Carnival Cruise Lines Case free essay sample

Situation Carnival has a strong market expansion strategy for selling the mass-market cruise category and first-time cruisers. They have a clear vision and knowledge about the industry and a commitment to their brand essence, which is fun. Problem Statement One area that Carnival needs to improve upon in order to stay competitive within the industry is information technology. Carnival has a large IS group, but the focus has been on maintenance and operations of the existing infrastructure. In order to gain new customers they need to know who to market. By analyzing customer data they could find out who to focus their marketing efforts on. Analysis Management at Carnival had been discussing what strategy to use in order to personalize their marketing to the customer and how to make them loyal customers. One option was to use CRM software. By utilizing the customer information within their database, they can create a strong CRM program that will differentiate Carnival from competitor cruise lines and ultimately other land vacation destinations. We will write a custom essay sample on Carnival Cruise Lines Case or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Also, CRM would help with cross selling. CRM had been a fad that had recently swept the industry, but due to Carnivals conservative stance toward IT they did not follow suit. Recommendations and Next Steps Once they are ready to implement the CRM system: 1. Make collecting the customer information as easy as possible. Either by adding fields on line that the customer must fill out in order to book the cruise or by simply downloading the data from their sail and sign card. 2. Have a central location for all the data to be stored. The information needs to be easily accessible by the data analysts; The information also needs to be presented in an easy to understand format. 4. Data mining tools need to be used in order to organize the data so patterns can be identified. From there customers can be profiled and a sales and marketing strategy can be made. 5. Ultimately use the information to enhance the customers experience. By knowing what customers want and providing that to them you will be able to gain loyal customers. The customer data could also be used to personalize the customer’s experience. They could offer preferred customer discounts to some excursions for repeat customers only. Anything they can do to make the customer feel special and appreciated would enhance their cruise experience. If they can achieve that then the customer is more likely to refer others to Carnival and cruise with them again which will in turn increase their bottom line. Furthermore, repeat customers tend to spend more money than first-time cruisers, from spending extra on nicer rooms to adding more excursions. CRM will allow Carnival to increase that all important repeat customer number.