One
year ago this week, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo became President & CEO of Celebrity
Cruises. During that short time she has implemented numerous changes that
provide a clear indicator to the
line’s future direction.
In terms of consumer media coverage, the biggest story involving Celebrity this
year was
the hiring of the 1st American female captain for a major ship
sailing in North American
waters. When named captain of the Summit in August, 37 yr. old Kate McCue caught the attention of the consumer
media.
On national TV news, she came across well: “Everyone has a stereotypical idea
of a
captain, and I’m missing some pounds,” she told CBS News.
McCue seemed destined for the role. At age 12, she told her dad she wanted to be a cruise director. Her father,
an engineer, responded, “You can do anything you want in the world, including drive
this thing.”
As the 1st
female chief executive for
Celebrity Cruises, Lutoff-Perlo hopes McCue’s - and her own - example will
inspire girls and women to pursue
a similar path.
“I get to be the 1st woman President & CEO of Celebrity and I
love this brand, and then we have
Kate, our 1st woman American captain. I was so proud and honoured to be able to do that.”
One of Lutoff-Perlo’s
main priorities is to do something fundamentally different about bringing more
people to cruising. “I believe over the last 7 or 8 years we have not built up enough demand, we do not have enough
differentiation.”
She believes the cruise industry, and Celebrity in particular, has a unique
opportunity in the category of
affluent vacation travel. “In the case of Celebrity, we are very clear that we
aren’t luxury, we are modern luxury, we
are different. I will continue building on the platform of modern luxury as we
talk about the things we are
going to do as we anticipate our spectacular Edge class coming in 2018.
“We have to carve out our unique place in this industry for our brand moving
forward. That is critical for
long-term financial performance and growing 1st-timer and 1st-to-brand guests.”
Lutoff-Perlo says clarifying and simplifying Celebrity’s messaging is a key
priority. “One thing I learned coming back to Celebrity is how much support we
have from the trade,” she says.
“Well, we need to make things easier for them. We need to make agents stop having to explain Celebrity as
much as some of you have to do.”
The line challenged its creative agency to come up with messaging that would
“drive more consumers into travel agencies actually
asking for Celebrity.” Key to that is clearly defining Celebrity’s ‘Modern
Luxury’ positioning.
ExpediaCruiseShipCenters
chief executive Matthew Eichhorst says the line is succeeding: “They’re finally
giving some real meaning to
modern luxury and what it stands for.”
Another high-profile
change is the new ‘Go Big Go Better Go Best’ pricing strategy implemented this
year, coming off the success of Celebrity’s innovative ‘1,2,3 Go!’ promotion.
“1,2,3 Go! was quite
amazing in that Celebrity led the industry with overtly adding value into the
cruise fare,” observes Eichhorst. “Ultimately, I’m a fan of ‘Big, Better,
Best.’ Although I would say the challenge is it’s a little bit more complicated, I think it’s a
better strategy in the long run because it gives consumers the choice to pick what they want.
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