On the Deck: Giles Hawke, MSC Cruises

You started your new role at MSC only two weeks ago. What are your first views of MSC in the UK market?

My initial views in the UK market so far, for travel agents and customers, is that we have a fantastic product; we’ve got strong messages but we haven’t communicated those as well as we could have done to travel agents and customers.

I think we’ve been sold a little too much on price in the past as opposed to the benefits and all the features that we offer.

My job is that we need to have a strong marketing and communication plan and travel agent education plan so they understand exactly what the MSC brand is about. We want this to be two-fold and want customers going to travel agents asking for MSC Cruises by name and also travel agents recommending MSC when asked about a cruise and Mediterranean holiday.

It’s an exciting time as there is such a big opportunity. All the building blocks are there it’s just a case of putting them together.

What will you initially focus on?

My focus initially is internal to understand the people and current strategy at MSC and then move into more of an external strategy and focus around the travel agents we work with.

This includes understanding our customers and why they travel with us.

Then we will be working through a plan to see what the future could look like; the strategy for the brand and how we want the brand to be communicated in the UK.

This will also include a commercial strategy linking to MSC’s global corporate strategy and tying that together with the right commercial approach such as how we investin the UK market and the type of business we want to drive. This will predominantly look at the higher value business which is great for us and our bottom line but equally as good for travel agents as the higher value business gets them more commission.

How will you be looking to increase brand awareness?

In the short term it’s all about brand awareness for us.

Travel agents know our name but I’m not sure they all understand what we stand for. I think some consumers who are already cruisers will have heard our name, but I don’t think we are on the radar of the newcomers and first-time cruisers.

The plans are in place as part of the global strategy it is now a case of accelerating them.

I think MSC is a ‘sleeping giant’ in the industry and it isn’t until people get on our ships that they realise how good they are so we need to work on getting people to know about us and get on our ships.

Social media will become a bigger part of what we do and we have someone in the team who looks after our pages already.

What themes could feature as part of this marketing strategy?

Marketing messages could include more clarity into our heritage, our routes and the onboard product.

Cruises are about travel agents choosing the right ship so with our recently introduced strapline is ‘The Mediterranean Way of Life’ we can start to show travel agents what this means in terms of the onboard experience, food and entertainment.

For example someone going on a MSC ship would expect to see different nationalities onboard and have a real international flavour and experience. Our customers have to be open to seeing new cultures and experiences.

We also offer a family environment and focus such as kids go free all year round.

Our goal in the next months and years is to really hone these messages in so that travel agents have a clear three-step proposition for customers.

What agent initiatives does MSC have in place and how do you plan to build on that?

What we haven’t done with the trade is tie together all of the great things we do; it’s currently all individual pieces.

We pay good commission across the whole fare including excursions; we have a strong sales team; a great ‘can do’ approach to working with agents; there is marketing support and promotional activity and our training programme. Having gone through the online training myself at the moment I’d say it is better than other training programmes out there so that is something we will build on with new modules.

Our focus is to tie together all the various things we are doing to create a package for agents where they understand all that we can offer them.

My first ship visits are this week and next, so with the online training as well I’ve really understood more about what the MSC product is and how important it is that you see it too.

There is a huge investment going into the technology side of the business which will allow us to work with agents better and provide them with better booking engines.

You previously mentioned that price had been a driver for sales, but are customers now more aware of the value proposition in the cruise sector?

Generally in cruising people recognise the value of cruising with that relatively all-inclusive nature. Cruise is being recognised more as excellent value for money.

There are a number of important things to focus on, for example when people are buying their cruise holiday they know what they are getting and are willing to pay the price for the inclusions; which I don’t think MSC has done as well as it could have done in the past.

The other area you risk being sold on price is where you sell the same itineraries as all the other rivals from the same departure point and I think one of the unique things about MSC Cruises is the Med focus and knowing it better than anyone else, and going to destinations that others don’t go to.

Value for money can also cover the pre and post sections of the holiday such as the call centre, flight and post-cruise experience.

Are there plans to add ships to the MSC fleet?

One of the reasons we’ve been able to put more effort into our IT systems is that we do not have not got any new tonnage in the pipeline.

We’ve had rapid growth in the last decade so now is the opportunity to take stock and get everything in order so when we start our next phase of growth we will have a fantastic back office system.

Will you continue to operate cruises from the UK in 2014?

Yes, MSC Opera will be sailing from Southampton in the summer and at the end of that season MSC Magnifica will do four rotations out of Southampton as well. This will a good addition for the UK market as it is in a higher class to Opera and we will be able to showcase this different product to travel agents.

There will be more opportunities in the summer next year for the Caribbean as MSC Divina will be sailing from Miami to various ports in the Caribbean during the summer for the first time as well as the winter itineraries.