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July/August 2016 // PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL //

43

we are very careful that we don’t just spray out messages that

people don’t want to hear. We do not want our actions to be

viewed as an uninvited intrusion. And getting beeped to be told

of a lottery promotion as you walk along the street might annoy

some people, unless the message is relevant to them in that place

at that time. We are trying to move to a one-to-one relationship

in which the messages we send are as personalized and relevant

as possible. We want our marketing efforts to be so personalized

that they are seen as a service by the players.

David Barden:

I get probably six freedom of information re-

quests a month for everything from give me your entire player

base to all kinds of information that should not be made public.

Is that an issue for you?

Kevin Gass:

We are building our CRM strategy with a lot

of legal input. We’ve included all the protection that we can to

comply with the laws that exist to protect that information. But

confidentiality and security are absolutely critical points.

Gary Gonder:

I read a study with some very interesting statistics

about loyalty programs. 45% of loyalty program members limit

their purchases to specific brand stores for the express purpose of

earning rewards; 17% of loyalty program members join because

they love the product or the brand identity; 43% of consumers in

loyalty programs want to earn rewards tied to the specific brand,

but 60% of such consumers viewed the brand as offering loyalty

programs only as a way to spur more sales instead of cultivating a

connection with their customers. So how can we engage our cus-

tomers and how can we use that to drive people back to retail?

Kevin Gass:

We’re undertaking a broad and comprehensive

CRM strategy. We want to create an ecosystem for our market

where you can access any of our products through any of our

channels with a single identifier. A mobile phone probably will

be used most often, and through that, customers can accumu-

late rewards, build loyalty points, receive promotional informa-

tion, etc. But we must be very mindful about not spamming our

customers. Instead, we want to be much more sophisticated in

terms of building that true one-on-one relationship. It’s not just

a sales promotion, a “make the numbers today” thing. It’s a long

term view of cultivating that relationship, focusing on what is

relevant to the individual player, and defining success in terms

of lifetime value of a customer. We believe a sophisticated CRM

strategy has to be a major piece of the lottery operator platform.

Bill Thorburn:

I agree. The CRM program is an essential ele-

ment to building loyalty and engagement. So even if you can’t

have a full-fledged registration system, there will be occasions

when players are willing to share information with you, and you

can then build a better understanding of their behaviors, and then

you can start doing more personalized marketing. Our way of

using it is to progressively develop it through permission points.

This is not an overnight proposition. We’ve been building our

CRM program over three decades and we continue to invest in

it. It takes a lot of work, but once you’ve got it established, the

benefits and ROI become abundantly clear, and the process of

building on it becomes extremely cost-effective. The power of a

very high-value app is going to be a great tool for lotteries to in-

vite players to connect and start providing information that can

be used to develop personal relationships with them.

Kevin Gass:

To Bill’s point, CRM is not an overnight propo-

sition. We’ve had it as part of our business for ten years. It’s one

of those things where you have to crawl, walk, run. There are a

lot of organizations that come with a prepackaged solution, but

they often don’t deliver the results that are best for your particular

objectives. I think it’s something you’ve got to learn as you go,

building up your systems over time as opposed to trying to go for

the quick win.

45% of loyalty program members

limit their purchases to specific brand

stores for the express purpose of

earning rewards.

—Gary Gonder

Retail Optimization:

The Outside-the-Store Consumer Experience…

continued from page 26

The CRM program is an essential

element to building loyalty and

engagement. So even if you can’t have a

full-fledged registration system, there will

be occasions when players are willing to

share information with you, and you can

then build a better understanding of their

behaviors, and then you can start doing

more personalized marketing.

—Bill Thorburn