Our group plans on studying Carnival Cruise Lines, which is a British-American cruise
line based in Doral, Florida. We hope to target the issues Carnival Cruise Lines has with sinking
cliental from past incidences due to technical difficulties on their ships. We hope to target past
Carnival passengers along with new cliental to reaffirm the misconceptions above Carnival
Cruise Lines.
Company/Organization analysis:
Carnival Cruise Lines was formed in 1972 with a mission to take the world on vacation
and deliver exceptional experiences through many of the world’s best-known cruise brands that
cater to a variety of different geographic regions and lifestyles, all at an outstanding value
unrivaled on land or at sea (Carnival Corporation Website). The company does business as
Carnival Cruise Lines but is also known as Carnival Corporation & PLC since 1994. It is now
one of the largest vacation companies in the world, which attract 10 million guests annually.
Carnival Corporation is a public entity and had revenue of $15.8 billion in 2012. Its CEO
is Arnold Donald with a Senior VP David Bernstein. Carnival Corp. is on the New York Stock
Exchange and currently sells at $37.34. It is headquartered in Miami, Florida, U.S.A, and
London, England, and has 86,800 employees. It operates 100 ships with 77,000 shipboard
employees.
Last February Carnival Cruise Lines had one of their ships in the Gulf of Mexico start on
fire and lose power causing the ship to be stranded for five days with more than 3,000 passengers
aboard. Since, Carnival Corp. has tried to rebuild their name through varies ways. Including their
CEO Micky Arison and son of co-founder to retire after 34 years.
Earlier this month Carnival Corp. announced it received support from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, The U.S. Coast Guard and Transport Canada to start
advancement in technology to reduce air emissions from its cruise ships and large marine
vessels. This commits Carnival Corp. $180 million for exhaust cleaning technology in 32 of their
ships.
Consumer/Audience Analysis:
The demographics for Carnival Cruise Lines are adult men and women between the ages
of 30 and 45. Theses men and women would most likely have a family with children under the
age of 18. The men and women have jobs with a stable household environment. Along with the
demographics come the psychographics. The psychographics for Carnival are all family driven.
Carnival promotes fun and exciting activities for the kids while also promoting a relaxing
vacation for the adults. Carnival values a price point that many families can afford while still
giving many options of the types of cruises people can go on. They also value adventure,
activity and an abundance of things to do on the cruise ship while also being comfortable
throughout the entire vacation. People who choose Carnival may also be new to cruise lines
because that is whom Carnival tends to target.
The social technographics for Carnival Cruise Lines include many media sources. These
include: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and a website that contains everything there is to know
about Carnival and how to book a trip. Carnival is very present on these social media outlets,
using them to target young to middle aged adults. Through Carnival’s presence on social media,
they are continuously promoting their brand in a positive way. Another way they really target
consumers is through TV commercials. Carnival is loyal to their brand and constantly is
promoting a vacation of a lifetime.
Market Analysis:
Carnival Cruise Lines caters to customers globally, operating in many geographical
locations but primarily in North America, the UK, Germany, Spain, New Zealand, Brazil and
Australia. Carnival Cruise Lines claims they have “diversified geographic presence that helps the
company mitigate the dependency risks,” (SWOT analysis). Departure ports are located in both
North America and Europe, in the states of Maryland, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, California,
Louisiana, New York, Virginia, Washington, Puerto Rico, British Colombia, Barcelona, London,
Venice and Barbados. These departure ports carry different variations of Carnival cruises to all
the cruise regions around the world, with different lengths of stay. The cruise regions are in
Alaska, the Bahamas, Canada/New England, Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii, Mexico, Panama
Canal, Tahiti and Fiji Islands, and the Transatlantic. (Carnival.com)
The population segment for Carnival Cruise Lines are men and women between the ages
of 30 and 45, usually with children under 18 years of age. Of these families, the minimum
income is $20,000 a year, and the median is $40,000 a year. According to Carnival Cruise
Corporation SWOT analysis, the average age of populations in the established cruise regions are
increasing. Between the years of 2012 and 2022 passengers 45 years and older are expected to
grow by 19 million (13%) in the United State and 16 million (11%) in Western Europe.
Brand Analysis:
Carnival Cruise Lines is one of the most recognizable brands in the travel industry today.
As a leader in market shares and non-American markets, Carnival has established itself as a
leading cruise line. The essence of Carnival’s brand is to create a “fun for all” environment for
everyone to enjoy.
Although Carnival is a prominent travel option for a vacation, the company has faced
several difficulties within the past few years. In 2012, Carnival encountered its first major issue.
Costa Cruises was an Italian line of cruise ships under the Carnival brand that was built to satisfy
the needs of European cruise-goers. In January 2013, the Costa Concordia hit a rock on the coast
of Italy that resulted in the ship capsizing. This event led to an extremely negative view on the
Carnival brand. The tragic shipwreck event was referred to as the "most significant event in
modern maritime history.” This
was a huge hit to Carnival as
bookings for the cruise line fell and
shares plummeted.
Then in February 2013,
Carnival’s Triumph ship
experienced an engine fire, which resulted in a power outage that left passengers stranded in the
Gulf of Mexico for days. This was the ultimate PR disaster for the Carnival Cruise line. In order
to recover, Carnival had to undergo a major rebranding overhaul. As bookings fell, Carnival
offered rooms at deep discounts in order to keep the cruise line alive. Carnival is now spending
nearly $500 million for improvements on all of their ships. These
improvements mainly include redirecting power lines within the ship
to deter any possible power outages/shortages in the engine rooms, as
well as updating the computer navigation systems in all of the ships.
In the midst of all of the troubles Carnival Cruise Line has endured in recent news, the
cruise line is on track to reposition the brand name and rebuild their reputation. As a leading
cruise line in the industry today, Carnival has greater market penetration and brand awareness.
Although Carnival’s biggest competitor may be Royal Caribbean Cruises, Carnival still remains
as a top-of-mind brand in the world of cruises. With the slogan, “Fun for All. All for Fun,”
Carnival is rebranding their company to stay as the leading cruise line in the world.
Competition Analysis:
Carnival Cruise Line has few direct competitors. It holds the spot as the leading operator
of cruise ships; consuming about half of the industry, according to the Cruise Market Watch
2013 World Wide Market Share. It is also a market leader, with a market share of 44%.
According to Hoovers, Carnival’s biggest competitor is Royal Caribbean Cruises then Star
Cruise Line. Carnival’s services and products give them a great advantage. The ships have the
largest capacity of all and worldwide they carry about 7 million passengers. It makes its money
not only from ticket sales but from shore excursions, bar revenues and other on-board amenities.
Carnival’s competitive advantage comes from the fact that it has the most ships and it has a wide
variety of style and equipment.
Carnival Cruise Line’s indirect competition would be other resorts, such as beach or ski.
Indirect competition holds the same product category that satisfies the same needs but has
different types of products. Although most are all-inclusive options, one may have more appeal
over another. Carnival strives to hold strategic awareness over their competitors but some people
prefer to simply have the experience without the hassle of, for example, sea sickness, weather or
a confined space for a period of time.
SWOT Analysis
Carnival Cruise Lines primarily operates in North America, UK, Germany, New Zealand,
Spain, Brazil and Australia. It is headquartered in Miami, Florida, with another headquarters in
London, UK. The company operated 93 cruise ships and was set up as a subsidiary of the
American International Travel Service by Ted Arison in 1972.
Strengths:
• Carnival has a 47% market share in the UK, 68% in Italy, 51% in Germany and 45% in
France.
• Global Presence.
• Strong Consumer Demand in Europe.
• Diverse Staff.
• Tons of entertainment on aboard all fun ships.
• They are such a large company that they have significant cost advantages over most of
their competitors.
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Weaknesses:
Crashes and stalled boats in the past two years have caused many customers to become
skeptical about using this service.
• Hurricanes and Other Bad Weathers.
• Rising Cost of Fuel.
• Another weakness is that Carnival reports their financial statements in dollars.
• If the dollar strengthens it would record lower revenue than is actually earned.
• Carnival derives a majority of its revenue (nearly 52%) from US customers.
Opportunities:
• Expand the Luxury Liners.
• They are planning to increase berth capacity for the European market 37%.
• Off more destinations.
• They are also planning to introduce the larger cruise liner Costa Romantica.
• Carnival announced the union of Costa Europa with Thomson Cruises, a British Travel
Company.
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
New release from Carnival stating a 110% guaranteed satisfaction rate or money
returned.
Threats:
• Competition:
Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
Star Cruise Line
• Carnival has been taking advantage of special tax loopholes to avoid paying US
corporation taxes.
• In 2009, Carnival experienced bad press when three passengers fell off ships in a three
week period.
Also experiences of the passengers who were on the boats that were stalled and stranded
in the ocean, news paper articles written about this incident, and the opinions that were
created by the events (Italy 2012, Feb 2013).
SOURCES:
Carnival Corp. Swot Analysis
Time Magazine
USA Today
Carnival.com
Cruise Line International Association
Carnival Corporation SWOT analysis
Business Insights Essentials
Hoovers online
Carnival corporation & PLC