Like the Cruise Industry, Case Study Example

Consolidated industries like the cruise industry are less competitive than companies in fragmented industries because very few companies control large market shares of the overall industry sales. As a consequence, it is beneficial for companies in consolidated industries to make agreements with one another that will support the financial interest of each member of the group. This contributes to the formation of deals that will restrict certain companies to distinct areas of the market. For example, Carnival cruises travel only to select destinations so that business does not overlap with other cruise ships. Furthermore, competition is low because there are high barriers to entry, meaning that very few new entrants will appear. As such, companies in consolidated industries are able to profit because of the deals they make with other companies.

The cruise industry can be defined as an oligopoly because there are only a few companies that offer cruise trips and these companies therefore only need to consider their rivals prices and offerings in order to determine their own process and services. The main cruise lines include Royal Caribbean Cruise, Carnival, Disney Cruise Line, and Norwegian. Other companies are not well-known and would therefore would not have a significant effect on this market. As a consequence, each company is responsible for deciding whether it would be beneficial to respond to the price changes implemented by their competitors, or whether to not. Ultimately, there is such little competition within the cruise industry that it is unlikely that these decisions would impact profit very significantly.

The various brands operated by Carnival Corp have synergies. Additional brands owned by Carnival include Carnival PLC, and the Carnival Corp United Kingdom division. These three firms share information, technology, and innovation so that all three divisions can remain market leaders. It was wise for Carnival to acquire brands in this manner because it provides additional ways for the company to remain competitive against the other leaders of the industry.

Existing customer information can be used to influence brand strategy in the future by determining appropriate demographics that can be marketed to. It is valuable to collect and analyze user information to determine which types of people are most likely to purchase a Carnival cruise ticket. Ultimately, this will allow a greater number of potential customers to be reached. Furthermore, this information could be used to modify the goods and services that the cruise line is currently offering to customers in order to make them more appealing to this target demographic. In this manner, Carnival will be able to be more successful in competing with other cruise lines over this particular population of people. This information should continuously be collected so that new trends could be identified and strategic interventions could be implemented as needed.

Carnival can change its existing customer perception of the brand by changing its slogan and marketing to different groups of people. For this to be possible, it would also be necessary to change some of the goods and services offered by the cruise line. However, it does not seem that Carnival needs to rebrand itself. Currently, the cruise line offers the largest fleet of cruises compared to its competitors and has 20% of the market share. Furthermore, the company has the potential to reach a large number of individuals through its current marketing campaign that demonstrates that the cruise line is a cost efficient cruise for the whole family. This indicates that the cruise is both child and adult friendly, making it one of the world’s top cruise choices. Ultimately, it may be detrimental for Carnival to change its brand because its current brand is known very well.