1. Spectra PR

2. Members
Charmaine Chan
Amanda Soh
Alicia Chua
Anand Daniel

3. Costa Cruises

4. Costa Cruises: Vacation Cruises
• Base: Genoa, Italy
• Parent Company: Carnival PLC (NYSE & LSE)
• 14 Italian Registered Cruise ships
• Operates cruises in the mediterranean, Northern
Europe, The Carribbean, The Indian Ocean, the
Middle East and South America

5. The Incident
• 13th January 2012
• Costa Concordia,
• Hit a reef off Giglio Island, now partially sunk.
• Aboard: 3206 passengers and 1023 crew members
• Cause: The captain piloted the vessel within 200 yards
of the coast, as part of a tradition known as ‚Saluting‛

6. The Incident

9. Impact
• 30 dead
• 64 injured
• Share prices fall 0.86%
• Pollutants aboard the vessel a looming threat to
environment
o Threat to marine life, fishing, tourism

10. Complications:
Media Blitz
• Accident caused by questionable tradition of ‘saluting’
• Captain abandoned vessel before ensuring that all
passengers evacuated
• Evacuation was not orchestrated properly,
crew were not trained
• Passengers who made it to shore of Giglio were
not attended to or cared for appropriately
• Class action lawsuit filed against Carnival by Codacons
(USD 160, 000 for 70 passengers)

11. SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
• Strong financial reserves - Carnival • No crisis management system
• Good track record • Lack of checks and balances across
• Strong ties with Italian government operations
• Leader in industry • Lack of control mechanism for
sailing cruise ships
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
• PR advice: Burson Marsteller • Environmental activists rallying
• Extensive traditional / social media against Costa
outlets available • Class action lawsuit (Codacons)
• Partnership with Italian • Extensive press coverage of
government for CSR efforts controversies (negative publicity)

12. SWOT Pairings
O-T Engage Burston-Marstellar to manage matters pertaining to
compensation and lawsuit
S-T Work alongside Italian government to restore Giglio’s environment
and address concerns from environmental activists
T-O Collaborate with the Italian government to safeguard livelihood of
Giglio Citizens and curb further bad press
S-W Utilise funds to reform safety procedures in Costa
W-S Replace lack of checks and balances with improved accountability
standards in Costa
W-O Broadcast new protocol implementations (safety and environment)
on social media

13. Problem Statement
On January 13, 2012, Costa Concordia sank off the
coast of Giglio Island.
The chemicals (2300 gallons of fuel, 200 tons of diesel
and other toxins) aboard the wreckage threaten to
pollute the marine environment of Giglio Island,
thereby affecting tourism and fishing.
The incident has negatively influenced consumer
opinion by 70.8% regarding the safety standards of
Costa Cruises.

14. Costa’s Values
• Vision: Exceeding customers’ expectations during whole
vacation
• Mission: Make guests satisfied and repeat experience with
them, serve with ownership, enthusiasm and pride
• Ethics: Full respect for safety and environmental protection

15. Organisational Stand
Costa promises:
• The full restoration of the coastline and the
tourism industry of Giglio Island,
• Complete compensation for all passengers who
were aboard Costa Concordia as well as the
families who lost loved ones
• To ensure world-class safety standards for all
passengers.

16. People of
Future
Giglio
Customers
Island
Victims
Stock- Publics
and their
holders Affected
Families
The
Environment
International Activists
Media

17. Our
Target
Publics
People of Future
Giglio Island Customers

18. People of
Future
Giglio
Customers
Island
Our Victims
Stock- Target and their
holders Publics Families
The
Environment
International Activists
Media

19. Our Target Publics
The People of Giglio Island Future Customers of Costa Cruises
Defined as: Defined as:
• Italians residing on Island of Giglio • American cruise-goers
• 3 villages, 27km of coastline • English-speaking
• The Tuscan Province of Grosseto • Median age of 40-59
• Livelihoods: • With min annual household income
Fishing and tourism (diving) of USD 90 K
Main concern: Main concern:
The environment of Giglio Island and Poor safety standards and
hence their livelihoods accountability of Costa

20. Target Public:
People of Giglio Island
Goal To protect the environment of Giglio Island and the
livelihood of its residents
Objectives 1. To raise American and Italian tourists’ awareness of
clean-up and containment efforts at Giglio
to 90% by 1st May 2012
2. To ensure continuity of the livelihoods of the people,
restore Giglio Island’s summer tourism numbers from
100 per week to 250 per week within 12 to 18 months

21. People of Giglio Island
Behaviour
Knowledge
To ensure the
To increase
livelihoods of the
American and
people by
Italian tourists’
awareness of the
Attitude restoring Giglio
Island’s summer
clean-up and
tourism numbers
containment
from 100 per week
efforts at Giglio
to 250 per week
to 90% by 1st May
within 12 to 18
2012
months

22. Restoring Giglio Island:
Pairings  Action Strategies
S-T Tap on strong financial Strategy 1:
reserves to fund
measures to protect Implement steps to restore the
Giglio’s environment coast of Giglio and establish long
and address term sustainability measures to
environmental preserve its coastal environment
activists’ concerns, in
partnership with
Giglio government.
T-O Consolidate the Strategy 2:
negative reporting in
the international press Partner the Giglio government in
regarding Giglio’s a tourism campaign
landscape and partner
the Italian government
to address it.

23. Restoring Giglio Island
Strategy 1: Tactics:
Take steps to restore the
coast of Giglio 1. Engage SMIT
Salvage to protect the
coast
Establish long term
sustainability measures
to preserve its coastal 2. Costa Concordia
environment Memorial Foundation

24. Restoring Giglio Island
Tactics:
Strategy 2:
1. Italian tourist
campaign
Partner the Giglio 2. North American
government in a tourist campaign
tourism campaign Both to show Giglio
as an ideal diving and
fishing destination

25. Target Public:
Future Customers
Goal To improve potential customers’ opinion of Costa Cruises’
safety and accountability protocol
Objectives 1. To increase American tourists’ knowledge and
awareness of the new and improved safety and
security protocol at Costa Cruises to 90% by 1st April
2013;
1. To raise American travellers’ positive opinion of Costa
Cruises’ safety to 60% by 1st April 2013

26. Future Customers
Knowledge
Attitude
To increase American
tourists’ knowledge and To raise potential
awareness of the new and American travellers’
improved safety and positive opinion of Costa
security protocol at Costa Cruises’ safety to 60% by
Cruises to 90% by 1st April 1st April 2013
2013;

27. Ensuring Safety:
Pairings  Strategies
S-W Use available funds Strategy 1:
to reform all safety
procedures in Costa To overhaul the safety and
Cruises’ ships security protocol of Costa
Cruises
W-S Transform current Strategy 2:
lack of checks and
balances into Increase the accountability
accountability as of all crew members
part of Costa
Cruises’ reputation

28. Future Customers
Tactic:
Strategy 1: Hire
‚The Nexus
Overhaul safety Consulting Group of
and security Alexandria‛ to
protocol of Costa overhaul safety,
Cruises security and
accountability
protocol

29. Future Customers
Tactics:
1. All course deviations to
be ratified by First Mate
Strategy 2: and on-shore duty
personnel
Increase the
accountability of all
crew 2. Two staff members (on
land) on 24-hour duty, to
maintain constant contact
with all Costa vessels at
sea

30. Communication Strategies
W-O Constantly • Knowledge Objectives for :
broadcast o The people of Giglio
changes to o Future customers of Costa
safety and Cruises (American)
security
protocol on
traditional and • Three media channels:
social media o Traditional media: Press
platforms o Owned media: Weblog
o Social media

31. Communication Strategies
Press
o Managed by media specialist team
o Send out fortnightly press releases
• Updates on new safety protocol /
measures
• Updates on coastal restoration
o Reach: 20 most influential news
agencies

32. Communication Strategies
Weblog
• More personal
• Purpose: Offer timely updates on new measures
• Include interactive elements
• In English & Italian
• Target readership:
o Concordia passengers
o Potential customers
o Environmental watch groups
o Giglio residents
o Tourists

33. Communication Strategies
Social Media
• Facebook:
o Costa Cruises – 18, 000 ‘fans’
o Carnival Cruise Line – 1.6 million ‘fans’
• Twitter
o Costa Cruises – 1, 500 ‘followers’
o Carnival Cruise Line – 52, 000 ‘followers’
• Link updates to Facebook and Twitter accounts
• Fast, efficient dissemination

34. Evaluation of
Environment/Tourism in Giglio
Knowledge Objective: Behavioural Objective:
Awareness of pollution Change in behaviour of
containment and clean-up tourists
of Giglio coastline
o Compare stats of summer
o Hit counter on weblog 2011 with summer 2013
(165, 000 unique hits) o Number of tourists
visiting Giglio
o Shares / Likes / Retweets
o Number of dive trips
on Social Media (40%)
organized
o Total revenue of
Giglio – owned
businesses

35. Evaluation of
Costa Cruises’ Safety and Accountability
• To evaluate the American tourists’ knowledge of
new safety protocol:
o Quantitative Method – Surveys
Platforms Tour agencies Target Timeline
• Cruisecritic.com Under the • Americans 12 months after
• Tripadvisor.com American Society booking campaign is
• Cruisesonly.com for Travel Agents cruises implemented
(ASTA) • Age 40-59
(mean
demographic)

36. Evaluation of
Costa Cruises’ Safety and Accountability
• To evaluate the American tourists’ knowledge of new
safety protocol:
o Quantitative Method – Surveys
• To evaluate the attitude and impressions of potential
customers
o Qualitative Method – Focus Groups
• Monitoring sales figures
o Compare cruise bookings of Costa Cruises in 2013 with 2011

37. Thank You
For Your Attention!