Cruises:Still #NotForMe?

For many years, Cruises have had a perception of being for the grey market, although over recent years, companies have tried to conquer the family market by adding Disney cruises. Whilst both of these market segments are huge, the perception of cruises is still thought of being for old people. Many people also think that when you go on a cruise, you are mostly stuck on-board and hardly see any of the countries. 

However, this is not the case. Cruise ships are described as floating villages, with glamour influences from Las Vegas. On-board, there are many restaurants to choose from, bars, casinos, swimming pools, gym classes, live shows and activities, just to say the least. The ships also stop off each day in a different country, allowing passengers to see more than one place when they go on holiday. Depending what kind of Cruise you go on, you can choose different itinerary's and book different excursions, making it your own tailor made holiday.

Thomson have created an advert to try and change consumers perception; by targeting the younger market, particularly single people and lone travellers. They target people in the street to ask them what they think about cruising holidays, and their responses are all similar, 'not for me' 'isn't it for old people?'. This shows that consumers have only one particular opinion about cruise holidays. Thomson then invited a group of travellers to try out one of their cruises in the Caribbean, and asked the to vlog their time and the activities they took part in to share their experience. Using the social media trend of vlogging creates a wider audience and targets a younger market, changing the perception of cruises. The vlogs show activities including zip wires, snorkelling, swimming with turtles, riding on speedboats and showing off the beautiful Caribbean islands.

 The advert is quick, showing instant flashes of the activities, playing exciting music to entice the target market, making the consumer want to know more about what happens next. This will make the consumer feel as though they want to try out the Thomson Cruise as well, as they have seen the realness of the vlogs and seen how exciting these types of holidays are. 

Marketers know that colours influence the way in which consumers perceive something, colours activate emotions, red activating hunger, and blue relaxes and creates positiveness. 

The colours at the start of the advert are dull, as it is set in London. When the advert moves on to showing the Caribbean cruise, the colours change to blues and showing amazing visual sunsets and beaches.This evokes consumers to feel positive without knowing it, capturing their attention in order to attract them to buying their product/service. 

Using sensory marketing is an effective way of targeting consumers. Activating the stimuli of consumers by using positioning, colour and size can create different images in a consumers mind. For example, if a consumer is looking for a holiday, every holiday advertised they will notice more, whereas if they are not looking for a holiday, they are less likely to notice advertisements. The Thomson advert takes up the whole page on their website, making consumers attracted to it straight away. 

The website also has an option of creating your own itinerary, allowing consumers to create their own holiday as the trend of tailor made packages are becoming more popular.

I think the advertisement is very effective, as it makes me want to go on a Thomson Cruise even more. The advert shows a different side to cruising holidays which I love, and using the vlogging technique from the younger market I found to be most effective as it shows Thomson are keeping up to date with current trends. 

Is the Thomson Cruise still not for you?

Comment below on your thoughts about the advert!