this type of experience.

Seeking dieback in online forums geared towards those that may be interested in these kinds of cruises would also be a way to research the viability of this concept.

Stakeholders would be expected to show interest in this concept before any steps forward would be taken. Once the model has been presented, and interest has been shown, there could be movement forward towards collecting more specific data on how to make these specialized tours work. This would be a process that would take time and require much research tort the cruises to meet the expectations to these specialized groups.

For some of the specialized cruises that were suggested, there may be a need for additional resources. On a kid friendly cruise, there will be a need for more areas to keep the children entertained.

There will also be a need for more kid friendly foods. Children can be picky when it comes to food and it will be necessary to have foods that will make the children happy as well as be nutritious. There will need to be staff on board that are trained to be effective childcare providers and healthcare professionals. Parents will need to feel that their children are safe when they are out f the parents view.

If the cruise was using a murder mystery theme, they would need actors. The cost of actors should not be too high.

Finding actors for this type of cruise should not be that difficult since many actors may be interested in a free cruise, even though they will still be working. There will also be the need for props and maybe even special effects. There would also be a need for staff to set up any special effects and make sure that they will not cause any danger for the staff or guests. These cruises may require some additional research or require someone knowledgeable that can make this performance seem authentic.

You would not want guest thinking that the show is unbelievable or not credible. On a tour that focused on fitness, there would be a need for trained professionals in the fitness community.

There will need to be personal trainers to keep the guests motivated and to offer Onerous plans for all fitness levels. Dieticians will need to create a menu that will supply all the nutrients needed to allow for physical activity. Healthcare professionals No are knowledgeable about physical activity related injuries should be on hand in ease anyone injures themselves.

There may also be a need for additional exercise equipment if the ship does not have enough to accommodate the number of people that will be on the ship. For a Coming type experience, people from this industry will need to be on the ship.

It may be costly to have people from this industry agree to go on a cruise for 3 days or more with screaming fans. Depending on how the vent is structured, there may be a need for booths where the artists, actors, etc. Can set up any items that they may need. There will also be a need for extra security.

Carnival should have sufficient resources to implement the recommendations that have been made.

They should also have the systems, structures and processes needed to Implement the recommendations. Carnival is a multimillion dollar corporation and should have no problem creating the structures, systems, and processes to make these recommendations succeed if they are not already in place. Finding out who Carnival’s core guests are is something that needs to begin immediately. They may Ant to look into how their guests heard about Carnival.

If there is a specific website hat is creating many of the reservations that Carnival sees, then they could consider looking at the types of people that usually use this website.

Maybe 20% of the people on a cruise saw a special on the Travel Channel about Carnival Cruise Lines and this drove them to try a cruise. This is all information that could help to identify a core group of guests and also help to understand how to better market to them. Creating brand differentiation is something that will take time. It will come from appropriate marketing and guest experiences.

Once Carnival can create an experience that no en else in the industry can recreate, they will stand out above the rest. Another way to create this will be consistency.

Inconsistent service and occasional breakdowns to ships cause doubt to consumers about whether or not they want to chance having a bad experience on a Carnival Cruise. Taking additional steps to prevent these issues Nil help to differentiate the brand further. Attempting to create specialized tours may take the most amount of time to complete. There will need to be much research completed before these kinds of tours can be attempted.

There will need to be tidies to see if people will be interested in taking these types of cruises. There Mould be no point in creating these types of cruises if you can’t fill the ship.

If you can fill a ship, you have to figure out how often you will be able to do it. You may only be able to do it once every couple of months, or maybe only once a year. If you only have enough interest to fill these cruises once a year, is it worth the investment into additional supplies and employees? It probably wouldn’t. One of the potential roadblocks to successful implementation of these recommendations would be lack of

Interest in the specialized cruises. That is why a studies should be conducted to see f there is a market large enough to make this type of cruise profitable. Carnival has the resources available to complete these studies.

For Carnival to not know who their core guest is or what they want from their experience is laziness on their part. That is missed opportunity. There shouldn’t be anything preventing them from gathering this information. This should be a high priority and steps should be taken to gain this information immediately. The easiest way to do this would be surveys.

They could put reverse in every room if they wanted.

Giving the guest an incentive to complete the survey would make it more likely that they would see a completed survey in every room. Offering a chance to win a free cruise could be an option. There are obviously many other opportunities to gather this information but this is the easiest and cheapest way to do it. There will be roadblocks to changing brand perception.

It will take time and also it will require that Carnival creates the perception that it is Matting to present. With the many problems that they have had and the history of Carnival this will not be quick or easy.

If Carnival can consistently create the experience that they want guests to have then there is better chance of a change occurring in the way that people perceive the brand. If they can find a way to bring more families onto the ship and have less young adults looking to party, then this perception can go away with time. If Carnival can consistently provide safe cruises and implement new safety procedures then the perception that their cruises may be unsafe might eventually go away with time. One of the potential desired outcomes coming from the recommendations would be an increase in sales.

This is the most desired outcome. All of the recommendations made are to hopefully sell more cruises and fill more ships. The desire to change brand perception is to bring in a more sustainable group of guests. This group may not have wanted to be on a cruise that they believed to be overrun with drunken college students. They may have also had concerns about safety since Carnival doesn’t have the best record when it comes to safety. A family with children will view safety as being a top concern when traveling.

If these perceptions can be changed then many more families may be seen n the cruises.

This will bring in a broader group of people and will likely lead to an increase in revenue. Specialty cruises could be effective in bringing a new type of guest that might not have seen cruising as an appealing type of vacation. Having the theme to the cruise might be what was needed to grab b their attention and see cruising as an interesting choice for a vacation. Once this group has seen what a cruise has to offer, they may consider booking another specialty cruise or even a regular cruise again in the future. Since there is a special theme to the cruise, it

Mould probably make sense to charge more, possibly also creating a perception that this type of cruise is a premium product.

Once these groups can be identified and properly marketed to, there shouldn’t be a problem selling the cruises. Ryan Parker from the Denver Post said that the Denver Comic Con event this year in Denver brought in 48,000 visitors, which is up from 27,000 the year before. That is a large number of people and that is Just for the Denver Comic Con . One assumption made in the recommendations is that there will be an interest in the theme cruises.

There IS a possibility that there will not be enough interest for this idea to ever be put into action.

That is why there will need to be studies conducted to discover if this is an option that deserves to be investigated further. It could be decided very quickly that there will not be a large enough market for these types of cruises or even that the groups being marketed to will not want to spend the amount of money that would need to be charged to make the cruise profitable. Another assumption being made is that it shouldn’t be hard to identify Carnival’s core guests.