On a recent episode of “Talk About Las Vegas With Ira,” fellow GGB writer Oliver Lovat and I discussed the importance of resort/casinos (especially in a post-COVID age) knowing and targeting their specific customers. It’s not enough to market to a general audience; properties have to know the details of their customers’ wants and needs, and provide them with their inventories of gaming, entertainment, food & beverage, and retail offerings.
There are standard market segments that casinos know and focus on routinely, but they are ignoring the unconventional segments that are ripe for creative exploitation. Here are some examples for Las Vegas:
Beached Whales
This market segment consists of former high rollers who have fallen on hard times. They no longer have mansions, private jests, or yachts. However, they do have an itch to gamble and some access to capital. Time to bring back the junket!
Nickel-and-Dime Players
These are the slot players who will nickel and dime casinos with demands for comp drinks, meals, entertainment (and anything else they can get), while simultaneously playing as little as possible on…what else?…penny slots. Why chase them, then? Easy reason: They help create a crowd in a casino, giving the illusion that there’s a lot of business. This will encourage normal players to stay and actually contribute to the bottom line. Just learn to say no to any comp requests.
Domestic Internationals
This is an untapped market segment of people from other countries who live here, but speak English as a second language. Casinos could become Ellis Island (the real one, not the casino in Las Vegas), welcoming all to the gaming capital of the world. Here’s the inscription:
“Give me your tiered (players), your huddled gamblers yearning to breathe free on a pair of dice (before shooting), The wretched refuse of your non-gaming shore. Send these, the homeless, dice-tossed to me, I lift my neon lamp beside the casino door!”
From Los Angeles With Love…and Money
Think Las Vegas already markets to Los Angeles? Think again. We spend no money marketing to those Angelenos who have moved to Las Vegas. They loved to visit here and now they love to live here. How do casinos reach them? Can they appeal to them as the new locals, but with an L.A. twist? Forget celebrity chefs — and forget celebrities — since former Southern Californians have seen it and done it all. Instead, appeal to their sense of pioneering (having moved from L.A. to the desert), nostalgia, and self-esteem. Offer them a discount for food, drinks and shows if they show their old California driver’s licenses; create a special lane in the casino for them to travel through on their way to the tables; and make them remember their L.A. days by giving them temporary stars on the Walk of Fame when they sign up for the players club.
These are just some examples; the possibilities are endless when it comes to slicing and dicing the market segments for casinos in Las Vegas and globally. The bottom line: No matter what market segment you identify, customers won’t stay unless you provide offers, customer service and value… unless the market segment is comprised of masochists.
