Speaking up

It is for this reason that Palethorpe says he wants Cunard to speak louder to would-be cruisers. “We are a small slice of the market and we want to fill our ships. The Cunard brand needs the volume turned up a little.”

I question whether a good way to do this might be through television advertising, given P&O’s TV push during the past two years with adverts featuring comedian Rob Brydon. “If it could be targeted enough I wouldn’t rule it out,” he admits, but adds quickly: “There are no plans for this.

“We are going through exercises to see how effective the media is for us. If TV could be successful for us, why wouldn’t we? Cinema is another option too,” he adds.

The best way to turn up the volume though of course is through the trade. And despite Palethorpe’s short time with Cunard, he is already emphatic about the integral role that agents play in selling cruise. “The trade is an incredibly important part of our business,” he insists passionately. “Agents are the ship’s window to our brand. We want to work as closely as we can with them to make that ship window look as good as possible.”

He admits his background at Avis was helpful in recognising the importance of agents. “It’s very different at Cunard but the skills acquired to work effectively with the trade are similar – whether it’s car rental or cruise.”
In acknowledgment of this, Palethorpe reveals Cunard is keen to increase the number of fam trips it offers – “it’s an investment on our part that we think is a really important part of what we do.

“We’ve taken steps to increase [our fam trips] over the last month,” he says, confessing the move stemmed from conversations he had with agents at an event to showcase the remastered Queen Mary 2 in June. “I saw how wowed they were with it. There were a lot saying they had no idea how good the whole experience would be. It’s so important as a distinctive brand that agents are able to see it and touch it.”

Cunard has also gone to extra lengths elsewhere to ensure good relations with the trade. This includes addressing the numerous complaints it received over the summer about its call waiting times. Palethorpe is frank about the issue, and says there was a “big effort our end” to fix it. He blames IT issues which he claims led to agents having to contact the call centre instead, but he reveals that more staff were subsequently brought in “to make sure that queries were dealt with as quickly as possible”, and that the system is now fixed.

It would be remiss as well not to mention the commission cuts of 2011. It might have been five years ago, but Palethorpe agrees agents have long memories. “I’ve met with a lot of travel partners since joining, and everyone I’ve met with has mentioned it,” he admits. “But without exception they’ve had the perception that we’ve moved on from the past. [Vice-president of sales] Alex White has done an incredible job in showing the trade that we’ve moved on and that we’re supportive of agents. There’s been a lot of work in the last six to eight months in particular to work on that.”

As if to reinforce Cunard’s commitment to the trade, Palethorpe reveals that he would like to increase Cunard’s agent partnerships. “We’re working out who all the people are that influence travel choices,” he says. This also includes tour operators, and Palethorpe hints at plans to increase partnerships in this area too. He is tight-lipped about naming any companies, but says: “There is a huge opportunity for Cunard to widen its distribution. We could partner with more tour operators – customers could be finishing their tours with a sailing on the QM2. We should be talking to them about how we could fit in with their itineraries.”

The move is part of a wider drive by Cunard to boost its profile and better understand its partners and customers. This includes a huge piece of research – the results of which are due in 2017 – that the line is conducting with previous customers (it has a repeat rate of 60%) and new-to-brand consumers both in the UK and globally, as well as with agents. “We know our existing guests say wonderful things about us. We want to establish what it is about Cunard they love,” he says.

Order opportunities

In the meantime, the line has been focused on the remastering of Queen Mary 2, which was unveiled to the trade on June 23. The investment in the ship’s remastering was huge – £90 million in fact. I question whether Cunard might be better off just building a new ship next time – after all, its parent group Carnival Corp has not been shy about ordering new vessels in recent months. Princess has three on order, Carnival Cruise Lines three, Costa four and P&O is set to receive delivery of the largest ship built for the British market in 2020. Cunard though has been conspicuous by the absence of any orders. “There are no plans for new ships at the moment,” Palethorpe insists, “but we wouldn’t rule it out in the future.

“On a personal level I would love to have more ships – I think it would be incredibly exciting. If the customers are there, then why not?”

Having had a taste, Palethorpe admits he himself is likely to be one of those customers. “I would definitely take a holiday as a cruise – just how good it is has been a revelation,” he says. “The entertainment, the food, the ambience of the bars. Getting onboard I realised what wonderful value it is.” His challenge now is to convince others to sample – and savour – cruising too.