A Challenge to the Boss

By George Haldeman

In the last 24 years that I have been in the casino industry, I have had the good fortune to have worked at some pretty well run properties. I have also worked at some not so well properties. There all kinds of management and marketing techniques casino operators can employ when trying to optimize their properties given the competitive and economic environment.

Alignment

Almost universally, the single biggest problem I have seen in poorly run casinos is the lack of alignment between various marketing efforts and operations. I challenge you to approach each department head in the building with two questions. First, “why do our guests choose us over their other options”. Second, “why do some gamblers in our trade area choose our competitors”. If your property is being properly marketed and operated, there will likely be agreement among everyone on these two questions. If you don’t have agreement about why guests are and aren’t choosing you, it is unlikely you will have alignment.

Knowledge Sources

One important step to ensuring alignment is to take guess-work and opinion out of the answer to the two questions above. Properly constructed market research, that is shared with all managers, enables the boss to say to his department heads ” here is what our customers say”. If what the customers say is different from what management thinks, the property has two options. It can come into alignment by capitalizing on its strengths and mitigating its weaknesses or it can alter its marketing messages to change the minds of it guests. It has been my experience that the former is easier, cheaper and more effective.

George is a Principal in Strategic Gaming Advisors