Disaster of the Seas

Can Marketing Help Save Customer Loyalty for Carnival Cruises?

Even though Valentines Day is suppose to a romantic day for many, it can be implied that love was not in the air for the passengers of Carnival's cruise ship "The Triumph", as they exited the vessel after 5 days on what's being called the "cruise from hell". During their cruise in the Caribbean the ships engine malfunctioned and caught on fire, and as a result passengers of the ship had to endure five days without electricity, air conditioning, running water, limited food, and possibly worst of all: no working toilets. These unhappy cruise-goers could be seen literally kissing the ground after stepping foot on land five days ago surrounded by a herd of media representatives. Carnivals President and CEO was present to answer some questions as to why the fire broke out and try to express his apologies and condolences to those who were on the ship. However with this speech, two press releases and limited responses to the media's constant questioning, Carnival, as of yet has not launched a marketing blitz to try and maintain its loyal customers who may be second-guessing their yearly vacation time with Carnival. The question is how do you recover from such awful publicity? And with the longer they wait to start their marketing campaign/improving their ship safety programs, will it be too late to save their customer basis? Worst of all their competitors have jumped on board this incident by placing their own Ads (such as Princess Cruises) right before any online videos covering the story. Carnival's attempt to win over passengers with a departing gift of five-hundred dollars was taken as a slap to the face by some customers, many of which after being plunged into darkness on all floors not directly open to the outside, ended up camping all over the outside spaces of the ship.

When disaster strikes an organization as with Carnival Cruise Ships, is there any way they can recover their image? 

For more info check out:

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/troubled-waters-carnival-triumph-18517690