What casino gambling should teach you about online marketing

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I recently had the opportunity to spend a few hours observing (not playing, I know the house odds!) people at a casino during a business conference. What a superb experience – not as a player, but as a marketer, to see how casinos manage the end user experience for maximum profit.

Imagine for a minute that someone put a box in front of you that, on average, will give you 42 cents for every dollar you put in it. No one in their right, rational mind would ever use it. Imagine for a minute that someone built an ATM that gives you exactly 42% of whatever amount you request. That ATM would be torn out of the wall by riotous crowds.

Yet thousands of people a year flock to casinos and use machines and games designed to do exactly that. Why? Because casinos have mastered the user experience.

Let’s take a look at some of the tricks of the trade:

1. No windows or clocks. Time is the enemy for casinos – they want you to spend as much time as possible in the venue (on the premise that you’re not a weirdo like me who just stares at people without spending money) and gamble as much as possible. No cues to show just how much time has elapsed ensure this.

2. Low lighting and lots of ambient sound. Every machine in the room makes noise, and more often than not, even the demo modes have sounds that are pleasant to the ear and evoke video game-like feelings of winning. Why? Low light keeps you relaxed and slightly less aware than harsh, stark light, and lots of ambient amusement sound contributes to the idea that you’re playing games instead of spending money.

3. Play money. I lost count of how many times players referred to their chips as play money, fake money, toy money, or some other proxy by which they completely forgot they were using real currency. At one blackjack table, I saw enough money cross the table back and forth in just a few minutes (table minimum $200, maximum$ 50,000) to buy several cars. Casinos use proxies for money to get you to spend more, because the money doesn’t look or feel like money at all.

4. Leave no dollar behind. Right outside the casino floor was… a Rolex shop. And an art gallery. And a Swarovski crystal shop hawking stocking stuffers starting at $40. Casinos know this above all else: you might win on the floor, but you’re not leaving with your money if at all possible. Every hook imaginable is available to get you to spend anything you didn’t lose to the house.

Now, how does this apply to marketing online? Take a look at your web site. Does it evoke the feelings that you want to elicit from your customers? If your goal is to get customers to spend some time with your content, does the “atmosphere” of your web site – color palette, brightness, tonality, contrast – encourage your visitors to relax, to forget about whatever else they were doing? Look at the patterns of lights and textures in a casino and you see endless repeating patterns that are nearly hypnotic. I’m not saying you should turn your web site into a slot machine’s decor, but think about what decor you do have and what it’s conveying.

Take a look at how you process transactions. Do you make it as easy as possible for visitors to transact with you? Do you use proxies for money like point systems or credits? In a casino, you can slap down a C note on the green velvet and have chips in hand, ready to gamble in less than 10 seconds. How fast can your visitors buy? Does your site let your visitors slap down the plastic and buy immediately? iTunes and Amazon figured this out long ago with 1-click.

Are you leaving money on the table? Are you letting your visitors get away with their wallets intact? What other things can you sell to your visitors as they browse through and leave your site? I’m not saying be obnoxious and run a javascript that forces a visitor through an annoying series of ads, but think about all of the different products or services you have and that you sell via affiliate programs. Are you presenting them as powerfully as the Rolex shop in the casino next to the cashier’s cage?

Casinos make good money because they’ve distilled the user experience for maximum profit. Are you doing the same?

Photo credit: acaben

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Comments

9 responses to “What casino gambling should teach you about online marketing”

November 16, 2009

whitneyhoffman

I was thinking about this yesterday, dealing with change in the laundry, of all things. I noticed when we had a Tweetup at Dover Downs, a slot parlor in Southern Delaware, that the real money has been taken out of the equation all together, replaced by “play cards” just like you find at newer arcades like Dave & Busters. Divorcing the play from real money separates people from their money faster than ever and I am sure they have done studies about this. But I wonder if the thrill of winning is also slightly more hollow, when there's no longer the flood of coins on any particular win coming into the tray. The metrics for measuring success and failure, winning and losing become ever more distant and ephemeral when they become just numbers.

And I think this says a lot about consumer debt as well. When you use the magic credit or debit card, the transaction of cold hard cash is easier and it's easier to mistake the money spent and become overdrawn, where the bank racks up fees like the casino against you. This is why when my child saved up all of his money to buy himself an ipod, we took him down to the store and he paid for it with his own cash. He exchanged the money for the item, and his sense of ownership, of working hard for something, and taking care of it in turn is much greater than ever before.
When we exchange money for things, it's certainly convenient and safe to do it with plastic, but sometimes, the metric of cold hard cash teaches lessons about saving, restraint, control, and value unlike anything else.

As a business person, I try to keep this in mind as I speak to clients, so they understand exactly what they are paying for, and how they can value it for themselves. Because I am not trying to manipulate people to spending more than they thought, but to exchange money for actual knowledge and value to build their business, and they need to see the worth, now and as they move forward.

Reply
November 16, 2009

acerlilly

Wal-Mart separates one from his money creating nearly an opposite environment from the casinos, a very harsh uncomfortable environment at that. They use glaring lights and annoying music, no intimacy with the high white ceilings, and absolutely no where to sit down. You must keep on the move and notice all the shelves and products on them in the time you are there. They sell necessities at low prices, and entice you to buy absolute junk at huge profits for the house. They target exactly the person who overspends on junk.

I've been to the Casinos and watched thousands of dollars cross the table from player to dealer. I don't gamble either, so there are certain types of people the casino experience won't work on. Besides addicts don't change their addiction and their pleasures. Casinos are focused perfectly on gambling addicts. It's not for alkies, or druggies, or for shopaholics….casinos are designed for gamblers to get their high.

Reply
November 16, 2009

whitneyhoffman

I was thinking about this yesterday, dealing with change in the laundry, of all things. I noticed when we had a Tweetup at Dover Downs, a slot parlor in Southern Delaware, that the real money has been taken out of the equation all together, replaced by “play cards” just like you find at newer arcades like Dave & Busters. Divorcing the play from real money separates people from their money faster than ever and I am sure they have done studies about this. But I wonder if the thrill of winning is also slightly more hollow, when there's no longer the flood of coins on any particular win coming into the tray. The metrics for measuring success and failure, winning and losing become ever more distant and ephemeral when they become just numbers.

And I think this says a lot about consumer debt as well. When you use the magic credit or debit card, the transaction of cold hard cash is easier and it's easier to mistake the money spent and become overdrawn, where the bank racks up fees like the casino against you. This is why when my child saved up all of his money to buy himself an ipod, we took him down to the store and he paid for it with his own cash. He exchanged the money for the item, and his sense of ownership, of working hard for something, and taking care of it in turn is much greater than ever before.
When we exchange money for things, it's certainly convenient and safe to do it with plastic, but sometimes, the metric of cold hard cash teaches lessons about saving, restraint, control, and value unlike anything else.

As a business person, I try to keep this in mind as I speak to clients, so they understand exactly what they are paying for, and how they can value it for themselves. Because I am not trying to manipulate people to spending more than they thought, but to exchange money for actual knowledge and value to build their business, and they need to see the worth, now and as they move forward.

Reply
November 16, 2009

Susan Milligan

Wal-Mart separates one from his money creating nearly an opposite environment from the casinos, a very harsh uncomfortable environment at that. They use glaring lights and annoying music, no intimacy with the high white ceilings, and absolutely no where to sit down. You must keep on the move and notice all the shelves and products on them in the time you are there. They sell necessities at low prices, and entice you to buy absolute junk at huge profits for the house. They target exactly the person who overspends on junk.

I've been to the Casinos and watched thousands of dollars cross the table from player to dealer. I don't gamble either, so there are certain types of people the casino experience won't work on. Besides addicts don't change their addiction and their pleasures. Casinos are focused perfectly on gambling addicts. It's not for alkies, or druggies, or for shopaholics….casinos are designed for gamblers to get their high.

Reply
November 17, 2009

sheldonnesdale

Nice analogy Chris.

Reply
November 17, 2009

Sheldon Nesdale (Marketing NZ)

Nice analogy Chris.

Reply
November 20, 2009

John Richards

People always will have the mentality to buy and purchase something. Buying things makes people feel good and most people need something at sometime, therefore click ads will always generate profits. The 80/20 rule applies as most do not click on ads, but that is OK.

Reply
November 21, 2009

John Richards

People always will have the mentality to buy and purchase something. Buying things makes people feel good and most people need something at sometime, therefore click ads will always generate profits. The 80/20 rule applies as most do not click on ads, but that is OK.

Reply
November 21, 2009

John Richards

People always will have the mentality to buy and purchase something. Buying things makes people feel good and most people need something at sometime, therefore click ads will always generate profits. The 80/20 rule applies as most do not click on ads, but that is OK.

Reply