Building the Brand

Whether your brand is disruptive, socially conscious, service-oriented, innovative, value-based, performance-driven, luxury or experiential, it is your company’s unique identity

Every casino has a company culture and brand. Most take great care to document and support both. Still, a conundrum emerges when leaders, employees, guests and stakeholders are challenged to define the emotional elements that form the foundation and to understand whether or not the culture and brand are aligned. (Hint: they should be tightly aligned, reflecting the emotional connection that tips the scale when a guest decides whether to visit you or your competition.)

As we begin to emerge from our home cocoons, friction continues to grow as the basic needs for health and safety are met with the need to return to work and to adapt to a new normal. We find ourselves needing to not only renegotiate but commit to a new way of operating.

Two Peas in a Pod Although inextricably linked, culture and brand should be examined individually, then together, as the dynamic duo that mutually defines your business.

Culture refers to what team members believe, how they act, the limitations and license they have and their attitudes about the business, work and contributions. Traditionally, business leaders have captured the culture in mission or values statements, but cultures tend to arise out of the operation, and how leaders unknowingly act and behave. In successful cases, these are the same.

Brand refers to how a company is perceived and experienced by stakeholders: guests, team members, vendors and investors. Beyond surface manifestations (logo and advertising), the brand is supported by all the systems and protocols leaders put into place. It’s everything below the surface.

Culture Club Every casino company is facing a culture crisis in the wake of Covid-19. Company mission statements and vision boards may lack the insight and empathy to truly engage team members and deliver on their brand promises.

Today, operations have become paramount as companies struggle to pay bills, make payroll and refine policies to meet regulatory and evolving safety requirements. Leadership is challenged to create a safe and entertaining environment for team members and guests, plus keep all constituencies informed of ongoing changes.

When we speak of creating a company culture, many operators immediately opt to offer generous team member benefits, including reward programs, work-from-home opportunities, wellness perks and free beer/T-shirt Fridays. People often think of company culture as “what you do” versus defining “who you are.” While offering incentives may generate a thankyou today, it’s similar to giving away free play and hosting promotions. It creates a bottomless pit that yields short-term gains versus long-term profitability. Perks become entitlements, which can easily be copied by your nearest competitor. Who you are becomes dwarfed by what are you offer.

But what makes your casino unique? What do your team members believe you stand for, and what do they promote? Answering these questions will reveal your culture and brand-messaging strategies. Despite the influences, circumstances and situations that are beyond our control, casinos today have a prime opportunity to redefine their cultures and brands and help unify team members and guests toward a common purpose.

When casinos think and operate in unique ways internally, they can produce the unique identity and image they desire externally. Now more than ever, it’s imperative that casinos have team members who understand and embrace the distinct ways you create value for guests, the points that differentiate your brand from the competition and the unique personality that your company/casino uses to express itself.

Most importantly, your team members must be empowered and have the tools necessary to interpret and reinforce these values. To believe in leadership, they must see leaders practicing and embodying the tenets of brand and culture. Through example and belief come emulation. And ultimately, your guests and target customers will accept and support your casino.

What makes your casino unique? What do your team members believe you stand for, and what do they promote? All Eyes On Brand Brand Basics Answering these questions and Culture Many casinos rely on products to define their brands—i.e., most generous slots, will reveal your culture and As companies, we spend a great deal of time developing our external brands. best entertainment, most extensive food variety. brand-messaging strategies. We research, test and re-test until we feel everything is perfect. It’s not un

Great leaders ponder what differenusual for even the smallest regional tiates their brand, and if the brand inoperator to invest deeply in developdeed relates to the company culture. For example, if a casino’s culture ing the right logos and taglines. The fact is, you can spend a ton of endorses efficiency and productivity internally, yet externally the brand money developing your external brand and supporting marketing. Still, preaches the company’s commitment to guest satisfaction, the conflictin today’s connected world, the reflection of what’s going on inside your ing messages are apt to create employee and guest confusion. company is what ends up being your brand story.

Team members may be reprimanded for lengthy conversations with Today’s internal comings and goings no longer live behind closed guests, which creates long wait times for slot service, ultimately resulting doors. While we have been witness to a plethora of corporate wrongdoin frustrated guests (versus those who are satisfied). This is but one exings in the media, these issues start small, but always online. Posts to ample of the brand culture conundrum. This type of misalignment has a sites such as Glassdoor have opened the kimono to company cultures. way of showing up in unexpected places, like your call centers and playEnsuring your team members are as connected to your culture and ers’ club booths. your brand requires that they understand the primary reason your com

Recently, as casinos reopened, comfortable locations and familiar pany exists and the part they play in the company’s continued growth. faces (albeit behind masks) brought back guests longing for “normalcy,” and visitation based on the brand promise that was previously reinHR & Marketing: The Modern Power Couple forced. Yet the pandemic fallout prevails. As casinos operate in businessCasino culture-building is traditionally housed in human resources, as it recovery mode, each one is fighting for competitive advantage. has the prime responsibility for the team members, people processes, Generous offers (or buying the business) may propel top-line growth, procedures and performance. but we know from experience that it’s not a bottom-line driver. AddiBrand-building has been reserved for marketing departments and tionally, “We’re Open” strategies, along with a commitment to cleanliagencies, which are primarily responsible for the creation and execution ness, will never be brand differentiators. of programs, products and promotions (guests).

It is the brand that goes beyond image. It is the genuine, authentic When the culture and brand unite with shared values and a single personality of your company, which you want guests to believe and vision, the case for integrating internal and external marketing resources trust. Whether your brand is categorized as disruptive, socially conbecomes apparent. A unique voice that communicates the passion for scious, service-oriented, innovative, value-based, performance-driven, the culture and brand becomes the perfect match for enlightened casino luxury or experiential, it is your unique identity. When this brand mesoperators. sage is crafted to support the company’s culture, it’s a win-win. Guests What if your casino employed a human marketing ambassador, a and team members share a common understanding of what the combrand culture creator, or perhaps a culture competency communicator? pany stands for and delivers. When Ignite Medical Resorts set out to create a culture to differentiate

A quick look at HR trends shows inspiring titles such as “chief people and change management officer,” “chief hear officer,” “chief collaboration officer” and “SVP of strategy and culture.” It’s not about the title, but the commitment to building and growing a positive culture that will bring long-term benefits.

it in the health care industry, it refocused the human resources function and created the position of chief culture officer. A quick look at HR trends shows inspiring titles such as “chief people and change management officer,” “chief hear officer,” “chief collaboration officer” and “SVP of strategy and culture.” It’s not about the title, but the commitment to building and growing a positive culture that will bring long-term benefits to the company.

Transform Your Culture Here are a few simple things you can do today to start your culture shift: • Refine the vision. Mission and vision statements tend to get lost in the wave to modernize our companies. Often written at the founding of the company, leaders feel these honored statements should not be altered. Conversely, there may have been a bold statement written at a time of industry change. For these statements to add value, they must be reviewed and sometimes rewritten to serve the current environment. • Ask team members what they think of the culture and brand. A simple first word that comes to mind will be enlightening. Ensure you get input from the front-line team members up to the highest leadership. Don’t forget non-guest contact positions. Pay particular attention to supervisors. They support the day-to-day relationship with many team members; therefore, their thoughts and actions can carry enormous weight. • Work together to find where your desired and deliverable culture intersects with your desired brand and then lean into it. • Reward/recognize culture in action.

Leadership Commitment Cultural shifts require top-down reinforcement, not just approval of a memo. And middle managers can carry even more weight than the CEO. Understand who the unsung leaders are in your organization.

To integrate your brand and culture, start by clearly identifying and articulating your casino’s brand aspirations. Do you want to be known for delivering superior performance and dependability? Or is your intent to challenge the existing way of doing things and position your brand as an innovator? Perhaps your brand is about making a positive social or environmental impact.

Once you know the brand you’re aiming for, identify the values that your organization embraces. In the case of a performance brand, you might work on cultivating a culture of achievement, excellence and consistency inside your organization. A strong sense of purpose, commitment and shared values is critical for a socially or environmentally responsible brand.

When you have clarity on the values that support your desired brand, you can use it to educate and inspire other cultural efforts, including leadership development, policies, procedures and employee experiences.

How you operate on the inside must be inextricably linked to how you want to be perceived on the outside. When your casino leadership mandates that everyone walks the walk, talks the talk, and, most importantly, believes in the culture and the brand, a unified workforce evolves. This unity will solve the conundrum, generate team trust, create employee and customer longevity and aspire profits from the inside out.

Culture-building is a powerful antidote to the unprecedented threats most organizations face today, especially as the pandemic persists. As the stakes for operating any casino rise, a clearly articulated company culture becomes critical to the operation.

Cultivating talent and reinforcing the brand are competitive advantages; casinos need to pivot from traditional models. Rejecting common culture myths and deliberately defining a culture that aligns with your brand, both internally and externally, is the key to preparing your organization for what lies ahead.

Julia Carcamo is president and chief brand strategist at J Carcamo & Associates. She writes on a variety of casino and general marketing topics, including the new book “Reel Marketing,” and established the Casino Marketing Boot Camp. Reach her at Julia@jcarcamoassociates.com.

Meera Rosser is a casino marketing veteran committed to creating cultures, building brands and establishing service standards and communications solutions to enhance the guest and employee experience. Reach her at meerarosser@gmail.com .

Depending on how you read it, Wee Willie Keeler, a turn-of-the-century—no, the century before that—baseball player had the worst nickname in the history of sports.

Wee Willie Keeler or Wee-Willie Keeler?

There’s a difference.

But he also had the hands-down, all-time best explanation for why he was so good at what he was so good at. When a beat reporter in 1894 asked the 5-foot-4-inch outfielder the secret of his success—success quantified that year alone with a .371 average, 22 triples and 94 RBI—the biggest little man in the history of the game summed it up like this:

“I hit ‘em where they ain’t.”

Duh. Now why didn’t anyone else think of that?

Don’t try to hit ‘em through ‘em; rather, hit

‘em over and around ‘em. Same could be said for hockey or soccer, where strikers or skaters may rip a shot with all the force they can muster, but it hits the goalie right in the chest and falls harmlessly back into play. What’s the point?

Finding the openings, you see. That’s the key: a grounder between short and third, a penalty kick headed for the top corner, the backhander through the five-hole, a progressive jackpot for baccarat, a scoreboard for craps, a progressive for poker rooms.

Wait. What?

That’s right. In our world, the world of table games, these segments are as greenfield as the drag-bunt, no-man’s land between the pitcher’s mound and where the second baseman plays.

And you’d best believe, with the content clogging up the rest of the pits, fertile turf like this is about to be seeded and sown.

Here’s a rundown of the crops coming your way:

Crapping In. There’s an old saw about two salesmen trying to peddle their shoes in some faraway land. The first one comes back and tells the boss that nobody wears shoes over there, so there’s no market. The other one tells the boss that no one wears shoes over there, so there’s an unlimited market.

By Roger Snow

Same deal with craps. There are maybe 1,000 this: Royal 9 assigns different card combinations to tables around the world, mostly in the U.S., and each seat, while FDL uses the actual seat number not a single one of them has a progressive jackpot, to determine which player wins the jackpot. something that’s on a quarter of all casino card With casinos looking to increase yields (bacgames. The same amount—nix, zip, diddly, bupcarat is a notorious low-holding game), you can exkis—have a historical trend board, which makes pect to see more of those products mentioned craps the only common-outcome game (e.g., above, as well as more new content hitting the roulette, baccarat, sic bo) that doesn’t post past remarket. Hmmm. That sounds like a teaser. Somesults. thing having to do with a bet that’s already on the

Seems like it would be fun to play a craps game table, perhaps? and see what numbers are hot (or not), to see what Relax. All good things to those who wait. the longest roll of the day has been. Maybe the Poker Room Progressive. Sometimes, it’s hardways are hopping and the hop bets are hard... just in the cards. Brick-and-mortar casinos are or vice versa. Wrap this into a progressive, and it being forced to limit occupancy on their poker taseems you’d have a winner. bles, in many cases dealing them three- and four

So, like our two shoe salesmen above, that eihanded. Well, by an amazing stroke of fate, the Finding the openings, you see. That’s the key: a grounder between “ line is a three-handed sit-and-go tournament that has—wait for short and third, a penalty kick headed it—a random prize pool. Here’s for the top corner, the backhander through the five-hole, a progressive the skinny: Let’s say three players buy in for $25 each. Instead of the jackpot for baccarat, a scoreboard for winner collecting $75, which ther means the potential for such products is either would be a free-odds tournament, or $70, which would give the casino a decent cut, he or she could walk with craps, a progressive for poker rooms. ” non-existent or near-infinite. Just depends on your $100. Or $500. Or $1,000. Or a progressive jackpoint of view. pot of $248,862.29.

Baccarat Crystal Ball. Of the 14,000 baccarat Of course, the player could also take home tables in the world, about 200 have progressives. $50 or $60. That’s the random side of it. You The two most successful titles—remember, we’re plunk down your entry fee and some RNG—digigrading on a curve—are Royal 9 and EZ Baccarat tal or analog—determines the prize pool. Imagine. Progressive. And this is not a new endeavor: several What would it feel like to be able to win 100 times companies, and at least one operator, have tried your buy-in and only have to beat two other playover the years to get a progressive to stick with ers to get it, in a tournament that takes maybe players, but it just hasn’t panned out. eight or nine minutes?

One problem with progressives on baccarat is Well, you’re going to find out soon enough. what’s known, at least for the last three seconds, as This version of tournament poker was made for the bingo effect. You know what happens there: the the post-Covid world, and it should have appeal to caller yells out “B11” and half the crowd yells survive post-post-Covid. “Bingo!,” raising their arms and knocking over most popular form of poker ontheir trove of trolls in the process. Then the pot Roger Snow is a senior vice president with Scientific gets whacked up nine ways and by the time you tip Games. The views and opinions expressed in this the runner, you have enough left over to buy a cup article are those of the author and do not necessarily of hot water. reflect the views and opinions of Scientific Games

Royal 9 (along with Fu Dao Le) gets around Corporation or its affiliates.