I’ve watched with fascination this week as Carnival Cruise Lines was cast in the spotlight as one of its cruise ships became disabled in the Gulf of Mexico. Without power for propulsion or electricity, the 3000-plus guests and 1000-plus employees on board faced incredibly difficult conditions for several long days. This was a living lesson in crisis communications and because of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, it was everywhere.
Carnival kept friends and family of the ship’s passengers and crew updated about the ship and its progress back to port through social media including its Facebook page its Twitter feed and broadcasting on YouTube, the company’s press conferences and updates. Traditional media followed the story closely as well.
Carnival handled the initial crisis communications well; they used a variety of channels to provide updates. The CEO, Gerry Cahill, used what crisis communications expert, W.T. Coombs termed “Mortification Strategy,” apologizing to passengers and their families for the situation, he did not seek to place blame, to try to downplay the struggle and conditions on the ship. He articulated a message that the company’s first priority is the safety and security of its passengers and in this case, their safe return home.
The challenge for Carnival is now that the ship is docked and the passengers have returned home, how does the company repair the reputational damage that was caused? In addition to the wrecked vacation for those who were onboard the ship, Carnival has cancelled a number of future cruises on that ship, while it is repaired, thereby ruining the vacations of the thousands who had booked on those future cruises. And to quell the fears of the even greater numbers of cruisers who have booked on any of Carnival’s other ships in the coming weeks.
As I drive through Houston today, the Carnival Cruise Lines billboard advertisements encouraging me to book a Carnival Cruise are kind of funny. But points the challenge the company faces: they need to continue to entice and book passengers on their cruise ships while resolving the issues with this latest cruise.
To rebuild its reputation, Carnival is going to have to quickly identify what went wrong on this cruise and assure the public that it has fixed the problem. Additionally, the company will need to assure passengers that they have learned from this experience and the conditions in which passengers found themselves during this crisis will serve as key learnings for dealing with future crises. Would you book a Carnival cruise today?
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