Vegas Buzz

Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa Teaches Marketing to Japanese Group

[September 2, 2005 - HENDERSON, NV - VEGAS BUZZ NEWS]

Can Las Vegas - or more correctly a Henderson casino - teach anyone about marketing?

You bet.  And the only gambling involved is on the part of the customers.

 In a period of four years - Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa has become one of Station Casinos'  most successful properties, drawing 80% of its business from a 7 - 10-mile radius, according to David deMontmollin, Marketing Manager, who conducted the seminar with interpreting assistance from Roy Kawaguchi (IBI America).

Green Valley Ranch Resort is famed as the location for American Casino, still playing on the Discovery Channel, and David is one of the stars.  In a memorable episode, he uses his concept of The Ultimate Lounge, named simply JC2K -  Yet another of his many successful marketing projects - To turn his own on-strip bachelor digs into a marketing experiment.

"80% of business comes from locals," says deMontmollin, and '"so we are careful to target the players by location and their value to the Casino."

In recent years, Station Casinos (STN) has expanded to ring the Vegas Valley with resort properties that cater to the local gambler, and  approximately 20%, the out-of-town tourist.

Photo: Over 150 Japanese delegates attended the Marketing Seminar.

The group comprised  members of the authoritative Japan Pachinko Association - kind of like a Gaming Control Board of Japan, but with limitations on how far gaming machines can go. 

Although table games like Mahjong are immensely popular - and legal - in Japan, Vegas-style slots and table games have yet to be fully sanctioned. The "Pachi-Slo" machines, a concatenation of "Pachinko" and "Slot" machine, are for the most part manufactured in the US.  The machines pay off in credits which can be exhanged for gift items and cash-value third-party certificates, but do not pay-off directly in cash. 

Nevertheless, the customer-targeting mentality is the same:  Find out what the customer likes, what offers they redeem, and keep sending similar offers to keep them coming back.

What can conventional businesses learn from casino marketing? 

For starters: How to track, analyze, and follow-up on your most valuable customers.  Business studies have shown conventional businesses are wrapped up in acquiring new customers as opposed to keeping the ones they have satisfied.  As high as 65% of businesses simply do not contact customers, says an AT&T survey, which postulates that data mining of and marketing to existing customers can more than triple business.

Roy Kawaguchi and  David deMontmollin discuss the finer points of presentation strategy during break.

ABOUT STATION CASINOS

Station Casinos, Inc. (STN), a gaming and entertainment company, engages in the ownership and operation of hotel/casino properties in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The company owns and operates Palace Station Hotel & Casino, Boulder Station Hotel & Casino, Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel, Sunset Station Hotel & Casino, Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino, Fiesta Rancho Casino Hotel, Fiesta Henderson Casino Hotel, Wild Wild West Gambling Hall & Hotel, Wildfire Casino, Magic Star Casino, and Gold Rush Casino. It also owns a 50% interest in Green Valley Ranch Station Casino and Barley’s Casino & Brewing Company. In addition, the company manages Thunder Valley Casino in Sacramento, California. Its Jumbo Brand products include ‘Jumbo Jackpot’, ‘Jumbo Penny’, ‘Jumbo Bingo’, and ‘Jumbo Poker’. The company’s other products include ‘Xtra Play Cash’ and ‘Sports Connection’. Station Casinos was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Editor's Note: The session was digitally recorded for Vegas Buzz Radio's English and Japanese sections, and will be available online soon.

To be notified when these sessions are available online, sign up for Vegas Buzz News Alerts.

(C) 2005 Vegas Buzz News Network