A casino’s brand is it’s personality, and properties that want to thrive in a growing competitive marketplace need that identity. Otherwise they’re in a marketing race to the bottom, according to a marketing executive.
Hard Rock Atlantic City Senior Vice President of Marketing Mario Maesano said the casino industry is wasting its time by drawing from the last 30 years of its marketing history. It needs to learn from more mature companies that are successful in highly competitive industries.
“We in the casino marketing industry have been slow to mature from a global marketing strategy standpoint,” Maesano said during the opening day of the Casino Marketing & Technology Conference at Caesars Palace. “From a 10,000-foot view, it all comes down to branding and brand differentiation.”
Since gaming was restricted to Nevada and Atlantic City 30 years ago, Maesano said there was no need to brand because as the only two destinations, people came to whatever was built.
As casinos proliferated in the late 1980s and early 1990s, executives from Las Vegas and Atlantic City traveled across the country to spread that strategy. Business boomed, but 30 years later the growth slowed, and markets became saturated.
Maesano mentioned how 20 casinos gave away a Jeep Wrangler. It’s an example of doing the same programs over and over, he said.
“They are slow to react to the new casino marketing strategies that need to be implemented,” Maesano said. “We have started to market ourselves like commodities no different than salt or sugar. In our world, instead of marketing ourselves on value, location becomes a marketing tool along with amenities. Once you start marketing like a commodity, it becomes a race to the bottom.”
It should be about branding. Successful companies have a marketing strategy that creates an emotional connection with their product, Maesano said.
“Once you have that differentiation, it allows you to be more targeted in your marketing because you can speak directly to your audience,” Maesano said. “If you don’t, it becomes a commodity and race to the bottom.”
Maesano said casinos are good with gaming psychology and how to get people to game and develop into higher level players. What they’re not good at is a retail marketing strategy
“The difference in the consumer’s mind helps convince them why they are spending more disposable time and disposable income on a specific brand,” Maesano said. “It helps them justify them driving further, spend more per visit and visit more often. It allows them to rationalize their purchases to feel more satisfied and more loyal to your brand and more forgiving if they have a bad service experience.”
Maesano previously worked for Maryland Live! in Anne Arundel, which is located just outside Baltimore and 30 miles from Washington, D.C. The casino is now “wedged between two monoliths” – MGM National Harbor and Horseshoe Casino Baltimore. Before those two properties opened, he said analysts projected the two competitors would destroy Maryland Live! and take most of its market share.
“Live is No. 1 in slot revenue in the market, and close No. 2 in table games,” Maesano said. “How does a small no-name casino in the middle of Maryland take on MGM and M life and Total Rewards (now Caesars Rewards) from Horseshoe. It came down to branding. We all have the same slots and table games and (similar) restaurants. We did it be creating an emotional connection with our customers that spoke to them by using the assets and attributes that we had that were unique to us to create a loyal customer base.”
Maryland Live! focused on its family ownership and how it can be unique compared to corporate ownership.
“We focused on our name Live,” Maesano said. “The owners chose that 20 years ago, but we utilized that to show anything can happen at any moment.”
Gaye Gullo, a marketing consultant, described how the Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, which shut down as the Revel in 2014 two years after opening, is an example of branding making a difference.
“That property didn’t get a sure footing because the owners didn’t hire the right people,” Gullo said. “Now they have hired the right team, and they’re competing in that town nicely by doing things like Mario mentioned by building a brand and building consistency in look and feel and making customers welcome back to the facility.”
