Supporting

Home Based Agents

By Jack Williams, President and COO
Royal Caribbean Int'l and Celebrity Cruises

Tracking emerging consumer trends and focusing on how consumers want to buy is a core competency of any business today. At Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, we are continually tracking those trends and developing our channel strategy to identify and focus on channels that present high-growth and/or high-yielding opportunities for our business. The home based distribution channel stands out as a rapidly growing segment that will only increase in importance.

What We’ve Learned
The home based distribution channel has exploded over the past four years, with revenue growth and yields significantly outpacing our corporate average. The growth of the channel has been driven by retail agency closures and a renewed focus on entrepreneurial endeavors. The home based agency community’s revenues and profits are largely driven by the cruise industry and by group business. Home based travel partners are well connected in the communities they serve, and because they assume the role of front-line agent and business owner, we are talking about savvy marketers who are keenly focused on margins and profits. These agents differentiate themselves with value-added service and are subject-matter experts.

We also have seen that home based travel agents come in many shapes and sizes. They have a unique entrepreneurial spirit and fall into one of two profiles: the “new entrepreneur” or the “experienced agent.” Each profile presents distinct needs on the part of the supplier. Experienced agents possess a wealth of product knowledge and “storefront” selling skills. However, they often need training in local PR and marketing techniques. “New Entrepreneurs” tend to have the outbound marketing skill set. However, they need to develop their product knowledge expertise and to become subject-matter experts in their targeted market niche.

Home based travel partners are keenly focused on communication, education and sales service. The overwhelming majority is CLIA certified and is aligned with support organizations like NACTA and OSSN. We have supported associations like CLIA, ASTA, NACTA and OSSN for many years, and our commitment will continue.

What Agents Need From Us
It’s fairly simple when you get down to the nuts and bolts of what the home based agency community needs from us. Home based agents want and need supplier support. They want to be educated on our products, tools and resources, and they want our support at a local level to help them close the sale. They want to have access to open lines of communication with us, and want to readily access effective sales and marketing resources and tools with relative ease.

They want us to listen and learn that light-boxes, posters, window-clings and pop-up displays may not be the most effective marketing tools for the way they go to market, and want us to be open to exploring new and non-traditional marketing and sales tools and advertising mediums. They want us to realize that brochures need to be shipped to their home in Tucson, AZ, instead of their host agency’s office in Winter Park, FL. They want suppliers to recognize that a “one size fits all” approach is not effective in delivering the needs of a home based travel agency and take action to make their jobs easier.

What We’ve Done
By understanding these unique service needs, we are empowered to develop customized solutions and help home based agents grow their business with our two brands. To that end, we created a channel strategy team, tapping Cris DeSouza as manager, to strategically provide best practices and create new tools, including a new home based portal on CruisingPower.com. Whether agents book directly with us or through a brick-and-mortar host agency or franchise organization, the new portal ensures that “equal access” equates to “equal opportunity” for the home based agency community.

The portal offers our home based travel partners access to exclusive communication, education, sales and marketing tools and resources agents need to grow their business with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity Cruises. There are several key components of the new portal:

Get Connected provides agents with increased opportunities to connect with the lines’ sales organizations, industry leaders and other home based travel partners. Agents can request local sales support to help them close the sale via the portal for their qualified group or business opportunity. A new February enhancement includes “The Idea Bank,” an interactive message board system that will allow agents to “deposit” their best marketing and sales practices, and “withdraw” ideas from other home based travel partners across the country.

Knowledge Desk includes educational resources and opportunities agents need to expand their knowledge base and grow their business with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. A training calendar provides travel partners with access to local training opportunities in their region. Branded online training is offered on a scheduled basis within the portal as well. “Association Education” highlights broader educational opportunities available to agents, with links to CLIA, ASTA, NACTA, OSSN and the Travel Institute.

Marketing Accelerator contains exclusive marketing tools designed to maximize the agent’s client database and increase their revenue. With Partner Booking Link, agents can create a button on their Web site with access to an online booking engine. CruiseWriter empowers agents to create professional and customized brochures and flyers, which can be printed or sent electronically to their clients. February 2005 enhancements include an exclusive HTML E-mail tool and a print-on-demand direct-mail service.

Celebrity Cruises is also launching Celebrity Cruises Connect@Home, a comprehensive program designed for agents to expand their business with Celebrity Cruises and capitalize on its unique niche products and programs. Agents have the ability to request local sales support from the Celebrity brand-dedicated sales force for qualified group and business opportunities; receive new account start-up support from Inside Sales via E-mail and support from connectathome@celebritycruises.com or call (877) 680-1791, (Option 2); and capitalize on a suite of “X-ceptional” training and education programs online, at sea and on land.

Home based agents also can reap the benefits of Celebrity’s new Group Sales and Service department, and leverage Celebrity’s niche programs like Celebrity Xpeditions, Bon Appetit’s Savor the Caribbean and the new alliance with Cirque du Soleil to bring value-added offers to their client base.

Royal Caribbean International is launching Royal Caribbean Partners@Home. This new program includes the creation of a Home-Based Specialist Team within Inside Sales who specialize in working with new accounts. Contact royalpartnersathome@rccl.com or (800) 954-7225, (Option 2); the ability to request local sales support from the brand-dedicated sales force; and an expanded Seminar at Sea program as well as regional training opportunities facilitated by the line’s new Regional Account Trainers and CLIA-certified sales force.

Royal Caribbean also has led the industry with innovative contests targeting home based travel professionals. The “Extreme Home Office Makeover” has been a huge success. Six lucky winners will be announced in mid-January, and will receive $1,000 for home office makeovers courtesy of Royal Caribbean’s new dedicated sales force.

And this is just the beginning. Both brands look forward to working with home based agents on many additional programs in 2005 and beyond. We also will continue to analyze and adjust our own systems — and even our sales force structure — to provide the best support to our increasingly varied distribution channels and to evolve as the industry continues to evolves.