It’s important to be aware that your best customers may also be other casino marketers’ best customers. You can’t take them for granted. Their decision to visit a casino is based on many attributes — primarily location, but also more likely than not, who is offering them the most compelling deal. ‘Deal’ meaning the total package of goods and services that are made available to the guest; for example, a tier benefit from the frequent-player program, complimentaries from an Executive Host, a direct mail coupon or a package provided by the bus operator. For many casinos, all of these perks are used to attract and retain loyal customers — creating the need to take a close look at their total customer relationship investment (CRI)

A tactical audit provides a visual representation of where your costs are being delivered to your guests. Such an audit will provide the first piece necessary to determine the total customer relationship investment you are making with your guests. To complete the analysis you’ll need to develop a campaign overlay, which provides the revenue components completing the puzzle. The Lacek Group is the right partner to help guide you and your team through this process.  Contact Sondra Paxton at 612.596.3517 or at Sondra.Paxton@Lacek.com.

Develop a smart marketing vision for your casino property

Just like our customer, we as consumers go through purchase behavior lifecycles. We identify a need, consider all our options, conduct a search and finally make a purchase. And just like that, we end up on someone’s database. As we spend time deciding on our next purchase, marketers are busy analyzing our purchase behavior to determine how they can influence our next move. At least the smart, motivated marketers are! That first purchase began a new customer lifecycle. This cyclical process usually spawns three key strategies for marketers: customer acquisition growth in spending and long-term consumer retention.

Start the process with a sound analysis of your database to identify the primary revenue growth opportunity.  What does your profile look like? A good understanding of your current trend analysis will help you visualize your revenue opportunities and develop a vision for your future growth.  The Lacek Group is the right partner to help guide you and your team through this process.  Contact Sondra Paxton at 612.596.3517 or at Sondra.Paxton@Lacek.com.

Purchases made at different venues at one casino property

Casino marketers have become very adept at analyzing gaming behavior to predict player gaming patterns. Another emerging trend is understanding each player’s spending behavior at ancillary venues throughout the gaming property. Knowing what a customer spends on things like dining, golf, hotel stays, shopping, entertainment and spa visits further enlightens a marketer and supports certain marketing decisions.

Purchases made at other properties owned or operated by the same stakeholders

Many tribes or management groups operate multiple gaming properties, each maintaining its own systems and databases without integrating or sharing valuable data. This means they operate blindly, without understanding the true value of each customer to the greater organization. For example, some customers who visit each property independently are not rewarded for their bundled play behavior. An ever worse scenario is when marketers are unaware that they are spending community profits to move a visit from one of their properties to another. This is like taking a dollar out of your left pocket and re-depositing only 50 cents in your right pocket with nothing to show for it. It’s hard to stay in business that way!

It is true that “knowledge is power,” so as a marketer, having more information at your fingertips is better than having less. And while the practices of data mining and storage have become increasingly popular and affordable over the years, the numbers and figures they unveil and record aren’t worth much if they aren’t cultivated into insightful, operative information. Multi-dimensional data is available to virtually every casino — an emerging trend in the casino industry — allowing smart marketers to better evaluate customers on a more expansive scale.

Multi-dimensional data refers to various pieces of information from your current or potential customer base. When properly organized, this information generates a clearer picture of your consumers — their likes, dislikes and behavioral patterns. This insight can support you in making better decisions and taking more appropriate actions, which is why your customer data system can also be considered a decision-support system. The information it provides is what you rely on to make keen marketing decisions and it supports your every move.

Over the next few weeks we’ll show you some new ways to think of data.  Also, be sure to attend our 3-hour workshop certification course at NIGA in April! We’re your best investment during a challenging economy.