Will you miss UK casinos after they close?
The Grosvenor casino brand and Rank needs help to survive. The are also good news.
Rank Group has one best kept little secret. It is largest casino operator in the country. Ask customers. Few will surely know that. It’s very public ambition is “to be the UK’s leading multichannel gaming operator, creating value for our shareholders, having strong brands…” Are these just long term bets on wishful thinking?
Let’s skip multichannel and re-created value for shareholders for now and
let’s talk about strong brands.
Yes, Rank’s is up in growing digital market online. However, “the bread and butter” brand of the group is very much an analogue one and nowhere near being strong one. Grosvenor casinos is the brand still generating more than half of the groups revenue, 3/4 of profit. It requires vast majority of resources just to run, but physical location should be a boost of credibility and awareness for the other group’s brands. To compete in Virtual Reality age online and High Street decline offline. Instead…
“50% of our customers already play online, but only 3% play online with us” i heard from a strong brand.
That’s like Tesco’s saying “47% of our shop visitors buy online too — from corner shop news agent’s webshop”
Let’s talk about a weak brand
Grosvenor casinos as a brand feels so generic, nearly a commodity. Its positioning is unclear to me after 3 years of working there and, apart of “large vs tiny”, the venue is struggling to differentiate itself against a single competitor in town!
Consumers do not engage with the brand, using it as a pretty much no name place. Who will miss it in the age of Virtual Reality casinos in few years of time?
It is not uncommon for me to overhear people talking and not knowing the name of the club they are in. After playing/having drinks... ? This could be the case in Vegas with high number of casinos, but in a town with one or two competitors?
That’s like your latest encounter with strong brands: “Now i don’t remember what airlines i went on holidays last week with. But there was only BA and SAS to choose from”
Let’s talk about Gro… what?
4 years in a row. Fewer customers on fewer visits consume and engage with this brand. Result of millions spent on refurbishment! The brand can not even keep it’s current customer base, let alone increase it. Your local fish and chips shop gets more free exposure and engagement on social media than FTSE 250 listed company with most gambling venues in the country.
The brand is weak and is getting weaker.
Losing relevance? Beginning of the end? You name it. Blaming weather only marks you as members of the infamous “Blame it on the weather” club.
It has 2–3 years left to change things around before being permanently labeled as “another high street victim”. Your digital growth being cannibalised by falling profit and rising costs of the venues would be a losing game.
2–3 years to go big on brand strategy “The Best in Town” before you are labeled as “The Bust in Town” brand strategy.
By the way, Brexit for Grosvenor casinos is not about continued right to residency in the UK of non-British EU nationals, which make vast majority of casino employees and never ending new hires needed. It’s about being business totally dependent on new immigrants for years. It’s about business based on unsocial hours and competing for workers in limited supply market.
Strong brand is crucial to survive in the age of coming Virtual Reality gambling apps, Retail Apocalypse and “Alexa, bet £5 on black”
For many people largest means biggest and biggest is close to the best. So let people know that! Be visible, be audible. Do things no other casino does. Be a flagman of a nightlife in town. Make people talk about you, share you on social media, leave your footprint wherever you can.
Do not be casino, be THE casino.
