MRI Casino Marketing Blog
Understanding Your Competitive Edge Through Market Research

Understanding Your Competitive Edge Through Casino Market Research

What’s your “right to win”?

Do you understand your players? Do you know where they are going if they aren’t coming to see you on the weekend? Is your food the best in the area? Is the experience you deliver unique? Comfortable? How are your players feeling? Do they think you should offer more? Are they satisfied with the hotel renovation?

If you can’t answer these questions—casino market research could help.

Your "right to win" is about ensuring that as a casino, you’re not just participating in a market, but you’re well-positioned to dominate and achieve sustainable success based on the casino’s strengths and strategic positioning.

Why does it matter where your visitors are going besides your casino? Understanding this can reveal significant opportunities. What elements contribute to a great casino experience? You might think the little things don’t matter, but they do—every detail counts. Every detail stacks up uniquely to create your differentiator in the market, to claim your “right to win”.

Starting with the Basics: What Is Market Research?

Market research involves gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about a market, including insights about the target audience, competitors, and the overall industry. This broad term encompasses various methods and techniques that help businesses understand customer needs, preferences, and behaviors. What type of study depends on what you’re trying to learn and more importantly, the actions you can take based on your learnings. We call these insights.

Zooming In: What Is Customer Research? What is Player Research?

Customer research is a specialized subset of market research that focuses directly on the customer. In the context of casinos, this is often referred to as player research. By understanding player behavior, casino operators and casino marketers can optimize marketing strategies, enhance the player experience, and ultimately drive revenue growth. They can also reveal their competitive edge. The little things that make them uniquely them. Or it can teach us where we need to improve.

Practical Applications: Using Market Research at Your Casino

Market research doesn’t have to be a complex process. Even simple strategies can serve as powerful tools for making informed decisions. For example, consider conducting player intercepts on your casino floor. Consider a competitive shopping program. Engaging directly with players and with your experience—asking what they like, dislike, and wish to see more of—can yield valuable insights that help shape your offerings.

Enhancing Your Casino’s Marketing with Market Research

Qualitative research, a key component of market research, is invaluable for understanding the unique needs and attitudes of different gambler segments. At Marketing Results, we have conducted extensive qualitative research, including hundreds of interviews with casino players. One of our preferred methods is Focus Groups, which provide deep insights into the decision-making processes behind casino selection and satisfaction. Our approach blends qualitative and quantitative research through Awareness, Attitude & Usage Studies to provide a comprehensive understanding of your market.

Real-World Application: Focus Group Study for Casino Client X

To illustrate the value of qualitative research, let’s look at a case study involving Casino Client X. Marketing Results conducted six focus groups at this property and they set out to learn the following:

1. The planning process when selecting a casino to gamble
2. The importance and influence of various amenities casinos offer
3. Competitive advantages and disadvantages of various casino brands
4. Specific preferences for food and beverage options, hotel, facility, location, staff/service levels, and entertainment
5. The role of players club tiers, comps (or comp dollars), and free play on player loyalty
6. Communications channels gamblers use most often
7. Overall market visitation
8. How the current economic environment impacts casino visitation
9. Any lingering COVID-19 visitation issues
10. Casino X Clients’ strengths and weaknesses
11. Hotel usage among gamblers 

Interesting insights that arose were:

“The gaming audience is seeking experiences that include engagement with staff in addition to many non-gaming activities including lodging, dining and entertainment. They perceive staff shortages, specifically in host operations, to be a cause for reduced engagement with the casinos they frequent. Players are looking for personal relationships.”

And:

“Inflation, the economy, and concerns over job security all conspire to reduce budgets and trip frequency. Las Vegas resort fees and parking fees annoy players. Any effort that would minimize and promote this at the property would address an obstacle.”

From the insights above, details are pulled from your players' mouths. The way they look at the felt on the table games to tell if the casino is nice. Or that they would like the option to take their steak to go from the casino restaurant, rather than sitting down for a long evening. Little things add up to an overall experience.

What would your market research learning objectives be?

A broader view through quantitative research 

An Awareness, Attitude, and Usage (AAU) Study is a specialized type of market research designed to understand how potential and current customers perceive, feel about, and engage with the casino. These studies help casino operators gain deep insights into their brand’s positioning in the market, customer preferences, and overall performance compared to competitors. Many of the components of this type of research are quantitative–meaning a survey or something that can be measured. This is done because you want to capture a projectable sample size to get a more broad understanding.

Awareness:

• Unaided Awareness: Measures whether customers can recall the casino's name or location without any prompts. This indicates how well-known the casino is among its target audience.
• Aided Awareness: Assesses if customers recognize the casino when presented with a list of names. This helps gauge the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and brand visibility efforts.

Attitude:

• Brand Perception: Evaluates how customers perceive the casino regarding factors like entertainment value, quality of services, ambiance, and reputation. It might include perceptions of the casino’s atmosphere, customer service, cleanliness, and overall experience.
• Emotional Connection: Looks at how emotionally connected customers feel to the casino. Do they associate the casino with fun, excitement, luxury, or relaxation? This helps in understanding the casino’s image and how it resonates with different customer segments.
• Competitor Comparison: Compares customer attitudes towards the casino against those of its competitors. For example, are customers more likely to associate another casino with better rewards programs or more exciting entertainment options?

Usage:

• Frequency of Visits: Measures how often customers visit the casino, providing insights into customer loyalty and engagement. This can include data on the frequency of gambling, dining, attending shows, or staying at the hotel.
• Spending Patterns: Examines how much customers typically spend during their visits, across different areas like gaming, dining, entertainment, and hotel accommodation.
• Activity Preferences: Identifies which activities customers engage in most frequently, such as slot machines, table games, poker, or attending live performances. This helps the casino tailor its offerings to customer preferences.
• Competitor Usage: Investigates how often customers visit competing casinos and what drives their decision to choose one over another. 

Other studies offered to Marketing Results clients include customer or player satisfaction surveys and competitive shopping. Not all research is for all casinos, that’s why one of the most important parts of market research is designing the right research for your needs—and your goals. Sometimes, the most rewarding part of the research process is defining what you want to learn. Starting with your strategic positioning, Marketing Results can guide you through what truly matters to your planning and bottom line—helping you learn from the insights you need and the implications that come next.