Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | February 2012 38 Casino Marketing 3. Social Media: Most major casinos have a Facebook page, and provide opportunities for customers to engage with them via Twitter. Unfortunately, most companies in the gaming space are mismanaging their social media communication. They practice aggressive selling when they should be listening. Many use social channels the way they used mass communication— for broadcasting as opposed to dialog— and few have in place relevant metrics for assessing their effectiveness with regard to the new media. The risks associated with inept running of social channels are high. With social media, anyone can become a publisher, broadcaster and critic. A disgruntled customer can get on to Facebook and LinkedIn and seriously tarnishnotjust the casino brand but the reputation of the casino marketing executive. Remember someone posting porn on the Facebook page of one Singapore casino? Casino executives need better understanding and appreciation of social media so that they are able to integrate the new media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Four Square and YouTube with the traditional media such as mass advertising and direct-mail. 4. Decreasing Brand Loyalty: Let’s face it—the casino industry is one of the most commoditised industries in the world. The gaming products we sell are pretty much the same and the prices we charge across the industry are uniform. Under this scenario, little can be done by way of product differentiation. Sure, you can always refurbish your restaurants and renovate the property, but the actual gaming products sold will always remain fairly standardized. Consequently, it is hard to have a cadre of loyal players unless you have a regional monopoly. Despite the best intentions behind player retention initiatives, maintaining player loyalty will continue to be an uphill struggle. Loyalty can of course be bought in the short-term with generous comps and extravagant promotions, but these retention tools are expensive and easy for the competition to copy. True customer loyalty, attitudinal and behavioural, is mostly the outcome of how your frontline employees treat the players. A customer-centric culture backed by employees who are rewarded on the basis of metrics that ensure the best possible customer experience is the only proven antidote to customer churn.