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twitterImage makeover of Tropicana will stress Strip resort’s value
Firm that boosted Starbucks hired to drive a better buzz in wake of recent troubles
STEVE MARCUS / LAS VEGAS SUN FILE
Improving customer service at the Tropicana on the Strip and the company’s other properties is key to the attempted image makeover. The company plans to institute limits on how long customers have to wait to be greeted and seek input from employees on improving service.
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Tropicana hires branding firm to focus on value (2-3-2009)
- Plan would give Tropicana creditors ownership stake (1-13-2009)
- Tropicana names president of Vegas resort (1-6-2009)
- Tropicana conservator enters negotiations on N.J. property (9-23-2008)
- New blood helped Tropicana, union heal old wounds (8-27-2008)
Beyond the Sun
Can the firm that helped Starbucks launch the Frappucino — the Coke of blended coffee drinks — help the owner of the Tropicana hotel and casino?
Tropicana Entertainment, which has some work to do in the image department, hopes so.
The Las Vegas company’s troubles under its former management team have become legend in the tight-knit casino business. The company hopes to forge a stronger, more appealing identity with the help of Hornall Anderson, a Seattle branding company that has worked with the Westin hotel chain and the Holland America cruise line, among other tourism brands.
Under previous management, Tropicana Entertainment’s critics called it the industry’s Wal-Mart — a company that engaged in deep cost-cutting with the belief that a certain number of customers would always return. That concept might work for low-cost retailers but didn’t translate well for vacation getaways.
Calling former executives incompetent if not outright liars, regulators pulled the company’s gaming license in New Jersey and are forcing the sale of its flagship Tropicana resort in Atlantic City, and angry bondholders booted former Chief Executive Bill Yung.
These days, executives would like customers to associate the Tropicana with James Bond (Ian Fleming’s 007 stayed there in “Diamonds are Forever”) or Elvis Presley, whose “Viva Las Vegas” film featured the hotel’s famed “Folies Bergere” showgirls.
The company’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, Riad Shalaby, isn’t dwelling on past mistakes, nor was Hornall Anderson hired to do what some might call “damage control.”
Instead, the new management team is starting from scratch, initiating programs that will have the company playing catch-up to its major competitors on the Strip. On the branding front, Hornall Anderson is conducting interviews with rank-and-file employees and the public to determine what the brand stands for and positive associations that the company can exploit. The company will create advertising and marketing pieces using an agency developed in-house. It will rely on qualitative and quantitative research to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
“We’re going to be research nuts,” he said.
The company is also working on an e-commerce strategy that will help it sell more rooms and other amenities online.
The Tropicana, a brand long associated with budget travel, needs to more effectively exploit the concept of value, he said.
“Price and value aren’t necessarily the same,” Shalaby said. “It’s having a good experience relative to what you pay.”
Before Shalaby became an executive with Internet advertising company DoubleClick, credit giant Equifax and online shopping service Allconnect, he was a purchasing manager at the old Binion’s Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas.
One of the Horseshoe’s best marketing tools was a $1.99 steak dinner served with side dishes, a drink and dessert. The cheap price got customers in the door but they came back, again and again, because the food and service were consistently good, Shalaby said.
The Tropicana won’t be branding itself around a $1.99 steak dinner but around the often-repeated concept of customer service, which is admittedly difficult to achieve in large hotels with thousands of employees, Shalaby said.
To that end, the company is instituting service standards that will include limits on wait times for hotel check-ins and customer greetings, among other things.
“A brand is the sum total of the consumer’s experience — the before, during and after,” Shalaby said. When people go on vacation, they want people to be nice to them and they don’t want to wait in a line. We’re going to need to get better at it.”
The company also is improving morale by asking employees to contribute ideas on how to better serve customers, he said. It’s a big job: Not including the Tropicana Atlantic City or Casino Aztar in Indiana, Tropicana Entertainment has about 6,100 employees at nine casinos across the country, including the Tropicana Express and River Palms in Laughlin and the Horizon and MontBleu at Lake Tahoe.
“You have to value people’s effort and listen to your employees,” Shalaby said. “You have to ask more than tell. I don’t have a sufficient ego to believe that I have all the ideas.”
The idea is to get employees to buy into a bottom-up improvement of the company and its brand. It’s a turnaround from the days under previous management, which accused employees of sabotage as dust collected on hotel furniture, trash spilled out of containers and toilets clogged during a contract struggle with the Unite Here union.
Improving customer service makes sense in a town where many hotels offer the same products and services, and visitors, regardless of the luxury level of their surroundings, often complain about service.
The Tropicana, which is operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization after losing the Atlantic City property, has a difficult road ahead, as customers gravitate to higher-end hotels that have lowered prices to boost business.
These days value is in — leaving the Tropicana a lot to work with, so to speak.
Even luxury brands are trying to position themselves as a value for consumers, said Jeff Alpen, director of marketing at Hornall Anderson.
The Tropicana, like any of the company’s assignments before it, won’t be an easy job.
“Low-priced things aren’t necessarily of high value,” Alpen said. “It’s all about the price-to-value relationship and creating a lasting connection with the consumer.”
In other words, a Starbucks kind of connection.
Discussion: 22 comments so far…
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The 'Trop' could not have picked a more ruthless P.R. firm, I mean who else could have con jobbed the 'public' into buying five dollar cups of coffee...Right? So if I was that firm I would start to charge 15.99 for lunch buffets, offer a better than 90% slot average for the house, and water down all the drinks. Oh...wait, never mind... you already do that. Well how about offering a 5.00 cup of coffee... I heard that worked somewhere.
This is what should have been done a long time ago. How many Bond films were about Las Vegas? They need to put the word in the streets that 007 used their hotel during the filming.
As far as the employee input goes, it is a U turn that will work if the hotel follows thru. Customer service is job #1. The hotel is old, but that is fine if the service is great.
Starbucks has always tried to put customer service first. Seattle has for the most part put that belief into it's 100+ years old hotels with great succcess. Think the Artic Hotel, where the scene in Rose Red in the glass dome room was filmed.
The trop could be the Grand Lady of Vegas.
actually theming it as a 007 hotel with articles from the movies and appearances from the actors who once starred in the movie is a great idea...
"Improving customer service makes sense ..."
Yes it does, but at Tropicana, it'll have to start with a major housecleaning of the deadwood employees. The Trop is full of slugs who probably haven't smiled in decades. It has among the unfriendliest staff anywhere. It'll be a tall order to get these folks to change their attitudes. Sadly, most of them are unemployable just about anywhere else except the downtown dumps. But that might be where they should be looking for their next job. If management really wants the place to succeed, it will have to fire about 90% of the present work force and hire replacements who want to work and can do so without constant scowls on their faces.
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Opinions and Commentary on the Gaming Industry: www.TheBearGrowls.com
Perfect. A former purchasing agent from Binion's, now a Chief Marketing Officer working with an upscale branding company to resurrect the Tropicana as a value proposition. All I can say is good luck to you.
Carl Icahn, take note!
Just implode the place & be done with it. The place is a rat trap.
I second the blow it up solution. It's dump.
THEY NEED A MEGA SPORTSBOOK THAT GIVES OUT FREE OR CHEAP DRINKS FOR A MAJOR VEGAS HOTEL NOT TO HAVE A BIG TIME SPORTSBOOK IS A DISGRACE THEY'RE SPORTSBOOK LOOKS LIKE A LAUNDRY ROOM . THE IMPERIAL PALACE IS A DUMP BUT I STAY THERE CAUSE
A-THEY HAVE CHEAP ROOM RATES
B-GREAT LOCATION
C-FREE DRINKS IN THE HORSE RACING SECTION
D-MONORAIL ACCESS
**WORD TO THE TROPICANA OPEN A MEGASPORTS BOOK AND OFFER SPORTSBETTERS AND HORSERACING FREE DRINKS**
PS. THE DRINK CARDS THAT THE MGM HOTELS HAVE IS A JOKE $250 SPORTS BET AND YOU GET ONE DRINK COMON STOP BEING SO CHEAPO GET US DRUNK WE'LL BLOW MORE MONEY
Sounds like the place is about to go under. That's all we need here, another 6000 hard working casino employees out of work. There are 117,000 homes that are late on their payments that have not even hit the foreclosure market yet. GROUND ZERO everyone. Right here.
Putting lipstick on a pig does not change the fact that it's still a pig.
Perhaps the "research nuts" will discover that Imperial Palace and Circus Circus also offer value (and dumpy rooms). Instead of wasting its dough on some overglorified p.r. firm, the Tropi-caca should improve its product.
'One of the Horseshoe's best marketing tools was a $1.99 steak dinner served with side dishes"
...
"The Tropicana won't be branding itself around a $1.99 steak dinner"
OK, so we identified something that works. Then we dismiss it.
FAIL.
Vegas built its original reputation on cheap rooms and cheap buffets. The Casinos made their money from the GAMBLING. VEGAS needs to give people cheap hotel rates, cheap food, and cheap alcohol again..and they need to get the word out...THIS WILL BRING PEOPLE BACK TO VEGAS...Unfortunately Vegas hotels became greedy with their $300+/night rates and $30+ buffets....Now we are paying the price...Vegas killed the goose that laid the golden egg....
From a longtime rated player who hasn't bothered with the LV Trop in years:
1. It became impossible to get a room there. The reservation operators would see that I am a rated player and insist that I hold while a host was paged. This resulted in me being put on hold forever, every time I called. I eventually gave up.
2. Bring back the Island of Las Vegas theme, starting with the flamingos and koi. "Where Las Vegas Begins" doesn't have the same ring.
3. The greedheads took out the moving walkways between the front and back towers and replaced them with shopping kiosks. Undo this change.
4. They used to have little player card terminals where you could look up your points balance. This was a nice touch.
5. Quit charging $10 extra for the front tower or the back tower or the garden rooms, I forget which.
6. When you renovate the rooms, renovate the plumbing so that the drains drain.
7. Go with your strengths, for example the pool area. Build some cabanas, sunk into the lawn like baseball dugouts.
8. A real sports book would be nice, but more importantly a public area from which to watch games on big screen TV. Do something different and new here, such as providing betting terminals at your seat.
9. Your ever-loyal staff members are great, they are probably just grumpy from all the inattention over the years.
I went to the Trop. with my gambling pals in '88,89,90 as well as the D. I. for golf/gambling. You know what? The Trop. had iat all together. Great Casino Hosts and Comps abounded. The world passed them by. The new hotels were further and further up the strip and the Trop. lost it's lustre. I knew some older guys that went there when it was tuxedos for dining!! They will have to reinvent themselves as a top 'middle-of -the road' destination and price it accordingly. Guess what! Wynn and Encore are hemorraging and the Venetian (Las Veags Sands Corp. (good job Sheldon) is rumoured to be heading for chapter 11. Let's hope the Trop. can rise again. If so, I will still fly from Toronto to stay there!!
Coming all the way from Australia we are looking for quality budget accommodation on the strip. The Trop got us on two occasions in recent years and we appreciated the fact that it was a smaller casino but really well placed to some of the bigger ones. However they did not get us on our last trip in October for 3 main reasons 1) Excalibur beat them on price, 2) we have noticed Tropicana was getting shabbier and shabbier 3) the food - the buffet has to genuinely be the worst in Vegas for the price, the diner is cute but overpriced and the coffee shack abysmal. The reservations staff have always been amazing and we had no problems checking in, but the problem for us was that we saw few staff off the gaming floor and fewer who spoke English. Those who could help did. There is a real need on the strip for a nice place to stay and feel welcome without breaking the bank and the Trop is well placed to capture that. They need to get on the books of more travel wholesalers at decent prices worldwide. If we had not found the Trop on the web we would not have been able to book thru an agent as none had heard of them and were all trying to sell Circus Circus to the budget end of the market or Excalibur at $112 per person per night! All the Vegas hotels would do well to keep a closer eye on what they are being sold at internationally thru the wholesalers because belive me it can be up to six or seven times what their websites sell at!!!
Vegas / Laughlin.. Its all the same. Bill Yung did more damage in a couple of years than Congress did in the last 8. If anyone can ruin a good thing in the casino business it was Colubia Sussex. The River Palms in Laughlin was a destination casino, until Yung's Corp. took it over. Food value declined, room rates rose, good slots / video poker were replaced with TITO machines. Triple / Five / Ten Play machines were removed. Tighter ones put in their places. Customer service /was cut. 600 emplayees were laid off almost immediately. The good ones found jobs and new ones had to be hired back to fill the void. This last New Years was it for me. Unruly patrons, loud, obnoxious, and no help from the staff to make them tolerable for the rest of us gamblers. I have been going there for years myself and have taken groups for over the last 10 years... No MORE. Set a match to the place or better yet sell it to someone who knows what the customer wants/ needs in order to patronise your facility. They cut the cash back and you now have to take a room in order to use it... well there were lots of empty rooms taken just to get your play, used to be cash that you could play in ANY MACHINE. Now its just the newer tighter ones. Winners Wharf was demolished from 165 to 45 poker machines, the ones that actually took coins and were one game / one demonination. Yes it took more time / mechanics and coin counters, but that is why we came. There are lots of us Dinasaurs left who like to hear the jingle and carry those heavy buckets to the cage, while others envy our booty. The Marketing people need to make major changes at all their properties that have been run this way. There are many other quality casinos in Laughlin / Vegas that are a much better value than Tropicana properties. You can get us back but, we are now from Missouri, so show us.
Stayed one time during CES,booked at convention rate and still had to bribe the front desk to get a three bed room we already paid for. Filthy bathroom and stained fabric. Disgusting place and unfriendly staff. IMPLODE IT !
Stayed at least a couple of times a year until comps got stingy & rooms got dingy. Bring back the old days, not that long ago & keep the Follies & maybe ,just maybe people will come back.Coming from the eastcoast, I now stay at whoever gives me the best deal & chance to atleast win some. Loyalty is a two way street & Trop's new owners forgot that. Too many other places to play & stay .
Stayed at the Trop for years, it was a few of the casinos that where like the old Vegas. When the new management team came in they killed our comp rooms and meals.There was usally four of us. When our casino host " Jim Bo " move backed to the L.V. Hilton we followed him. Comped rooms and meals are back, and now we are up to 14 to 16 guys per trip who gamble.( The kids and there freinds are keeping up our 25 year tradition) That,s what the Trop lost and will never get back. I hope someone with the Trop reads this and takes notice. " It,s called a CUSTOMER - WITHOUT US - YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS" I wish you luck, but will keep our thousand of dollars gambled at the Hilton.
The Trop is a dump. The place smells like vomit. As long as neighboring properties, which are a thousand times cleaner, are going for cheap, then the Trop has no chance.
Fancy P.R. firms are useless if the place smells like puke all the time.
For a look at what the Tropicana could/should be, check out the letter at the bottom of this webpage: http://www.leavinglv.net/foliesbergere.h...
The Tropicana has a lot going for it... great location, very nice pool, and a connection with an underappreciated stand up comedy club.
It is sad that basic upkeep has been ignored. New carpeting, fresh paint and a playing up of the tropical theme would ga far to enhance the hotel / casino. I have my fingers crossed that improvements will be made since I hope to continue returning.