Cruise Line Casts a Customized Net with New Email Relationship Management Solution Within 48 hours of implementation, Princess Cruises could communicate with more people, while reducing costs and improving speed and efficiency.

1. Alterian Case Study
Princess Cruises
Client
Cruise Line Casts a Customized Net with New Email
Relationship Management Solution
Within 48 hours of implementation, Princess Cruises could communicate with
more people, while reducing costs and improving speed and efficiency.
Company:
Princess Cruises Part of Carnival Cruises, which is based in Miami, Florida, With the requests for email interaction increasing, Princess
Princess Cruises carries more than 1.1 million passengers Cruises decided its ongoing success depended in part on
Website: each year to more worldwide destinations than any other leveraging email as a long-term and strategic marketing
www.princess.com major line. With 12 ships currently in service and four channel. It needed to deliver customized and targeted
scheduled to join its fleet in 2006, Princess Cruises employs content in a cost-effective, efficient, and timely manner.
Headquarters: 12,000 people. “In the aftermath of September 11, the war with Iraq and
Miami, Florida, USA the down economy, filling ships became increasingly
Princess Cruises must navigate the ebb and flow of tourism
Industry: difficult. We needed to take advantage of faster and more
dollars, setting itself apart to fill its ships in the best of
Travel economical communication channels,” McClurkin-Birge
times and the worst. Communicating with the 1.1 million-
says.
Size: plus passengers who travel with the cruise line each year
Over 12,000 employees and attracting new customers requires a comprehensive
“Our customers were demanding personal contact
outreach effort. Customized and targeted content must be
through email. The cost savings of automated interaction
Solution: delivered in a cost effective, efficient, and timely manner.
made the basic ROI compelling, but we were looking for a
Alterian Messenger To accomplish this, Princess Cruises chose an email
more powerful solution that was easy to use–a tough
relationship management solution, built on the Microsoft
combination.”
.NET Framework, and supported by SQL Server 2000
Results:
Enterprise Edition and Internet Information Services
Increased passenger outreach Silos Sink Ships
version 5.0. Within 48 hours of implementation, Princess
capabilities – e-mail campaigns up Key to the email solution’s power would be its ability to
Cruises could communicate with more people, while
210%. Enhanced passenger data integrate with Princess Cruises’ entire front office, which
reducing costs and improving speed and efficiency.
management-information uploads included customer relationship management (CRM) and
completed in about three minutes The Challenge sales force automation systems offered by Siebel.
instead of an hour or more. Reduced Princess Cruises grew from a modest one-ship company
employee time spent on managing Since these systems contained valuable information on
cruising to Mexico in 1965 to one of the world’s premiere
campaigns by 50%. existing and potential passengers, Princess Cruises
lines.
couldn’t have its email solution operating in an isolated
silo. Further, the email solution would also be collecting
Catapulted to stardom in 1977 when it became the
“We are now in a position to fully data important to the other front office systems, so
seagoing star of “The Love Boat,” Princess Cruises today
leverage e-mail as a long-term integration needed to be automatic and seamless.
carries passengers to more worldwide cruise destinations
marketing channel. We can
than any other major line. The company offers more than
personalize the message and Other requirements included the following:
150 itineraries ranging from seven to 72 days. It sails to all
control the frequency without seven continents and calls at nearly 260 ports around the
running the risk of frustrating our • Email campaigns needed to be developed and sent
world.
existing and potential customers. quickly. Besides ongoing and regularly scheduled
With Alterian Messenger, we can seasonal promotions, the marketing group at
Yet despite its size and reputation, Princess Cruises must
support all of our ships and have Princess Cruises must also take the lead in “back
still navigate the ebb and flow of tourism dollars, setting
room to grow.” filling” or bringing a ship’s capacity to as close to
itself apart to fill its ships in the best of times and the worst.
Stanley McClurkin-Birge maximum as possible before it leaves port.
Manager of Marketing Programs
According to Stanley McClurkin-Birge, Manager of
At times, the marketing group has less than a week to do
Marketing Programs for Princess Cruises, acquiring and
so. Potential passengers need to be located and
maintaining long-term customers requires a creative
communicated with quickly. However, the other email
approach to shaping the passenger experience both
solution in use at the time couldn’t keep up the pace.
onboard and shore side.
Because of difficult configuration requirements and limited
For example, Princess Cruises pioneered the concept of
scalability, it could only support a couple of personalized
putting passengers in control of their own cruise
email campaigns per week. And, the proprietary solution
experience with the introduction of its Sun-class ships and
often took an hour or more just to upload potential
Personal Choice Cruising® in the mid-1990s.
passenger lists from the appropriate databases.
Communicating these and the cruise line’s many other
• Customization and campaign management needed
offerings with customers–existing and potential–requires a
to be more efficient and user-friendly. The previous
comprehensive outreach effort. According to McClurkin-
email solution made customization and campaign
Birge, more and more customers want these
management almost impossible. For example, in
communications delivered via email.

2. Alterian Case Study
Princess Cruises
terms of campaign management, the marketing Alterian Messenger offers just the type of scalability and Alterian
group couldn’t track the number of times a campaign sophisticated features and capabilities Princess Cruises Alterian (LSE: ALN) empowers
had been sent to potential passengers. needs to meet the demands of future growth. Currently, marketers with an integrated marketing
software platform combining database,
Alterian Messenger handles information relating to more
online and operational marketing
Personalization, automatic hardbounce and soft-bounce, than 1.1 million passengers. In independent testing, SQL
applications on a shared data
unsubscribe controls, and rich media were also time- Server 2000 Enterprise Edition shows it can easily meet infrastructure. The Alterian Integrated
consuming and difficult to add to the cruise line’s email the scalability and reliability requirements of the largest Marketing Platform makes it practical
campaigns. Web sites, enterprise online transaction processing (OLTP), and cost effective for marketers
and data warehousing systems. to use actionable insight to execute an
The Solution integrated marketing strategy across
Princess Cruises selected an Email Relationship By using Alterian Messenger to manage and store online and offline channels.
Management solution, Alterian Messenger– the product passenger information needed to conduct its email It is the unique integration of
selected – represents the first enterprise email relationship campaigns, Princess Cruises can upload information faster, analytics, content and execution
management solution built on the Microsoft® .NET conduct more narrow and customized queries, which through Alterian’s industry leading
Framework, part of the Alterian Integrated Marketing tools, such as the Alterian Messenger
results in greater personalization, and implement more
email platform, and the award winning
Platform. effective frequency control. Alterian Content Management
solutions, which enables marketers to
“A true email relationship management solution needs to The Benefits drive a seamless,
interact across the front office,” says Jason McNamara, of With Alterian Messenger, Princess Cruises can deliver multi-channel customer experience.
Alterian. “The .NET Framework gave us the integration customized and targeted content in a cost-effective, Alterian’s analytically-led software
path we needed as well as the flexibility for rapid efficient, and timely manner. is delivered to approximately 1,000
development and rapid change.” marketing departments, across 26
Within the past six months, email campaigns are up 210%,
countries, and an international
which means the marketing group charged with “back
Using Microsoft.NET, we developed Alterian Messenger to network of more than 100 business
filling” or bringing a ship’s capacity to as close to partners, including marketing services
provide rich, personalized emails with real-time alerts for
maximum as possible before it leaves port now has a providers, agencies and systems
customer interactions and detailed reporting functions for
powerful tool at its disposal. integrators. Its partners, such as
evaluating the effectiveness of those interactions.
Accenture, Acxiom, Allant Group, Cap
With sometimes less than a week to fill the empty berths, Gemini, Carlson Marketing, Experian,
Further, McNamara says, Visual Studio .NET reduces the the marketing group can now develop, personalize, and Epsilon, InfoUSA, LogicaCMG, Merkle,
amount of time and costs associated with customizing its send these campaigns at a greater rate and invest fewer Ogilvy One and Euro RSCG Worldwide,
email relationship management solution. In the past, he staff hours. For example, Princess Cruises estimates that deliver Alterian software alongside
says, such customization – integration interfaces, tunes, employee time spent sending out these campaigns has their own domain and services
and extensions – could add several thousand dollars and dropped by 50%. expertise to help market leaders such
three to six months to a project. as Princess Cruises, General Motors,
Uploading lists of potential passengers, which once took Zurich, Astra Zeneca, HSBC, Limited
an hour or more, takes about three minutes with the new Too, AEGON, Avis, Worldwide
Within the .NET Framework, customization can occur
email relationship management solution. Alterian Wrestling Entertainment, Dell,
within a few days or a couple of weeks at a much lower Amnesty International and Vodafone
cost. This rapid development, ease of customization, and Messenger enables narrow searches within the passenger
integrate marketing processes and
integration is possible because Visual Studio .NET, Visual information database, so email communications can be drive competitive advantage.
C#, and ASP .NET all use the same integrated further personalized and better managed.
For more information about Alterian,
development environment (IDE), which allows them to For example, passengers no longer receive multiple email products within the Alterian Integrated
share tools and facilitates in the creation of mixed- offers after they’ve either declined an offer or accepted Marketing Platform or our Partner
language solutions. and signed up for the trip. The new solution keeps track of Network, please visit www.alterian.com
email frequency and automatically generates reports UK & European Headquarters
Up and Running within 48 Hours. According to detailing all interactions, flagging those passengers who Alterian
McNamara, the .NET Framework enables our organization have already been contacted or who have accepted or The Spectrum Building
to pass these development benefits onto the customer by denied offers. Bond Street
making Alterian Messenger easy to use. Within 48 hours Bristol
of signing the contract, Princess Cruises deployed its new “We are now in a position to fully leverage email as a BS1 3LG
email relationship management solution and sent its first long-term marketing channel,” McClurkin-Birge says. “We UK
round of email campaigns. can personalize the message and control its frequency T +44 (0) 117 970 3200
without running the risk of frustrating our existing and F +44 (0) 117 970 3301
“Alterian Messenger’s easy-to-use interface put us far potential customers. With Alterian Messenger, we can North American Headquarters
ahead of our expectations for deploying campaigns,” support all of our ships and have room to grow.” Alterian Inc.
McClurkin-Birge says. “We are more than pleased with the 35 East Wacker Drive
results and look forward to expanding the solution beyond Suite 200
our current campaigns to add richer features, a greater Chicago, IL 60601
USA
number of campaigns, and more sophisticated modeling.”
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