The good ship Carnival has weathered some very stormy seas.
Carnival Cruise Lines has earned the title as most-improved U.S. brand in consumer perception in the mid-year 2014 Buzz Rankings Report prepared by YouGov’s BrandIndex. “Carnival not only brought its consumer perception back in line with the rest of the industry, but their sales potential, indicated by consumers who say they would consider the brand for their next cruise, has rebounded above the rest of the cruise sector,” said Ted Marzilli, CEO of BrandIndex.
Justin French
Managing Director, International Sales
Justin French, Managing Director, International Sales for Carnival Cruise Lines, says the turnaround has been extraordinary. “Carnival’s consumer-perception score in the BrandIndex ranking showed that by mid-2014 we had doubled the improvement level achieved by the company ranked second on the most-improved list.”
After an onslaught of negative publicity, it could be argued that Carnival had nowhere to go but up, but it’s also clear that the cruise giant has worked very hard to improve its perception both among consumers and the travel trade.
French says the introduction of a number of ‘industry-first’ initiatives has played a big part in the brand’s resurgence. Continuing to play on the fun experience, Carnival launched Seuss at Sea, Carnival LIVE, Camp Ocean and a guarantee that should something ever go wrong, consumers will be taken care of under the Great Vacation Guarantee. They’ve also invested $300 million in operational safety and redundant systems designed to ensure an event like Carnival Triumph will never occur again. “Over the last year, we’ve worked hard at Carnival to bring new programming and innovation to our ships and at the same time maintain consistently smooth operational performance. These results are a gratifying acknowledgment of those efforts.”
French says CCL’s attempts at rapprochement with travel agents have also paid off handsomely.
“We hear travel agents tell us at our Carnival Conversations events and through our surveys that they’re enthusiastic about selling Carnival as a result of the efforts we’ve made with the trade and the our new product innovations. As we all know, travel agents are a large and important element of our overall sales and marketing at Carnival and their enthusiasm trickles over to their clients.”
French says the ‘Conversations’ with travel agents also help the line keep a finger on the pulse of retail sentiment.
“At each event, agents tell us how much they appreciate the efforts we’ve made and the changes we’ve implemented over the last year. It’s extremely gratifying but most importantly, we’re thrilled that it’s positively affecting agents’ business.”
Because Carnival is a publicly traded company, French can’t comment on specifics of whether sales and pricing have improved along with CCL’s brand perception. But he suggests that the two are definitely entwined.
“I can tell you that increased enthusiasm about your company is always a good thing,” French says.
