Harrah's CRM Strategy

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Case Details:

Case Code : MKTG105
Case Length : 15 Pages
Period : 1998-2005
Pub Date : 2005
Teaching Note : Not Available
Organization : Harrah's Entertainment Incorporated
Industry : Casino/ Entertainment
Countries : US

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This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.

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Introduction Contd...

Richard Mirman, Harrah's Senior Vice-president of Marketing explained, "We have an advantage in that we know who the customers are, what they're worth and we can touch them in ways that our competitors can't even think about."⁶ Customers who enrolled in the Total Rewards program were given an electronic card, which they inserted into the machines they played on.

This card allowed Harrah's to keep track of its customers' preferences and collect data about them. Harrah's made extensive use of IT to aid the effective use of collected customer data.

A massive data warehouse and business intelligence (BI) initiative was undertaken that enabled Harrah's to collect and consolidate customer data.

Harrah's then used decision science tools from SAS⁷ and Cognos⁸ on the collected data to better understand its customers and gain insight into their gaming preferences. Complimenting Harrah's on its CRM program, Cinda A.

Hallman, Former Senior Vice-president of Global Systems and Processes for DuPont commented, "Harrah's is an outstanding example of a company that is aggressively and smartly using technology to understand the behaviour of its customers."⁹

Background Note

Harrah's history can be traced back to 1937 when Bill Harrah (Bill) set up his first bingo parlour in Reno, Nevada, in the Western part of the United States. He went on to buy ‘The Mint Club' on North Virginia Street in downtown Reno. Bill ensured that his customers were very comfortable while they played bingo. He even had steam pipes installed at the club entrance so that they need not walk on snow while coming to the club. In the mid-1950s, Bill began acquiring and developing several clubs at Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada. Harrah's had emerged as a leading name in the casino business by the late 1950s.

In 1962, Bill went on to build a 400-room hotel tower in Reno. A 400-seat Headliner Room theatre-restaurant was opened in 1966. In 1971, public trading began in Harrah's shares as the company issued 450,000 over-the-counter shares¹⁰...

Excerpts >>

6] Mike Beirne, "Dollars in the Desert," BrandWeek, April 01, 2002.

7] SAS Institute is a Cary, North Carolina, US based provider of business analytics software. The company reported revenues of $1.34 billion for the fiscal year ended December 2003.

8] Known as Quasar Systems prior to 1984, Cognos is an Ontario, Canada based provider of enterprise BI solutions. The company reported revenues of $683.1 million for the fiscal year ended February 2004.

9] "Harrah's Wins National Award for Return on Information Technology Investments," PR Newswire Press Release, June 30, 2004.

10] Shares not traded on an exchange. OTC shares are usually traded over computer networks and telephones.