Jan Jones is a woman with a drive and ambition known not just in Las Vegas,
where she served as mayor from 1991 to 1999, or throughout Nevada, where she
ran for governor in 1994, but in the 11 other states Harrah’s casinos have planted
roots and in those fighting against it.
The 55-year-old senior vice president of government affairs for Harrah’s casino has helped sway governments into building casinos in towns with open aversions to it. She takes on anti-casino heads of state, businesses that don’t want the competition and anti-gambling organizations without wavering.
“The battle in New Orleans was huge. The community – and all communities are the same – didn’t want us. Everyone thought we would take all their business. They thought we would take their piece of the pie instead of realizing we would help grow the pie,” Jones said at an American Marketing Association Rhode Island chapter seminar at Barnsider’s Mile and a Quarter Restaurant in Providence on Thursday evening, Nov. 4.
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But there is a Harrah’s in New Orleans today, and if Jones has it her way, there will be one in Rhode Island someday.
“We are absolutely going to try again next year,” Jones said of the lost effort to get a pro-casino bill through the Legislature and the governor this year.
She said Harrah’s will continue to make its case for a casino in the state and is ready to go up against companies “with self-interests in mind.”
The 1971 Stanford University graduate, who confidently told a room full of marketers she can sell anything, shared tricks of the trade and explained how Harrah’s has created an empire of loyal customers.
“We wanted to invite Jan because the marketing strategy Harrah’s has employed has made them one the largest casino conglomerates in the world,” said Courtney Guertin, president of the marketing association’s Rhode Island chapter. “We are very interested in their marketing,” she said of the 110 AMA Rhode Island members.
Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. is the world’s largest casino operator. It owns or manages, through various subsidiaries, 28 casinos in the United States, primarily under the Harrah’s, Rio, Showboat, Horseshoe and Harveys brand names.
Jones said the reason Harrah’s stands out in a sea of flashy neon lights of the Las Vegas strip and in its other locations is because it focuses on making customers feel important.
“When the casino industry was investing in building huge buildings – a 2,500-room hotel is considered entry-level – Harrah’s invested in technology and a loyalty program. The company developed a system to know their customers in any of Harrah’s locations,” Jones said. “We took the best customers and said, we want them to be all of our business. We want them to consolidate their gambling budget into Harrah’s.”
More than one-quarter of Americans – 53.4 million – gambled at a casino in 2003, according to a Harrah’s 2004 survey. Harrah’s compiled a database of 28 million gamblers, marked its “best” customers, and started giving those customers rewards and offers.
Now, when a high roller slides his “Total Rewards” card at any Harrah’s, they are identified and a “luck ambassador” is dispatched to greet them and ask if there is anything they need. A good customer gets vouchers for free money, shows, meals or hotel rooms.
“Harrah’s does relationships better than anyone. We know our customers. We know what types of rooms they like and where they like to eat, which machines they like or games they like to play,” Jones said. “You are selling as much as a feeling as a product.”
The company’s relationship marketing tactic helped earn the company $4 billion
in sales last year. It has experienced 24 quarters of consecutive growth.
