Need Help with Marketing Class

[dmb814]

Good Morning,

 

I'm enrolled in a marketing class and have to do a presentation for a large scale company. I have picked Celebrity cruiselines(I have a cruise to Greece planned for October).

 

What I need is feedback from different indiviuals telling me why you picked the cruise you did and what it is that makes that cruise line special.

 

I would really appreciate any feedback, people can give me.

 

Thank You in advance,

 

Diane

[firefly333]

You would probably get more responses if you posted this on the Celebrity cruise line, this is a general thread and who knows if someone who is going to cruise on Celebrity will read your post. Good luck.

 

Iv only done Princess, Carnival and RCI and have picked Disney for a future cruise.

[ddonalds]

I'm scheduled to go on a Celebrity cruise in August - my travel agent picked it..... I wanted to go to Alaska, and she recommended this one.... Once I started looking into it - it sounded pretty good. They seem to have a good reputation, and it sounds like it's a traditional cruise, versus the "all casual" ones (which I'm not wild about). Not much help, I know, but it's why we're booked on this cruise...:)

[cruiseco]

Good Morning,

 

I'm enrolled in a marketing class and have to do a presentation for a large scale company. I have picked Celebrity cruiselines(I have a cruise to Greece planned for October).

 

What I need is feedback from different indiviuals telling me why you picked the cruise you did and what it is that makes that cruise line special.

 

I would really appreciate any feedback, people can give me.

 

Thank You in advance,

 

Diane

 

I realize that this is a class project so you're not going to get what you really need -- feedback from the client. But for a good grade, let the instructor know that in the real world you would have asked all of the following before presenting any one ship/sailing to them for their approval.

 

I've done up to full ship charters for major corporations and the first step is to find out what they need/want. What's the budget? What's the time frame to travel (an Alaska cruise in February isn't going to work)? What special needs do they have -- will they need group/meeting space while onboard and if so, how much and how often? What's the size of the group? How much lead time is there between signing the contract and the sail date? Do the company's VIPs need suites and if so how many will there be? On these types of corporate groups taking care of the guys picking up the tab is very important.

 

Once you have your "input" from the "client" you'll need to pick a ship/sailing that meets as many of these needs as possible -- no ship will be 100% on all of this. But if this phantom group needs meeting space for 20 execs three times during the cruise you'll need to show in the marketing plan how the ship you have chosen can accommodate that including things like overhead projectors, seating, catering, etc and the additional costs (if any) associated with these extras.

 

In short, to make this more of a real world situation first pretend that you're the corporation you're presenting to, draw up a list of everything that it would take for the perfect group cruise, then switch hats and become the gruop planner and try to find the sailing that works best. And it may not end up being the sailing that you originally thought of.

[caviargal]

Good Morning,

 

I'm enrolled in a marketing class and have to do a presentation for a large scale company. I have picked Celebrity cruiselines(I have a cruise to Greece planned for October).

 

What I need is feedback from different indiviuals telling me why you picked the cruise you did and what it is that makes that cruise line special.

 

I would really appreciate any feedback, people can give me.

 

Thank You in advance,

 

Diane

 

Hi, Diane:).

 

I have cruised quite a bit over the years and my tastes and preferences have evolved.

 

These days I decide where I want to go and then see if my lines of choice go there. If not, I change itineraries.

 

My priority is the cruise line and ship as I am not happy when on a ship that is not my personal taste and style. I will not cruise on the mega ships, avoid family oriented ships and lines and dislike casual and freestyle lines.

 

What makes a cruise and line special for me is:

 

- Comfortable accomodations with some luxury touches (great beds, linens, large bathrooms)

 

- Elegant atmosphere and well maintained vessel

 

- Sophisticated, adult fellow passengers as the majority of fellow travelers (no hairy chest contests)

 

- Food that is quality, not quantity oriented

 

- Peace and quiet and no fighting for a deck chair

 

- a dress code that is widely followed without moaning and groaning

[purplefrogs]

 

What I need is feedback from different indiviuals telling me why you picked the cruise you did and what it is that makes that cruise line special.

 

Hi Diane,

 

For the 2 cruises we've been on both were with Carnival. When we decided to take a cruise vacation we had two factors that we were keeping in mind. 1st factor was wanting to leave out of Houston or Galveston and 2nd was which was going to be less expensive. With these factors we had 3 cruise lines to choose from...NCL, CCL, or RCCL. We eliminated NCL because of the freestyle thing and RCCL was eliminated because of price. We really didn't look at the itineraries too much because we were just happy to get away.

 

As for what makes Carnival special, there isn't really anything to me that makes them special. We just wanted a cruise vacation and CCL met the requirements.

 

Good luck on your project and have a great time on your cruise!

[maldemar]

Ah, marketing. By far the hardest part of any business and unlike accounting with its G.A.A.P., marketing is voodoo.

 

If you recall your 4 P’s of marketing, product, place, price and promotion, I’ll say that a combination of product and price influenced our decision to go with Royal Caribbean for our last four cruises out of a total of eight.

 

We don’t look at price as meaning the lowest price wins. Price should be read as value. Value is where the intersecting lines of cost and quality cross. The point of value is different for everyone. Ours intersects at Royal Caribbean. For others the line meets at Carnival and for some it meets at Silversea.

 

Apply this theory to something more tangible like cars. For the sake of this example assume that Yugos (one of the biggest pieces of crap ever built) are still around, and that a Silver Shadow is the best made car in the world. If lowest cost was the most important factor in the buying decision everyone in the world would drive a Yugo. If quality was the most important, everyone would drive the Roll’s. This obviously isn’t the case so everyone has a different point where value triggers the purchase.

 

In cruising, besides cost and quality, you factor in the individual ship and the particular itinerary into the value equation. No matter what reasons people give you for choosing their next or last cruise, it all comes down to what their value point is.

[Fredr]

DMB814,

 

Hope that the following will be of help to you....

 

Celebrity Cruise Lines was founded by the Chandris family of Greece. This family has been shipowners for many years.

 

Essentially, Celebrity Cruise line's founder John Chandris thought that a cruise featuring excellent food, service, upscale entertainment that often features classical music, and an overall European ambiance, would be profitable. Celebrity does attract passengers who are professionals or semi retired very active, affluent persons who want an upscale classy cruise at an affordable price. HAL attracts generally an older crowd, Princess and RCCL are the allpurpose cruise lines, that is, they have something for everyone, and Carnival is for younger, budget oriented passengers (nothing wrong with this).

 

As for a Greek cruise...here is slogan "Come on home with us to Greece, the islands we know best"

 

I have been on 17 cruises and and 18th coming up in about a month. Celebrity is a wonderful cruise line and though I sail on other cruise lines I look at Celebrity first to see what is being offered.

[Onessa]

My family and I (me, DH, and DD) travel as a family and select cruises first by the itinerary, then by amenity.

 

We most appreciate port-rich cruises to less tourist areas. We don't do caribean or Mexican, we have done several European, three AK, two Canadian and one HI .

 

As far as on-board amenities that are important to us in selecting a cruise

1) dining options

2) casual, non-stuffy atmosphere - with few or no "formal" nights

3) Kid's program (DD is now 11YO)

4) general decor (love X and RCCI lots of on-board art and well designed public areas. Princess is "OK", NCL is kind of tacky)

5) Good food (emphasis on quality)

6) general on-board sports type activities

 

Things that do not factor into our decision:

1) gambling

2) price/availability of alcohol

3) art sales

[RenieRaider]

Hi Diane,

 

For the 2 cruises we've been on both were with Carnival. When we decided to take a cruise vacation we had two factors that we were keeping in mind. 1st factor was wanting to leave out of Houston or Galveston and 2nd was which was going to be less expensive. With these factors we had 3 cruise lines to choose from...NCL, CCL, or RCCL. We eliminated NCL because of the freestyle thing and RCCL was eliminated because of price. We really didn't look at the itineraries too much because we were just happy to get away.

 

As for what makes Carnival special, there isn't really anything to me that makes them special. We just wanted a cruise vacation and CCL met the requirements.

 

Good luck on your project and have a great time on your cruise!

 

 

Wow. That was a great REAL response. Bon Voyage!

[heymom32000]

We chose carnival once again because we are military and they show their thanks to those keeping our country protected by offering a nice discount. Price is a major factor for us..spending less on the cost of the cruise allows more $ for drinks and excursions. Next we looked at the ports of call to choose places we have yet to visit. Lastly was where the ship leaves from and returns to. I would prefer Tampa or Canaveral but oh well....at least we got a good price, a new ship, and the ports we wanted.

[isujim]

We chose our one Celebrity cruise because they cancelled a cruise we were booked on, put us on a transatlantic on the same date.......then didn't honor the price.........to make a long story short they ended up giving us a 25% discount on any cruise we chose for a year. We picked Hawaii.........

 

We probably won't sail Celebrity again........nice cruise line, but very stuffy and over blown IMO............

 

I enjoy the "options" on a cruise line..........we enjoy the overall options available on RC and the consistent product they have................I want to have fun when I want to have fun and enjoy peace and quiet when I want peace and quiet............cruising is all about choices............

 

This is so subjective and all in the eyes of the beholder............the base cruise product is really the same on all Mega Cruise Lines of which Celebrity is one as well.........

 

Good luck with your project.........