REGENT Seven Seas Cruises (RSSC) is not hiding from being a cruise line, even as some of its competitors attempt to downplay that aspect of their businesses.
RSSC recently debuted its new ‘Unrivalled at Sea’ positioning (CW 06 Dec), among a wider “soft rebrand”, with the line choosing not to remove the word ‘cruises’ from its name, as a number of its competitors have of late.
Senior Vice President International & Consumer Sales Steve Odell (pictured) told CW RSSC is proud to be a cruise line – a fact which is helping it dominate its space in the market.
“There are some new brands in coming into the market who talk about not wanting to be a cruise ship…well, we want to be a cruise ship,” he enthused.
“You’ll see us say ‘Unrivalled at Sea’, because there has sort of been a push to say, ‘oh, we’re a cruise ship, but we’re not really, we’re a resort’.
“We’re a cruise company, and what we’re saying is, we’re unrivalled in our space at sea.”
The rebrand has helped RSSC to update its positioning, in a market which has greatly changed in the past five years.
The result has been higher recognition and recall from consumers, particularly with RSSC emerging from the so-called “sea of blue” which typically dominates cruise line marketing, Odell explained.
However, the rebrand also attempts to position RSSC for the future – particularly the generational shift of luxury travellers which is underway.
“We can plan for today, but looking ahead, there is a generational shift in part of the market,” Odell explained.
“The baby boomers are still really important to us, and they will be, but now you’ve got the next generation, including millennials, coming into our space, and that’s what we need to capture for the future.
“So the brand refresh is more about trying to reposition ourselves and trying to give the correct impression of who we are and where we sit.” MS
