Inside Asian Gaming

January 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 Casino Marketing everything they can get their hands on to either stay current on casino industry happenings or to learn from the experts. My favorite web site,which I often contrib- ute to with educational content, is www. urbino.net. It was developed by Andrew MacDonald from Australia and he has worked extremely hard over the years to solicit articles from some of the best talent in the industry. It is a great resource and contains a lot of helpful information. I think it is also important for young people to try to narrow their focus early in their careers so that they can take advan- tage of the help of a goodmentor who has either special skills or considerable experi- ence in their desired subject or area. Mar- keting is a huge area and can cover many different sub-segments ranging from slot marketing, table game marketing, direct marketing, advertising, public relations, casino promotions, special events, ethnic marketing, international marketing, etc. There are a couple of good text books available about casino marketing.The two authors are John Romero and Michael McNamee. Both have considerable experi- ence and have written some good casino marketing text books which can help give one an initial overall awareness of many subjects under the casino marketing um- brella. However, these are text books and should be treated as such. You will still need to get hands-on experience to really understand how and why things work in a casino environment. You also need to learn a little bit about human psychology and emotional intelligence. I think it is important to also briefly mention casino ethics. Ethics are unwrit- ten rules that differentiate good from bad, right from wrong and honorable versus dishonorable methods. The casino indus- try is very highly regulated and structured in all areas except for casino marketing. Some people may argue and claim that all areas in the casino industry are regulated and controlled, but from my personal ex- perience this is not true and definitely not true in many countries around the world. This is the reason that I mention it here. Many people reading this article may live and work in fairly unregulated areas around the world, but I firmly believe that ethics are important for the overall suc- cess of both the casino and the employee, wherever they are located. Always strive to do the correct or proper thing in all of your efforts. Don’t take the easy way, don’t take short cuts and don’t cheat in your work efforts. Your reputation will follow you forever. Ethics covers subjects such as honesty. I once wrote an article titled “Thou Shalt Not Steal Except in the Casino Industry”. The article was related to stealing custom- ers and increasing market-share. How- ever, there are ethical ways to steal casino customers from a competitor casino and there are unethical methods. The ethical methods include promotions, incentives, advertising, and direct personal contact. The unethical methods include walking into a competitor’s casino and passing out your business cards or inviting customers on a competitor’s casino floor to come vis- it your casino. Another unethical method is to try to entice people to steal informa- tion such as player lists or other confiden- tial information from a competitor casino. Always be ethical in everything that you do.This is important. Another hot topic in casino market- ing today is ethnic marketing. In the past, casinos did not pay much attention to ethnic or niche marketing, but as com- petition increases globally we are seeing more and more casinos beginning to fo- cus new interest on ethnic marketing ef- forts. One of the biggest ethnic markets is Asian marketing, but one also has to be careful not to generalize too much. There are many different areas of Asian marketing. One size does not fit all and your efforts may even be offensive if not handled properly. I have lived in several different Asian countries and there is an expression that basically says “Asia is not Asia”. Asia is a blend or a melting pot of many different cultures, languages and customs. Therefore, do your homework first before you begin to market. Seminars and conferences are also important vehicles for both learning and for networking with your peers. G2E in Las Vegas is the largest annual gaming con- ference with over 30,000 attendees each year from over 100 different countries around the world. It is a great conference that is split between educational seminars and a vendor trade show highlighting all new equipment or services. One of the best casino trade shows is the ICE (Interna- tional Casino Exposition) which is held in London each year and is a great event to view new releases of equipment or other related casino products. Another favorite of mine are the Rav- ing Consulting seminars by Dennis Con- rad. Dennis and Steve Brown run a series of marketing seminars that get right down to the real nitty-gritty of how to manage a casino host department, how to develop great casino marketing promotions, how to develop a player development pro- gram, etc. These intensive seminars are well worth the money and also afford a great networking atmosphere with other aspiring casino marketers. It is very help- ful to be able to discuss marketing related problems or issues with fellow market- ing managers working at other casinos. Spending two or three days together studying casino marketing in a closed en- vironment helps to build trust and friend- ships that last for years. In summary, there is no one simple solution for learning casino marketing. I wish there was a book titled “Casino Marketing for Dummies”, but there isn’t. Therefore, smart people will learn to make the most of a variety of different options available to them. Successful ca- sino marketing executives tend to multi- task numerous functions at the same time, with many of the functions operat- ing in sync or in tandem with others. As a result, a good casino marketing manager learns to think quickly and react properly when under pressure or stress. Casino marketing can be a very stress- ful occupation. It can also be one of the most exciting areas in a casino. Therefore, whatever time and effort that you invest now to prepare for the future will be well worth it. Good luck. Steve Karoul is one of the world’s top casino marketing consultants, with almost 30 years of experience with the best casinos bothwithin the US and internationally.Steve has conducted casino marketing activities in over 90 countries around the world.He is a contributingwriter to several differentmajor casino publications. Steve can be reached at tel: (1-860) 536-1828 or by email: skaroul@ comcast.net, or via his website: www.euroa- siacasino.com