Inside Asian Gaming

December 2012 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 players residing near your casino may vary dramatically. Do your homework first to determine if you want to attract Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, Malaysian, Indonesian or other Asian players. One major mistake many casinos make is to hire an Asian casino host and then rely on that individual to develop appropriate Asian casino marketing programs and strategies for their properties. These hosts may not have proper marketing experience, and this often leads to untargeted, unprofessional and fragmented marketing programs that will most likely not be as effective and productive as management desires. It is important for casino marketing directors or managers to learn as much as they can about their ethnic target markets whether they are Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean or other. Furthermore, they should bear in mind the hosting and marketing functions are separate. An Asian casino host who speaks a foreign language will be an asset to the program, but is not a means to an end for developing successful Asian or ethnic marketing strategies. Management may have to support their Asian host staff if the latter lack formal marketing training. For each ethnic market being targeted it is very important at a bare minimum to research and understand the following: • The history of the culture: Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc. • Any unique cultural characteristics such as lucky numbers, lucky symbols, good luck or bad luck superstitions, special holidays, celebrations, etc. • Casino games preferences: baccarat, blackjack, pai gow poker, pai gow tiles , sic bo . • Any special seasonal or religiousholidays, traditions or customs. • Special food preferences or styles of food or dining such as a noodle bar or seafood restaurant versus a more formal Chinese restaurant which could also vary between many different styles of Chinese cuisine: Cantonese, Mandarin, Shanghainese • Preferred types of entertainment: ethnic concerts, karaoke, magicians, contests, beauty pageants. • Most appropriate advertising and best media or methods to reach players: Internet options, social media, etc. • Most popular types of casino special events: lucky draws for money, new car give aways, food festivals, electronic gift parties, karaoke contests, beauty pageants, or traditional celebrations such as the Harvest Moon Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Chinese Lunar New Year. • Best time of the year and/or best time of the day to organize ethnic events which can be ideal fill-in events for when the domestic markets normally celebrate at home, such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Then perform the following: • Educate your non-Asian employees about the major cultural differences and the benefits to both the casino and to them of a successful Asian casino marketing program. Also, cover some of the basics of goodetiquette for presentingbusiness cards, understanding when to bow and other social graces. • Teach non-Asian staff helpful Asian expressions through phonetic translations to help provide better customer service and make your Asian guests feel welcome. • Evaluate what your competition is doing and do it better. One word of caution pertains to copying competitors’ programs. Don’t take anything for granted and always be sure to properly analyze all of the costs before implementing any new program. Many years ago when I worked for Caesars we developed a new airfare reimbursement policy. However, after a fewmonthswe realized thatwemadeavery serious mistake and that we were actually losing money with this new program. We changed it, but for years afterwards I saw that same flawed airfare reimbursement policy in place at many other casinos both in the United States and around the world. They must have thought that if Caesars was doing it then it had to be correct, so just copied it and put their name on it. The economic fortunes of various groups can change dramatically over time. The Vietnamese,forexample,havebecomemuch more prosperous over the past two decades, but many casino marketing managers know very little about the Vietnamese ethnic market and still treat them as Chinese. While it is true that some Vietnamese players may have their ancestral roots in China in addition to Vietnam, most consider themselves Vietnamese first and Chinese second, if at all. Therefore, casinos wishing to attract and satisfy Vietnamese customers need to better understand the Vietnamese culture to develop specifically-targeted strategies to reach them. The casinos also need to communicate with Vietnamese players in Vietnamese and English rather than Chinese. The same applies for Korean, Filipino, Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian or other Asian players. For Chinese players, baccarat is almost always the game of choice, whereas Vietnamese players tend to prefer blackjack and paigow poker. If your gaming regulations allow it, you may want to remove baccarat tables fromthe casino floor and replace them Rising fortunes—Vietnam FEATURES