Royal Caribbean has a port-of-call in Haiti and is doing a number of things to help in the earthquake relief effort. But you’d never know that from the company’s homepage. As of Friday afternoon it was still all blue skies and good times as far as the eye could see.
To people who know the company’s connection to Haiti, the absence of any acknowledgment of the catastrophe on the home page – the company’s doorstep to the world – sends a chill.
Perception matters.
If you’re an organization that’s doing something to help Haiti, you should make it easy for your customers and stakeholders to find out – not because you’re a publicity hound, but because people might think you’re doing nothing if they don’t quickly see evidence to the contrary.
Royal Caribbean issued a press release Friday afternoon outlining its humanitarian response, and it’s substantial. It includes a pledge of at least $1 million in relief and deliveries of goods and supplies.
To get the news, however, you had to visit the Press Center, a Web site backwater for journalists and PR types.
Fail.
There was also some interesting information about the relief response in Royal Caribbean CEO’s Adam Goldstein’s blog, called WHY NOT? This blog is clearly linked from the company’s home page, but gives no indication that it’s a place for news on Haiti.
Fail.
In social media, the company’s Twitter site spouts only blurbs about the latest screamin’ deals, while its YouTube site airs commercials.
Fail.
The company’s facebook fan page carries the CEO’s blog posts. Again, some good stuff about Haiti, but nothing on the home page to indicate you’ll find it there.
My family and I, and many thousands of others, stepped on the soil of Haiti thanks to a Royal Caribbean cruise. It wasn’t exactly a cultural immersion. Port-of-call Labadee is a self-contained, private enclave for cruise ship passengers.
Still, as someone who had that experience – and who thinks highly of Royal Caribbean – I went to their Web site eager to see what the company was doing in response to the earthquake.
I saw nothing.
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.
John: Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this. Do anyou have any thoughts about why they are underplaying their relief efforts? One possibility is they don’t want folks to associate cruises to the Caribbean with human tragedy and trauma.
Personally, I think consumers are more sophisticated than that. Anyone booking a Caribbean cruise has got to know it is a beautiful part of the world beset by poverty and the lingering effects of colonialism.
Appreciate the comment –
For the record, I did phone Royal Caribbean’s corporate communications office and asked to talk to someone about their earthquake communications efforts. The person assured me that all the information I needed would be in a press release that they would e-mail me. It wasn’t.
I think there is a very good chance that, as you say, they are downplaying the relief efforts so as not to associate Royal Caribbean with a tragedy.
Not only does that underestimate consumers, as you note, but to me it also reflects an “old school” marketing mindset that doesn’t quite get how much things have changed.
Companies today must shift from the traditional mindset of broadcasting to their customers, and recognize that instead they are in a conversation with customers.
I cannot believe that someone is trying to cry down a cruise line because they ARE making donations.
I can see it now in Haiti government headquarters, RCCL are giving us a million US dollars in humanitarian aid, but are not telling anyone they are doing it, do you think we should accept the money or tell them go float their boat elsewhere?
Now that’s a FAIL
Great post, John. As an RCCI fan and many-time passenger, I too have been watching to see what they have been doing to help ease the pain and loss of these kind and generous people, and had been disappointed at what seemed to be their lack of response. Good to know, I guess, that it was really just their lack of communication.
Perception does matter, and there is much cruise lines can do to help in the relief efforts. Not only is providing aid the right thing to do, period, but helping should be a no-brainer for an organization that shares a special relationship with the island. Good to know they are making a substantial commitment to help, even if their communication efforts so far receive failing marks.
As you appropriately state, communicating these efforts is not to be a glory-seeker, but to simply provide evidence that the human side, especially in times of crisis, matters to organizations as much as making a buck from the pristine beaches of this poor island. As a consumer, I feel better that I place my business with an organization that gets this.
I too have been to Labadee. It’s beautiful, and yes, isolated, or should I say, shielded from the poverty of the rest of the island. I understand that RCCL’s relationship there supports Haiti’s economy. That’s nice. It’s business. But my heart aches for these people. To help this devastated nation, above and beyond business, is the right thing to do. I am glad to see the now announced efforts and financial commitment Royal is undertaking. Reading their press release reveals their substantial effort, including support for the families of their Haitian crew members. I am glad to see, too, that onboard guests can donate through onboard accounts. I hope to see some additional fundraising efforts on the RCCI ship I will be boarding soon (and am feeling better, now, about the cruise I have booked).
Lessons learned. First, giving back is always the right thing to do, in whatever ways we can. It’s just being a good (global) corporate citizen. Second, as marketers and communicators, we need to be mindful of the perception we paint to all of our constituents that the human side of business is as important as our bottom line.