| Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights 131

Chapter 4 | Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights 131

happier bunch. Compared with nonmembers, member cus-

Questions for Discussion

tomers visit the company’s casinos more frequently, stay longer,

1. Briefly discuss Harrah’s marketing information system, using and spend more of their gambling and entertainment dollars in

Figure 4.1 as a guide.

Harrah’s rather than in rival casinos. Since setting up Total Re- wards, Harrah’s has seen its share of customers’ average annual

2. Describe the relationship between Harrah’s marketing gambling budgets rise 20 percent, and revenue from customers

information system and Harrah’s managers and employees. gambling at Harrah’s rather than their “home casino” has risen

3. Why does Harrah’s system work so well compared to MIS

18 percent.

efforts by other companies?

Although Harrah’s and the entire gaming industry were hit hard by the Great Recession, things are turning back around.

4. To what extent is Harrah’s in danger of a competitor copying Through its acquisitions and the success of its Total Rewards pro-

its system?

gram, Harrah’s is the biggest in its industry, with over $10 billion Sources: Richard Abowitz, “The Movable Buffet,” Los Angeles Times, May 23, in revenue last year. Loveman calls Total Rewards “the vertebrae

2010, p. D12; Michael Bush, “Why Harrah’s Loyalty Effort Is Industry’s Gold of our business,” and says “it touches, in some form or fashion,

Standard,” Advertising Age, October 5, 2009, p. 8; Megan McIlroy, “Why

85 percent of our revenue.” He says that Harrah’s “customer-loyalty Harrah’s Opted to Roll Dice on $5 Billion Merger with Caesars,” Advertising strategy [and] relationship-marketing . . . are constantly bringing

Age, October 15, 2007, p. 18; Daniel Lyons, “Too Much Information,” us closer to our customers so we better understand their prefer-

Forbes, December 13, 2004, p. 110; John Kell, “Harrah’s Loss Widens on ences, and from that understanding we are able to improve the

Debt-Payment Costs,” Wall Street Journal, April 27, 2010. entertainment experiences we offer.” Companies everywhere

covet the title “The world’s greatest.” In the gaming industry, Har- rah’s Entertainment rightly claims that title.

Part 1: Defining Marketing and the Marketing Process (Chapters 1–2) Part 2: Understanding the Marketplace and Consumers (Chapters 3–6) Part 3: Designing a Customer-Driven Strategy and Mix (Chapters 7–17) Part 4: Extending Marketing (Chapters 18–20)

5 studied how marketers obtain, standing buyer behavior is an essential but very difficult task.

Consumer Markets and Consumer Buyer Behavior

Chapter Preview study the buyer behavior of business customers. You’ll see that under-

In the previous chapter, you

analyze, and use information to develop customer insights and assess To get a better sense of the importance of understanding con- marketing programs. In this chapter and the next, we continue with a

sumer behavior, we begin by first looking at Apple. What makes closer look at the most important element of the marketplace—

Apple users so fanatically loyal? Just what is it that makes them buy a customers. The aim of marketing is to affect how customers think and

Mac computer, an iPod, an iPhone, an iPad, or all of these? Partly, it’s act. To affect the whats, whens, and hows of buyer behavior, mar-

the way the equipment works. But at the core, customers buy from keters must first understand the whys. In this chapter, we look at final

Apple because the brand itself is a part of their own self-expression and consumer buying influences and processes. In the next chapter, we’ll

lifestyle. It’s a part of what the loyal Apple customer is.

Apple: The Keeper of All Things Cool

F At one end are the quietly satisfied Mac users, folks who own a ing its customers and what makes them tick deep down. It

ew brands engender such intense loyalty as that found brands from Nokia, LG, or Motorola? Ask the true believers, in the hearts of core Apple buyers. Whether they own

and they’ll tell you simply that Apple’s products work better

a Mac computer, an iPod, an iPhone, or an iPad, Apple and do more or are simpler to use. But Apple buyer behavior devotees are granitelike in their devotion to the brand.

has much deeper roots. Apple puts top priority on understand-

Mac and use it for e-mailing, browsing, and social networking. knows that, to Apple buyers, a Mac computer or an iPhone is At the other extreme, however, are the Mac zealots—the so-

much more than just a piece of electronics equipment. It’s a part called MacHeads or Macolytes. The Urban Dictionary defines a

of the buyer’s own self-expression and lifestyle—a part of what Macolyte as “one who is fanatically devoted to Apple products,”

each person is. When you own a Mac, you are anything but as in “He’s a Macolyte; don’t even think of mentioning Microsoft

mainstream. You’re an independent thinker, an innovator, and within earshot.”