Norwegian Cruise Line is a leader in the travel industry and an expert in product launch marketing. Their CMO and Senior VP, Meg Lee, is Drew’s guest for this episode of Renegade Thinkers Unite. Tune in as Meg and Drew talk marketing over a glass of champagne aboard Norwegian’s Bliss ship in NYC.
On this episode, Meg shares her tips on how to handle product launch marketing and the benefits of having diverse channels of marketing. She touches on how she sells fun, whether it’s through the authentic, smoked Texas BBQ (prepared off-ship!), or the electric race car track available to guests on the ship. Overall, she talks through how she completes her main job: filling 16 huge ships with excited travelers.
Click here to listen to this entertaining and educational episode.
What You’ll Learn
Use a variety of marketing strategies when launching a product
Meg and her team at Norwegian Cruise Line recognize the importance of using many different marketing channels when preparing to launch a new ship. Using social, video, print, and word of mouth platforms allow the Norwegian brand to reach as many people as possible. It’s always important to curate and organize the content you’re developing so that the right message can be shared at the right time.
Relationships can be your best marketing strategies
In the travel industry, the best resource available for product launch marketing is travel agencies. The relationships Meg has built with travel agents are invaluable and offer an unparalleled level of expertise and knowledge to potential customers. Forming relationships in your own industry like these should be a top priority.
The benefits of using creative product launch marketing strategies
By using creative marketing for your B2B or B2C business, you can stand out from the competition. Creative ideas make your brand memorable and allow you to go deeper into storytelling mode. Without creative storytelling, you’re just sharing data and facts. Meg also urges marketers to never let fear be a driver of their decisions.
Timeline
- [1:04] Meg’s Renegade Rapid Fire segment
- [6:35] The customer journey for Norwegian Cruise Lines
- [9:52] Why differentiation matters for Norwegian Cruise Line
- [12:47] How the Norwegian brand leverages word of mouth marketing
- [14:15] The challenges of marketing and selling a brand new cruise ship
- [22:17] The role of B2B marketing in the travel industry
- [27:55] How Norwegian Cruise Line utilizes video marketing strategies
- [31:09] Meg’s “two do’s and a don’t” for marketers
Connect With Meg:
- Norwegian Cruise Line’s Leadership webpage
- Connect with Meg on LinkedIn
- Follow Norwegian Cruise Line on Twitter
- Follow Norwegian Cruise Line on Facebook
Resources & People Mentioned
Connect with Drew
- http://renegade.com/
- On LinkedIn
- On Twitter
- On Facebook
- On Instagram
Meet the Guest
Meg Lee is Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President for Norwegian Cruise Line. She was appointed to the position in March 2015. In this role, Lee is responsible for Norwegian brand strategy and B2B and B2C marketing in North America. Lee joined Norwegian in 2007 and prior to her current role held the positions of Vice President, Business Integration; Vice President, Creative Services and Product Marketing; and three progressive Director roles overseeing Brand & Advertising, Relationship Marketing, & Strategic Alliances.
Prior to joining Norwegian, Lee served as a Product Director for Johnson & Johnson, spent time in Global Marketing for Eli Lilly Corporation and worked on Latin American Programs for the Kenan
Institute of Private Enterprise.
Lee holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and a BA from University of California, Los Angeles.
Quotes from Meg Lee
- Social media is word of mouth on steroids at scale, that's monetizable.
- Marketing is art and science together, and art by definition is going to be very difficult for machines to replace humans.
- Never let fear be a driver of your decision.