Casino management case study: The Young Crowd

[Spee]

70% occupancy ain't great, probably barely above breaking even.

The first thing to do is set goals, e.g.:
- I want to average 80% occupancy over the next 12 months, 90% occupancy over the next 13-24 months, etc.
- My food revenue is xx% of my total revenue, I want to increase it to xx+yy% over the next 12 months.
- My beverage revenue is .....
- My gambling revenue is .....

Once I've set those goals, then I have something by which progress can be measured.

The next thing to do is to secure a financial commitment from the casino management. How much am I going to ask them to invest to accomplish these goals? What is the forecasted ROI?

The next question is whether or not the Gen-Xers would fill the bill. Since the premise of your thread assumes that they do, we'll go on that basis.

Gotta now go do some market research on Gen-Xers:
- what do they like
- if they gamble, then what do they gamble on?
- if they drink, then what do they drink?
- when they go out to eat, what do they like?
- covention space, definitely gotta get creative, so something out of the ordinary, maybe convert it to an indoor theme park (e.g., rock climbing, paint-ball, etc.); or convert it full time to music); in other words, do something with the convention space that no one else is doing, differentiate from the competition

At the same time, I would encourage the 50-ish white male core clientele to come enjoy the new features. What do aging WASP-ish males want more than anything? To be able to prove they are as young and virile as all the young bucks! That is a theme to build on.

They also want to stay bonded to their kids. So maybe you make a promotion like, Dads come and Sons/Daughters get one free night or at some discounted rate. That is a theme to build on.

As for the last question on table game marketing, IMHO that is the least of your worries. If you can make the casino resort complex desirable enough for people to book rooms, then they are going to do their fair share of gambling there.

One empty poker table do not a poker room make. If you want to create a focus on poker, then its going to take more than one table. Possibly you create daytime tournaments in the lounge during the day, while putting on modern lounge acts during the night. Lots of manual labor involved with moving tables, but that's probably cheaper than having unused space for 75% of the day.

But if you want to create a new emphasis on poker, then you are probably looking at a drastic modification of the existing gaming space. You're going to have to sell that to the casino manager and all of the various pit managers (e.g., slots, dice, BJ, etc.).

There's tons of ideas to work with here. I could probably write you a 10-20 page paper to expand on some of these thoughts. The main thing is that it's a whole strategy to change the face of the entire casino/resort complex, not just the casino, not just the hotel, not just the food/beverage segment.

[jjpokertime]

Realize young players like to play home games with their friends, with no rake, charging less rake may help.

You need to lure out young players with free rooms.

Added money to tournaments always helps to lure in customers that will play at cash games later, let them register by phone.

[AaronBrown]

[ QUOTE ]
I just curious what you think is wrong with trying to attract more people to your casino without alienating your core customers?

[/ QUOTE ]
The goal is fine, I didn't like the ideas the consultant provided in answer.

The focus of people here makes sense to me. Make the younger players feel welcome, give them what they want. I don't think that will alienate guys over 50. They hate to see skin on a cocktal waitress? They don't want their place to feel fun and cool?

The consultant wanted to use the convention space and rooms to get some staid younger people (so the over-50's could stay asleep) with the hope of building a family business, tied to nearby ski resorts and spas. Get them in for the Cost Accounting convention, then give them a comp to return with their families for a week in the slow season; hope to get a lifetime customer.

That might be fine for roulette and craps, but I don't think it's going to score with poker players. I don't think it attracts them for a lot of reasons, but the biggest problem is it's not enough to make it attractive for individual poker players, you need to attract a critical mass. Good poker players don't want to go to places that don't have enough players to spread a decent selection of games and limits. You can't build slowly from the ground up, you need to make a big splash.

[sandycove]

In a very general sense, I believe your first chore is to examine yourself and your resources and your talents, and imagine and commit to a vision of what you might become, after an honest assessment whether it’s absolutely necessary, or worth the effort, or appropriate for your gifts and personality.

This “macro” view is something entirely different from a departmental-goal “micro” view, which is equally valid.

But I have NEVER met with a client who, at our initial consultation, could articulate clearly what business he or she was in…

(For better or worse, consider the behavior of Poker Stars vs Party Poker. One operation is in the internet poker business. The other is in the entertainment business.)

People come to see us because they perceive that they are welcome and that they belong. (Younger people also come because you have positioned yourself as the flavour-of-the-day.) They stay because they get good value, real and imagined. They come back because, thanks to you, they had fun.

I believe you must accept that you cannot be all things to all people, all the time. You need to concentrate on a market segment that is either traditionally the most profitable, or is currently under-served, or un-tapped by the competition. Then you must get to know this segment inside and out and communicate to it with a consistent and constant message. And your staff must be well on board and motivated. Once you have begun, there is no turning back; in for a penny, in for a pound.

Most of these revitalization efforts fail not because the marketing vision was poor, but because supervision at the point of sale is uneven and insufficiently vigorous.

I believe it is important in your business to focus on the fact that, at any given time, a prohibitive percentage of your guests are losers. So you need to counter this negative vibe with other perceptions of value. I believe this starts with staff attitude. And I believe that starts with YOUR attitude toward your staff.

At the end of the day, you can tinker with the bells and whistles ad nauseum, but it is the mutually respectful, considerate, professional and light-hearted management of your vision that will make everyone involved in some sense a winner.

[jfk]

It may be helpful to seed that crowd with giveaways. Order 5000 trucker hats with the casino's name on it. Make sure anyone and everyone under the age of 25 gets a trucker hat when they leave the tables. Make it a big deal about how much you appreciate their business, etc.

Distribution could be done through the cashier's window to better segregate out the young from the old.

Send attractive females out into downtown Reno with your hats in tow. Have them ask basic qualifying questions. They get a hat and some attention if they meet your criteria. You could even run a promo where if they show up in the cardroom wearing the hat, they get a free X amount of chips (with a minimum of X hours of play). Coversely, you could get the female marketers/steerers to hand them a coupon good for a free hat or shirt or hoodie or whatever when they play X amount of hours in your room.

With the 5000 hats then going back to the home towns you generate a decent amount of word of mouth and at the very least those players know you have a card room and you may become their first choice.

At one point either the Bike or Commerce had a "bring your home game here" promo. I'm not sure what the right marketing lever is but there's surely a way to make such a promo appealing to younger ski groups, summer outdoor types, bachelor party groups, out of town softball teams and the like. Perhaps you could idnetify groups and ages through your reservation staff at the hotel and do a directed pitch.

[Sprky]

Well the first thing I'd do is close up shop until the stop messing with the streets in downtown Reno.

But What I think the market needs is a bit more shameless self promotion i.e. most of the poker rooms don't get that much traction way from there big sign board outside the property. The advertising doesn't work without a draw. Boomtown did good business last year with the play against Moneymaker, but the travel time and the limited time appearence wasn't solid because there wasn't a line on the lure.

Hmm. The other thing that is lacking is a good freeroll. Younger people just starting in the game would love that and the Nugget, Peppermill freerolls take way to long to get enough hours to qualify.

So.. I'd find a little lull in the usuall business and start with a big name appearence to get them in the first time and the freerolls to get them being regular players.