All about business

I recently enjoyed a very pleasant cruise with my family in the Baltic. While I enjoy the Holland America Line I have cruised with others. All are masters of the add-on, the up-sell and the re-sell. All use aggressive direct mail, value added bonus gifts and loyalty programs. In fact one of the main reasons for the massive growth of the cruise industry over the last decade is the fact that they have out marketed many of the other vacation options, (including golf resorts) pure and simple.

What really impresses me is not the ships the food or the service but the tireless way in which they develop and market their multiple streams of revenue! While of course the cruise lines have the added advantage of a truly captive audience there is much that all businesses could learn from the cruise industry's concerted efforts to get their passengers to part with the maximum amount of money, in the shortest possible amount of time! 

There are of course up-sells for the ships tours at each port of call. All with very impressive mark ups over what you can do on your own. (In many cases hiring a private car, driver and guide were cheaper than putting my family of four on the tour bus!)

While most food is included, you can for a small fee, (usually twenty dollars a head) upgrade to a special dining room. Which was always busy despite, as far as I could tell, serving the same menu anyway!

Either way you pay and pay well for wine and wine packages at dinner. Buy five bottles for X, seven for Y and the choice selection of 10 for Z!

Drinks are an up sell 24/7 and of course there is always a daily drinks special. 

There is onboard gambling, shopping and lectures.

There is Internet access for an exorbitant fee, DVD rental and on some ships jet skis, kayak or boat rental.

There are pictures getting on the boat, pictures getting off the boat with whatever cartoon character happens to represent the port. The pictures at formal night, pictures at casual night, and in fact pictures about every other bite at dinner! Pictures are on display and up for sale within minutes of the first click of the camera lens. All very efficient and no doubt very profitable if not somewhat annoying after you bought the first lot!

Many or the lectures like those on wine, diamonds or fine art involve, surprise, surprise selling some of the above.

Each day they have a different market (tables selling goods of the day depending what port you are in)  

The spa has daily specials and while some of the fitness activities are free you can of course sign up for yoga, pilates or whatever the exercise craze of the week happens to be at an extra charge.

They up-sell you on future cruises with special gifts if you book on board. (You should be doing this with all outings and events)

Then, even during the disembarking seminar, they tell you it's hard to get cab dockside (hard to believe) and that you can take their bus to the airport, station or town, for a small extra fee!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen the cruise lines are the masters of customer maximization! 

In my case the add-ons without taking a single ship sponsored tour were 25% of the price of the cruise but compared to most people I talked with this was low! If you took even three or four of the tours you were at 50% and if you took them all you could easily reach an additional 100% of the cruises cost.

Now imagine for a moment you could take each of your existing members, players, clients or whatever you like to call them and increase the revenue you generate from them buy 25, 50 even 100%! It sounds impossible but it's not. In fact 25-30% is very doable; it's just that most business can't see the forest for the trees!

Now there is a fine line between increasing income in multiple streams and nickel-and-diming a valuable buyer to death. This is a line the cruise lines arguably cross but get away with because people are captive, but with a little thought and some trial and error a reasonable balance can be achieved that results in additional services for your players and additional income for you!

Maximize income from your existing customers before chasing new customers. It's often possible to double even triple your income without a single new client! Discuss this concept in your next team meeting and see what ideas come up or call 1800-827-1663 and get some ideas right now!
 

Regards,

Andrew Wood

P.S. We don't know how good we have it in the USA! A pint of beer anywhere in Demark was $12, which is the same price per gallon as their gas!! One great reason to market harder this summer with the poor exchange rates many people in Canada and the US are just staying home!

Andrew Wood is the world's leading expert on golf related marketing. He is the author of over 20 books including his new marketing book Cunningly Clever Marketing, The Golf Marketing Bible, How to Market Your Club on the Internet and The Membership Sales Success System. Andrew speaks worldwide on sales and marketing topics and is in high demand as a copywriter and marketing consultant. He is also the CEO and Owner of multiple golf marketing companies including Legendary Marketing and Legendary Golf Management.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Cruising On the SS Income Maximization