Inside Asian Gaming

17 16 around-the-pole something that will draw a punter from Beijing? Does Joel mean any- thing to the Shanghainese, or is the glam- our chef an attraction relevant only to Hong Kong elites? Just to highlight some differences, the analysis of the survey results also established the individual messages that were deemed by the travellers as important to them and that might influence their decision to travel to Macau in the future.The“Y”s represent fac- tors that were deemed important, while the “N”s represent those that were not. As mentioned earlier, the Taiwanese are rather concerned about safety in Macau and need to be reassured that the gang-wars pre- ceding the handover to Chinese sovereignty in December 1999 are not likely to resurface. Hong Kong visitors, on the other hand, prefer a clean and tidy environment – something that does not even appear on the radar of the mainlanders. Looking at the differences among the mainlanders themselves, it is interesting to note that the northerners consider good quality hotels a must, while the Shanghai- nese do not give a hoot.Likewise, neighbour- ing Hong Kongers do not need hotels, yet owing to restrictions on advertising gam- bling in Hong Kong, hotels are the featured element of the majority of casino ads over in Hong Kong. Obviously, a “one message fits all” ap- proach is not the most optimal in promoting travel to Macau. Focusing on casino-based tourism as the sole marketing and promo- tional strategy may also limit the appeal of Macau in the future to wider traveller mar- kets. With the exception of the Americans, just about all the other operators and casino owners in Macau come from Hong Kong, and their marketing promotions have a sameness about them. Although the Vegas newcomers offer different hardware and deploy subtler branding messages, they are also tending to- wards the same direction in terms of execu- tion and tools. Word of Mouth The survey results also suggest that the value of each marketing method differs across markets. The Taiwanese traveller was being bombarded with TV and print adver- tisements and TV travel programmes – es- sentially your typical Hong Kong-style cam- paign. However, the Taiwanese surveyed indicated that they placed much greater importance on outdoor advertising, the in- ternet and work colleagues. In an earlier column, “Those Annoying People Called Customers,” that appeared in the October 2005 issue of Inside Asian Gam- ing , I made mention of a marketing case where the informal word of mouth advertis- ing was the key element in the successful outcome. This appears to be the case here as well. The sameness in execution I alluded to is clearly evident everywhere you go in Macau and Hong Kong. Print media galore, Canto popstars and movie celebrities, and the ubiq- uitous lucky draw are such common occur- rences that one has to wonder about the ROI and measurable effectiveness of such tools. Throughout history, the Chinese have been avid gamblers, bet- ting on everything from cricket fights to archery contests. Gambling has been dubbed China’s ancient vice. In fact, the very first accounts of gambling, dating back some 3,000 years, were found in China. The history of Mahjong, one of the most popular Chinese gambling games, goes back to 960 AD – some even believe Confucius to be the inventor. It is interesting to note that the Chinese love of gambling has per- sisted despite strict laws and bans imposed by imperial rulers and, more recently, the Communist Party. Not only were they considered morally bad (Confucius said that “a gentleman does not gamble”), gamblers were sentenced to death during the Song Dynasty and had their hands cut off during the Ming Dynasty. Gambling is, by and large, a way of life for the Chinese. Back in the late 1800s, historians in China and Hong Kong observed that ev- eryone gambles for everything and that “the boys learned gambling as soon as they could talk, and pursued it through life.” Even buying bread from a street vendor can be a gambling game. Recent anecdotal evidence suggests the same still holds true cen- turies later. Why Chinese Like Gambling While mainland Chinese cannot be considered a homogenous entity, they are widely considered to be the world’s most hard-core gamblers. CLSA’s Aaron Fischer looks at the origins of the Chinese passion for courting lady luck The weekly TV show about the lottery had one of the highest ratings in Shanghai in 2001, according to Xinmin Evening News. It is estimated that Chinese gambling losses abroad (including Macau) amounted to over US$75 billion annually in recent years – almost half of Thailand’s annual GDP. Indeed, where else but in this region could one find a whole genre of film dedicated to stories about gambling masters? This leads one to wonder why the Chinese love to gamble. Although no single explanation seems to fully shed light on this “gambling gene”, a few probable reasons have been proffered. The first is economic: throughout its long history, most Chinese people have been impoverished, so they naturally hope for a windfall from gambling games. The second is the supposed lack of a national game, or in other words, they have nothing better to do. The third, and more plausible explanation, is the deep-rooted belief in luck and pursuing good luck – a fundamental component of Chinese culture. It is this strong belief in luck that leads many to gamble their mea- ger savings in the hope of becoming rich. So a love of gambling can be said to follow naturally from this belief in luck. Go to Shanghai or even Beijing, however, and you are struck by the lack of pop glamour in the media. This clearly shows that there is scope in places to greater align the communication mix, leading to a better use of marketing and promotional resources. It will be in the inter- pretation, implementation and placement that challenges will arise for the many Vegas- driven/Hong Kong-centric casino marketing departments in Macau. Ultimately, the product itself may have to be tailored more closely to individual market segments. How many times have you heard the credo that the mainland Chinese will spend all their money gambling, and will stay in the cheapest hotel or sometimes not stay in a hotel at all? Look at the Hong Kong (read Cantonese) lifestyle. Food is a brief respite from the normal schedule of making money, a stop to take in some fuel in order to keep going. Even wedding dinners in Hong Kong take only about 45 minutes (not including the mandatory 1-2 hour wait for everybody to turn up) from the cold platter to the Fried Rice. On the other hand, residents of Beijing appear to have a much more sedentary life- style. The northerners will actually spend a couple of hours over dinner, talking and holding verbal discourse over whatever topic of the day may be current. Look at the speed of the pedestrians – in Hong Kong, any new- comer casually sauntering around the MTR risks being trampled by the passengers. In any of the other provinces north of Guang- dong, the pace of life is definitely slower in most respects. It is considered a truism that mainlanders stay an average of only 1.2 days in Macau and spend all their money gam- bling at the expense of good food and enter- tainment. However, it could be that this ste- reotype only applies to the Hong Kong and Guangdong set (with Southern China having been heavily influenced by Hong Kong me- dia anyway), who make up the bulk of visitor numbers to Macau and hence skew the aver- age data. On the micro level, this means that the operators will have to re-pitch their F&B outlets at different levels, and we are see- ing that. Wynn Macau is now re-tuning its food outlets, which suggests it may not have learnt from the experience of Sands Macau. Meanwhile, Sands still does not know what to do with its outlets. Galaxy’s Starworld has done a little better by offering various forms of Chinese cuisine to the point where even the local Macanese are frequenting them on the weekends (the old informal network in play here). At the macro level, the operators will have to rethink their main hall in terms of lay- out, positioning and perhaps the customer gaming experience. They will also have to conduct much more marketing research than has been done to date, in order to iden- tify the various segments and the means to reach them. At the moment, the product offering in the main halls of the larger casinos are uni- form. This means that the smaller (individu- ally owned) casinos, if let loose by SJM and Galaxy, have a potential distinct advantage over their larger brethren if they can reposi- tion themselves to capture a specific niche market segment. As table revenue becomes more diluted, the focus of futuremarketing efforts will tend towards identifying as many viable niche market segments as possible. In fact, we may even see small operations targeted at other parts of the region, such as a boutique Ko- rean or Japanese casino-hotel (feelers and concepts are already being discussed). Or maybe a spicy Sichuan or a Fujian style property complete with native speakers and cuisine?Why not? The population base is cer- tainly there. As the Northerners will tell you with a dis- dainful sniff – only the Southerners eat rice. Chinese are not all the same. Octo Chang is the pseudonym of our Macau- based casino marketing columnist, who has extensive qualifications in the gaming industry. Please feel free to forward any amusing anec- dotes or observations to ka.chng@gmail.com . Ben Lee has an extensive background in casino marketing in Asia and Australia, particularly in profiling the Chinese market segment. GlennMcCartney,PhD,is an Assistant Professor in Tourism at the Macau University of Science and Technology. Notes 1 This research was commissioned by Glenn McCartney and conducted in the departure areas of airports in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Kaoshung, as these destinations represent over 90% of air travel to Macau. Random sam- pling was between 300 to 450 travel- lers at each airport, and tested as valid. The questionnaire and survey was de- signed based on destination image and branding research undertaken glob- ally in the last ten to fifteen years and data was tested using SPSS software and various multivariate techniques. Image message Safe places to visit Many places of interest to visit Political stability Valuea for money Good quality and easy to find hotels Clean and litter free Hong Kong traveller N Y N N N Y Beijing traveller N N Y Y Y N Taiwan traveller Y Y N N Y N Shanghai traveller N N Y N N N Cross section of some image messages important in making a travel decision to Macau