Heather Hedrick
Bus. Marketing
08/14/2010
Individual Follow-up
My group evaluated and created a marketing plan for Carnival Cruise lines. Carnival was a difficult case study due to the fact that Carnival is a very broad company with sub-companies intertwined within it. As a group, we tried to think outside of the box and come up with things that have not been thought of before. This was a chore in and of itself. We soon learned that Carnival spends millions of dollars to market their business each year and try to come up with creative plans. Marketing is the entire process of getting a product or service into the hands of buyers and it includes research, development, planning, copywriting, packaging, pricing, advertising, publicity, sales and delivery and Carnival was covering all their bases.
Carnival’s stated objective is to keep promoting the “Fun Ship” theme, while adding new activities and entertainment. The company also wants to provide cruises to meet the demands of every vacationer’s budget and expectations. Carnival also hopes to attract a larger percent of the vacationing market and increase their number of repeat customers. Finally, So the question was what #1 thing do I think we (as a group) came up with to pursue this goal. The simple and most obvious answer and the one I feel is the most significant is to expand to destinations not yet flooded with cruise ships. One such area appeared to be the Asian cruise market. By adding a port of call in Asia, they not only create a new cliental, but they boost the Asian market.
I think that an unexplored area that Carnival may be able to tap into is building their own themed hotels on land that allow people a longer stay if they want to. It would be nice to be able to take a cruise to a new location and instead of the traditional stampede on and off the boat to see the sights for 6 to 8 hrs, they could choose to stay at a Carnival Hotel on land and enjoy the sights at their own leisure. Maybe they...