STATESIDE Stateside
Sharon Harris looks at what happened when marketing “geniuses” deployed ‘hip’ and ‘enlightened’ campaigns, only to devastate two of America’s most popular companies.
Sit back and enjoy the beer H
ow quickly can a giant, multibillion-dollar company suffer a huge fi nancial nosedive after making a catastrophic decision? In less time than you think. Corporate America, no matter the industry, is reeling as they witness two economic disasters
resulting from campaigns that deviated from their core product lines. The word “woke” is a fl ashpoint for millions. It has many
defi nitions that usually push against tradition. Television now often portrays storylines and characters that may be far from the real lives of many viewers. While there are pockets of the population matching the premise, most do not. Many viewers are “done” with the not-so-subtle preaching and have tuned out the message. Lesson number one of doing business is understanding your
market and customers. Customers know their own minds and usually reject ideas or products forced on them. A good marketing strategy, often infl uenced by geography,
enhances their customers’ positive experiences. We often hear that the “experience” is critical in the gaming industry because of the often-transient nature of the casino visit. The U.S. is a multicultural, multiracial and multiethnic nation
with more than 330 million people living within thousands of miles and on numerous islands. However, it important to remember is that each region and group has individual customs and lifestyles that they alone determine. There is rarely a one-size-fi ts all. I learned that over my 15 years of working in our amusement
company in Philadelphia, a big city of diverse neighborhoods. I once asked Stan (my dad and boss) why most of our locations were in marginal neighborhoods with customers in the lower fi nancial strata. When video games came into favor in the 1980s, our clientele changed, but our customer base remained more primarily a “blue-collar” demographic.
8 JULY 2023 My dad was a pretty tough guy who didn’t mince words. He
answered simply, “We choose these locations because that’s where most of the bodies are.” In other words, why play to a choir of infrequent customers who can spend more on other entertainment options? Our dense location neighborhoods had more people whose recreational budgets meant choosing our types of locations for their recreation. Our business model and philosophy were basic. We had
machines of all kinds, we placed them on location and waited for the customers to play them. We could easily gauge what worked and what didn’t by the cash pan’s contents every week. Every slot floor works the same way. Our job was not pushing social causes or cultural movements, but
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