Company Case

MSC Cruises : From One Second-Hand Ship

to a Major World Player

10-18 Outline the competitive advantages of a cruise versus a traditional flight-resort holiday
package. Which Holiday choice would you prefer? Which one would you be willing to pay a
premium price for?

10-19 The ease of comparison on the internet tends to encourage price-based consumer
decisions. What could MSC Cruises do to help take the Consumer’s docus off price to some
extent and consider other attributes?

10-20 Which of the three pricing strategies discussed would work best for MSC Cruises, given
their overall market share growth goals? Why?

10-21 Review MSC’s pricing approach of providing a relatively bow up-front price but then
relying on additional sales for profitability. Outline the strengths and weaknesses of this
approach.

10-22 Do you agree with MSC’s overall approach to pricing? What recommendation would
you have for them, particularly as they have a similar pricing structure to the market leaders?