Formal nights are a thing of the past on Celebrity Cruises, with the company embracing what it calls “evening chic,” a perfect description of the image it wants as 2016 opens for the brand.

“Our big news is how we are going to talk about the brand moving forward,” said CEO and President Lisa Lutoff-Perlo. “One of the things I realized in my new role is Celebrity had a big opportunity to talk about the brand in a better way, to message ourselves to people who we believe are in the category of guests who are interested in sailing on our beautiful boutique hotels.”

 Pushing the modern luxury tagline to the next level, Lutoff-Perlo, who assumed the role in late 2014, went out and hired a new creative agency.

“We realized we had to ramp up our modern luxury brand positioning,” she said. “We needed to dial up a little more of the modern and think about a more disruptive approach to the market place.”

Of interest is a new business intelligence unit, which will enable the brand to segment the population.

“They are manically focused on the right segments of the population we believe are the best fit for Celebrity,” Lutoff-Perlo said.

Helping make all of this work is Celebrity’s “Go Big, Go Better, Go Best” booking option for guests, allowing them to add value to their vacations in the form of beverage packages, unlimited internet, onboard credits and more.

“It’s a strategy, not a promotion. It packages our cruises in a way that has truly resonated with consumers whether they are current guests or potential guests,” said Lutoff-Perlo, who talked with Cruise Industry News in November. “We have found a value-add pricing strategy is much more impactful and meaningful to people buying vacations than a pure discount strategy.”

 Lutoff-Perlo is looking forward to 2016, a year she said will be a success with more operating income.

“That is what will define a successful year,” she said. “There are a ton of different things we need to do right to achieve that. When I think about Celebrity and where it should be positioned in the marketplace and how it should be thought of in the marketplace, it has a great opportunity.”

Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine: Winter 2015/2016