In order to make its newest ship stand out from the crowd, Avalon Waterways had to rethink the way river cruising is marketed.

“Looking at how the category markets river cruising, we saw the sameness and similarity,” said Jennifer Halboth, marketing director for the Globus Family of Brands, which owns Avalon. “There’s a real traditional formula to the marketing of river cruising, and it involves a deck, some European scenery and some Chardonnay.”

River cruise ads traditionally portray a river cruise ship gliding past picturesque European cities or images of passengers on board, making it difficult for companies to differentiate themselves and their products.

A passenger trying to choose between one river cruise company and another is going to ask “’How is my experience on the Danube with you going be different from my experience with someone else?’” said Halboth.

In order to answer that question, Avalon decided it would try to separate its product from the pack by putting the focus on its fleet, most specifically its newest ship, the Avalon Panorama, which is launching in May 2011.

The Avalon Panorama differs from Avalon’s existing ships in that it will feature 64 newly-designed, 200-square-foot suites on the top two decks. Each suite will have a seating area adjacent to an 11-foot wide, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall panoramic window, with the idea of converting the entire suite into a sort of open-air balcony.

Avalon employed a new design team to enhance the Panorama’s interior, which includes marble bathrooms, new Avalon-branded bedding called Comfort Collection by Avalon and love seats in the suites. There will be fresh flowers in each stateroom and L’Occitane body products.

In an attempt to create buzz and excitement about the new ship, Avalon put out marketing messages like “our newest ship just became Europe’s latest attraction” and “when you build a ship that has everything, it makes for a vacation that does too.”

The dominant image of the campaign is just of the ship itself, with no backdrop, which is a departure from the standard image of a ship in the distance floating along an iconic European river.

“We just didn’t want to come out with another ship announcement,” said Steve Born, vice president of marketing for Globus. “This was an opportunity for us to tell our story.”

According to Born and Halboth, putting greater emphasis on the ships has been a strategy Avalon has been building up over time.

“Before we even got to this campaign, we’ve been full frontal,” said Halboth, adding that Avalon has invited passengers to “ look at every nook and cranny of our ships” with the virtual ship tours it has available online of four of its ships, the Avalon Poetry, Tranquility, Scenery and Panorama.

But with the Panorama, Avalon said it kicked it up a notch.

Avalon created a web page, www.avalonwaterways.com/inspired, devoted to marketing, among other things.

But the big push was about more than just Avalon, it was about the increasing competition in the river cruise market overall.

“We’re hand to hand combat here, we’re in the trenches,” said Halboth.

Indeed, as U.S. river cruise operators gear up for 2011, a year when most of them have new ships launching, competition is heating up, and other operators are also beefing up their marketing messages.

Uniworld River Cruises, for instance, is also investing heavier in marketing for 2011.

“Our marketing 2011 budget will be quite a bit bigger than 2010 based on new capacity and everything else we’re trying to achieve,” said Uniworld President Guy Young.

Uniworld’s overall message was underscored in a recently launched trade advertising campaign titled “2011: Uniworld Continues to Raise the Bar.”

Uniworld’s strategy to separate itself from the other guys is placing emphasis on its ships boutique designs, a product of partnering with sister company Red Carnation Hotels.

“In recent years, the renowned Red Carnation Hotels’ design team has personally overseen every detail of our ships, to create stunning, welcoming interiors, as remarkable as the sights you’ll see on your travels with Uniworld,” Uniworld stated in a recent ad.

With its push to be identified as the “boutique cruising” operator, Uniworld, like Avalon, has also shifted some of the attention off the destinations and onto its fleet and what separates Uniworld ships from the competition’s.

As Young stated, the increased marketing efforts are related to the new capacity Uniworld has on the market.

In addition to launching a new ship in Egypt at the end of 2009, the River Tosca, and a new ship in Europe this year, the River Beatrice, Uniworld has three new ships entering the market next year — the River Antoinette, sister ship to the River Beatrice, which will begin sailing Uniworld’s Castles along the Rhine itinerary in March; the Duoro Spirit in Portugal, which Uniworld will be chartering instead of the Duoro Queen; and the River Victoria, a refurbished ship in Russia on which Uniworld will have a five-year charter.

Viking River Cruises too has a lot on the line, having announced earlier this year that it plans to build eight new ships in the next three years.

Torstein Hagen, chairman of Viking, said that Viking no longer wanted to produce ads that benefited the entire river cruise segment by marketing the overall river cruising experience. He said that Viking would embark on an ad campaign that would set Viking apart.

Avalon Waterways Panorama Suite

When Avalon Waterways unveiled plans in late May to launch what it called a “Suite Ship” — the Avalon Panorama with 64 suites (pictured) at 200 square feet each — the very definition of what constitutes a river cruise suite was put into question.

“We took a page from the hotel and big ship areas. From the hotel area, they define a suite as having a separate living area, sofa, chairs, some kind of area that can accommodate space beyond the bed,” said Steve Born, vice president of marketing for the Globus Family of Brands, which owns Avalon Waterways.

“For Avalon, anything 200 square feet and above is a suite, and the reason is we use that extra space for a living area … Size does matter, but it’s not just size but how you use it. It’s how you manipulate that space to have the extra living area.”

Indeed, river cruising takes its notes from the hotel and cruise industries, where the lines are also becoming increasingly blurred between what defines a suite, compared to a regular room or cabin.

But some feel that the term “suite” should really be reserved for cabins with two separate rooms, while others feel the term suite is about a certain level of comfort and luxury.

“In an ideal situation, a suite should be a two-room situation,” said Ron Santangelo, who served as president of Deilmann’s North America operations for 13 years, and is now vice president of business development at AMAWATERWAYS. “The word has been used and abused.” If a cabin just has a sitting area, said Santangelo, it should be called a “junior suite.”

“If you wanted to be a purist, that’s the game,” he added. “That said, no one’s a purist anymore.”

Part of what’s at play is that there is no single definition of a suite in river cruising, so river cruise lines define the word themselves based on how they want to market and sell certain cabins.

“In river cruising there is no governing body that defines what a suite is,” said Guy Young, president of Uniworld River Cruises. “This does leave the door open for different interpretation. In the case of Uniworld there is a clear difference between our standard staterooms and suites.”

According to Young, suites on Uniworld ships are typically 50% larger than regular staterooms and include a separate seating area. Suites are also defined with additional amenities such as free laundry service, shoe shine, bottle of wine on arrival, daily fruit and cookie plate, continental breakfast delivered to the room (er, suite) upon request and DVD players.

On Uniworld’s River Beatrice, launched last year, and the River Antoinette, launching next year, Uniworld offers butler service in the suites as well.

Looking at size, there will be eight suites on Uniworld’s newest ship, Antoinette, at 294 square feet each and one owner’s suite at 391 square feet.

As for whether the wide-ranging definitions in the river cruise marketplace could water down the implication of luxury, the word suite is meant to imply, or create confusion, Santangelo didn’t seem to think so.

“The word suite implies luxury without boundaries. The fact that everyone uses it in different ways, is really not a liability,” said Santangelo, adding that on AMAWATERWAYS’ new Amabella ship the suites are 350 square feet, and are called suites despite not having two separate rooms.

The bottom line, said Santangelo, is that “on the newer ships there are a lot more of them” — regardless of what you want to call them.

This spring, Uniworld launched its 10th ship in Europe, the 410-foot River Beatrice, the river cruise operator’s longest ship to date.

The River Beatrice can accommodate a greater number of passengers than any other Uniworld ship — 160 compared with between 130 and 134 on older Uniworld ships. With 15 suites and 65 staterooms, the River Beatrice also features far more suites than any other Uniworld ship. The most suites on any Uniworld ship until now had been four.

Fully 80 percent of the staterooms feature French balconies. The only ones that don’t are the 13 staterooms on the lower Moselle deck.

Staterooms are outfitted with hotel-style beds with Egyptian cotton sheets, European comforters, terry robes, bottled water, individual air conditioning and flat-screen televisions.

The River Beatrice also features a lounge, restaurant, library, sundeck, massage services, fitness center, sauna, Jacuzzi, gift shop and elevator. Wireless Internet access is available on board the ship. Complimentary use of bicycles is a new feature being offered by Uniworld.

The River Beatrice is scheduled for 33 departures this year along the Enchanting Danube itinerary, a nine-day cruise along the Danube River through Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany from Budapest to Passau.

The cruise alternates with a Passau-to-Budapest itinerary. The ship is also scheduled to sail four departures of the nine-day Danube Holiday Markets cruise along the same route, between November 29 and December 20, 2009.