This article shows how thinking outside of the box and building relationship ultimately leads to a loyal customer. This article walks us through the path paved by Gary Loveman when he went against conventional casino marketing and tried an approach that was outside of the box. While the casino industry was mostly focused on bringing in customers; Gary was looking to build a relationship and retain the customer. Instead of using the “theme” approach of attracting customers; Gary was focused on the middle class customer and using evidence to keep them coming back.
Some of the major reasons for success is the cleaning house approach and also changing they way the data is collected. The information the casino was collecting was being collected at each location. This made it really difficult to see the whole picture so Gary got ride of the individual tracking system and made it so all information was collected at one location.
The management was evaluated and many individuals were replaced. When you have individuals operating in a system that needs to be changed, sometime its much easier to replace them and train new employees to operate your way. This approach reminds of me of a similar situation I experienced. My senior year of high school we were experiencing a coaching change on the baseball team. The coach wanted to play ball his way and wanted his own players. We were groomed under the previous coach and although our talent was above a beyond the alternative he decided to go with the younger classman. They were more willing to operate in his system and eventually 8 seniors ended up quitting the team. Gary’s success was much better than my high school coaches in that the change he implemented actually worked. He brought in individuals that weren’t the ordinary gaming employees and plugged them into his system. He wasn’t a different perspective to go along with his hybrid approach.
Thinking outside the box and using evidence to set a marketing strategy was the key to success. Gary’s approach has not only transformed Harrah’s but the entire gaming community and financial sector for that matter.
