Social Media Intelligence Case Study – Carnival Cruise Lines

Company:

Carnival Cruise Lines

Date:

March 2010

Objective:

To understand travelers’ perceptions of Carnival Cruise Lines as well as reputation issues surrounding the brand. Some specific questions to be answered include:

1. What drives decision making for particular cruise ships?
2. Is the ‘Fun Ship’ reputation turning away travelers?
3. Are ‘noisy kids’ harming the brand?
4. How is Carnival’s cancellation policy viewed?

Answers:

We used our standard methodology of mining social data on message boards, forums, blogs, microblogs, news and social networks sites using RESONATE, our monitoring technology, to extract themes, opinions, influencers, demographics and geographic segments.  Our analysts were then able to interpret the data and provide the following insights:

1. Travelers discuss multiple reasons for switching cruise lines including ship noise, doors slamming, loud public announcements, and the “partiers, drinkers, kids” on the ship.
2. Nearly 10% of Carnival consumers are attracted to their budget friendly cruises, but hesitate due to fear that it will be too much of a party atmosphere.
3. Experienced Carnival travelers indicate kids are kept very busy and are not a noisy distraction
4. Carnival’s cancellation policy is perceived very negatively. Particularly surrounding flight delays and flight cancellations due to weather.

Additional Findings:

In addition to the above insights, other interesting findings were uncovered:

• Carnival travelers favor the amount of pre-travel information that’s supplied including destination information and logistics
• Travelers find group travel easy with Carnival
• Some travelers have concern over Carnival’s food, “It can be very inconsistent”
• Many travelers had concerns over the impact of large groups on individual travelers, “I’m stuck on the Star Trek ship!”