By
Cherie Rowlands |
It is no coincidence that, when asked to sum up his time as CEO and president of Celebrity Cruises so far, Michael Bayley is emphatic in his response: “Modern luxury momentum!”
Given that ‘modern luxury’ describes the brand’s marketplace positioning and Celebrity has just completed the fastest and most ambitious growth in its history – culminating in the inauguration of the line’s latest newbuild, Celebrity Reflection, in autumn 2012 – it is little surprise that these terms define the first months of Bayley’s role. However, with the fifth and latest Solstice-class ship now sailing around Europe and the Caribbean, Bayley’s focus for the future is on making sure that the brand positioning and marketing are aligned and concentrated on the company’s core clients. He says: “After such rapid growth, we can now really focus and intensify our efforts in our marketing and relationships with our travel partners. We want to develop a harmonious relationship, combining the right brand, the right travel partners and the right customers. This means working appropriately to position the Celebrity brand in such a way that it reaches the customer who really wants it and will truly be delighted by the Celebrity vacation experience. A customer who says ‘This is what I want’ before asking ‘What does it cost?’. We have a spectacular product – high quality cuisine, outstanding service, engaging entertainment, beautifully designed ships and interesting itineraries, and we need to communicate all that to the people who want our truly premium product and are willing to pay what it merits. This means we need to determine how we can reach our target segments with tailored messaging and specific times when it will resonate most.”
Apart from meeting obligations to earn higher yields for the brand’s shareholders, Bayley believes that aligning the brand with the right travel partners and customers is Celebrity’s biggest opportunity. He says: “We’re planning to achieve this through a variety of strategies, including intensifying our efforts in a select group of markets that our research has shown have the highest concentrations of our target audience segments.”
To make sure the message is clear, Bayley reiterates: “I think we’ve really hit the mark with our ‘modern luxury’ positioning. No other line can stake the claim that Celebrity can, with its authentic combination of modern, beautifully designed surroundings, anticipatory service, cuisine on par with the finest restaurants on land, interesting itineraries, and cutting-edge entertainment.”
One of any cruise line’s key offering is, of course, the destination and Celebrity is no exception, but what are the itinerary planning priorities in 2013 and beyond? Bayley says: “We’re working on significantly elevating our destination experience, which is built around extensive research into what our target customers tell us they want to experience and where. It’s a significant area of focus for us. Our latest itinerary portfolio already includes 263 ports in 67 countries across all seven continents, and we’re planning to expand it even further, as well as to enhance it with more overnight stays and some one-of-a-kind, breathtaking, exhilarating and authentic land-based experiences vacationers can’t purchase anywhere else.”
It must have felt like a setback when, in autumn 2012, Channel 4 aired a documentary; The Truth below Deck, that was critical of working conditions for onboard staff after an undercover reporter travelled as an assistant waiter on one of the brand’s cruise ships. Bayley says: “That was a sensationalistic, very biased piece. We have 60,000 employees from 120 countries around the world working on our ships, all paid upon negotiated rates and with significant benefits, including pension, accommodations and meals. Our shipboard employees are a reputable, professional, caring group of people, many of whom have been with us for decades. They are the ones who deliver the outstanding experience our guests enjoy 24/7. Without them, we’re nothing. So to imply that we would mistreat them was ridiculous, and I believe the majority of viewers realised that.”
Perhaps it is fortuitous that challenges such as these, and others encountered along the way to continuing to build on a successful brand, are being met by a man who says: “The best advice I ever received was in the form of three short words: ‘never give up.’ I apply that advice every day, and I believe it must be carefully balanced with listening and trusting those around me to make the decisions they were hired to make.”