The Enduring Principles Of Casino
Marketing
by Dennis
Conrad
It's all about
identifying and leveraging the ENDURING PRINCIPLES.
And while I may not have found all of them yet, I'd like to share now
those that I have found.
THE
ENDURING PRINCIPLES OF CASINO MARKETING
-
IT'S THE CUSTOMER,
STUPID - I hate to inform you of this, but it's not about managing
limited budgets, or making the General Manager (or even the
stockholders) happy or being the most creative marketing organization
since time began. It's about KNOWING WHAT YOUR CUSTOMER WANTS AND
THEN DELIVERING IT. Period. This is the mother of all enduring
principles. All of the other principles are secondary to it or flow
from it.
-
YOUR MOST IMPORTANT
CUSTOMER IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU - do you see that middle aged lady
on your Wheel of Fortune machine? Or that twenty-something man at
your blackjack table? Or that cooing couple in your gourmet
restaurant? Well, they ARE your business. And until you've invested
every last scintilla of energy (and available money) finding out WHO
these people are, what you can do for them to improve their experience
NOW, and HOW you might be able to offer them additional ways to spend
even more money with you, then you are missing out on the most
immediate and impactful marketing opportunity available to you. These
people do not need a cheery letter from your General Manager inviting
them back, a discounted room offer in an out of town newspaper, an
invitation to your fun-filled slot tournament or a phone call asking,
"Where the hell have you been?" What do they need? Don't ask me, ask
them!!!
-
LEAD THE LEARNING -
it's not as much WHAT you do, but more WHAT YOU LEARN from what you
do. I've always felt that every business should have a Department of
Learning to insure that the entire organization has systematic,
scientific ways of understanding the outcomes of both individual and
group decisions. I know, I know, you'll get laughed off the property
for suggesting a Department of Learning, but you can take the
following learning steps now:
·
Begin
sharing learning materials across your property. This includes
information from gaming periodicals ("Casino Executive", "Las Vegas
Advisor", "Blackjack Forum", "Gaming and Wagering Business"), non-gaming
periodicals ("Harvard Business Review", "Sloan Management Review", "Tom
Peters' newsletter", etc.), management and marketing books (Marketing
the Invisible, Raving Fans, Gung Ho, On Great Service, The Leadership
Challenge) and a host of other audio and visual materials. If you
learned something from it, so will everyone else.
·
Make
learning a significant part of your management style and insure that all
of the people that you supervise have a chance to learn and grow and are
always being challenged.
·
Start
asking questions that force learning, like "What did we learn from our
CASH BACK program?", "What did our customers like and dislike about our
VIP party?", "How can we create better, more meaningful measurements on
the effectiveness of our marketing dollars?"
·
Become
a zealot about all learning gained from your customers, including that
from letters, surveys, comment cards, observations, employee feedback,
and live, face to face conversations.
-
TRY AND FAIL, TRY
AND FAIL, TRY AND...SUCCEED! - this enduring principle goes hand in
hand with the LEARNING principle and needs to be part of every
marketing activity you do. TRY something. Try something else. Try
something again. If you don't have two or three dozen "tries" going
on at once, well, you're just not trying. What if you gave your CASH
BACK right at the slot machine? What if you had portable VIP card
making machines on your casino floor? What if you served food at your
blackjack tables? What if you hired comedians and magicians as your
bartenders? What if you gave your customers the screwdriver you used
to unjam their slot machine? Let "WHAT IF" become your mantra!
- IF YOU WORK IN
A "COMMAND AND CONTROL" ORGANIZATION, LEAVE! - or at the very least,
insist on the top salary available. Hey, it's hard work keeping your
mouth shut and your brain turned off! It's also an enduring
principle.
HOW TO CONTACT RAVING CONSULTING COMPANY
If you are interested in securing the services
of Raving Consulting Company or in implementing a Raving Promotion, please
contact:
Dennis Conrad, President and Chief Strategist
Raving Consulting Company
475 Hill Street, Suite G
Reno, Nevada 89501
Phone: (775) 329-7864
FAX: (775) 329-4947
email: dennis@ravingconsulting.com | 
