The 5 P's of Party Cruise Marketing
The following was written after listening to a ten minute conversation between two of my workmates, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information.
Party cruising is apparently big business in Barbados. That sort of thing doesn’t appeal to me anymore so I had no idea. I was also unaware that the promotion of these cruises had become a science that adheres to the five P’s of Marketing.
Product
A party cruise is nothing without the correct music and vibe and apparently to achieve this, you must employ the services of an entity called a Surf Rat, a Hard Mout Bling or a Scabbical Turkey. I’ve been made to understand that these entities “does got it hype” and “tun up”. They also have their own followings so their presence is key.
Price
The sweet spot seems to between $65 and $75 - enough for the organizers to afford to pay the boat owners and not too high as to deter their core audience. Also, it's too low for the bougie crowd, who will assume that “too many rah rah’s will be on that cruise” and stay away. Good riddance. Their presence is not required.
Promotion
Here’s where it gets really ingenious. Apparently you must produce a promo CD featuring the aforementioned Surf Rat, Scabbical Turkey or Hard Mout Bling promoting the cruise over a bed of appropriate music. By appropriate I mean there is no way that music will play on public radio. But it can be played on ZR vans, notably on the Ivy, Silver Hill and Wanstead routes. Also, organizations with names like IB2P, JR's Place, Turning Burning and Akademiks will have those promo CD’s on repeat. And of course they are distributed online where the fans of these cruises share on all social platforms, which brings us to…
Person
The target market is clear. There is a core group of cruise fans who actually help to promote the event throughout their personal channels. A significant portion of them will live in the Ivy, Silver Hill and Haynesville areas and/or frequent IB2P, Akademiks, JR's Place and other establishments where if I walk in, everyone will assume I'm a policeman. It'll be like a stranger walking into an old Western saloon, complete with the possibility of me receiving an unwelcome bullet in my ass. (In fairness, that description applies to most local establishments these days.)
The fifth Marketing P is usually Place or Placement, but in this case it’s…
Pornography
Cause I’ve listened to the DJs’ Soundclouds and seen the videos and pics that follow some cruise events.
I am currently doing further research on an emerging phenomenon called a Rat Boxy Central Bus Crawl. I have no idea what it is but according to the promo CD, it plug in to all.
