Harrah's CRM: Database Marketing and Customer Lifecycle
This paper examines Harrah's Entertainment's customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, focusing on its database marketing program and the Total Gold loyalty card initiative. It explains how Harrah's uses predicted customer worth — rather than observed behavior alone — to drive targeted direct marketing across three phases: new business acquisition, loyalty development, and customer retention. The paper evaluates the profitability of specific CRM programs, including the Frequency Upside and Budget Upside loyalty programs, and discusses the ethical considerations surrounding the collection and use of customer data. The analysis illustrates how an integrated, customer-centric CRM strategy can support long-term business sustainability in the gaming and hospitality industry.
- Introduction to CRM at Harrah's: CRM as core strategy for Harrah's business survival
- Database Marketing and the Total Gold Program: Two-part program enabling targeted direct marketing
- CRM Program Components and Targeted Strategies: New business, loyalty, and retention program details
- Predicted Customer Worth and Program Profitability: Financial outcomes of loyalty program investments
- Three-Phase CRM Strategy: Integrated new business, loyalty, and retention phases
- Ethical Considerations in Data Collection: Privacy concerns and mitigation strategies for data use
- Conclusion: Sustainability and long-term value of Harrah's CRM
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its analysis in a real-world business case (Harrah's Entertainment), making abstract CRM concepts concrete and applied.
- It moves logically from program description to financial evaluation to ethical critique, demonstrating analytical breadth across a single case.
- The inclusion of specific profitability figures (e.g., 18% difference for the Frequency Upside program) strengthens the evidence-based argumentation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied case analysis: it uses academic sources (Buttle, Berndt et al., Trevino and Nelson) to frame and evaluate a real business strategy rather than simply describing it. This technique shows how theory — such as the principle of predicted versus observed customer worth — can be used to assess and justify managerial decisions in practice.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by establishing the strategic importance of CRM, then introduces Harrah's two-part program. It proceeds through the individual CRM program components before evaluating their financial outcomes. A three-phase strategic overview follows, leading into a sustainability assessment. The paper closes with an ethical critique of customer data collection and practical mitigation strategies, supported by cited sources throughout. The structure moves from descriptive to evaluative to normative, a strong pattern for applied business analysis.
Introduction to CRM at Harrah's
Customer relationship management (CRM) is perhaps one of the most important activities business managers can engage in. Customers dictate the life cycle and potential demise of a business; therefore, the better the relationship a business maintains with its customers, the more likely the company is to survive in the long term. Harrah's Entertainment implemented a customer relationship management program in order to retain current customers, attract new ones, and maintain lasting relationships with potential return customers.
Database Marketing and the Total Gold Program
The CRM program at Harrah's comprises two core elements: database marketing and the Total Gold program. These two elements work together to enable Harrah's to engage in direct marketing strategies that optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of its marketing investment.
The database marketing program concerns the way in which Harrah's invests in its customers. This entails making decisions based on the projected worth of customers rather than relying solely on observed worth. In other words, Harrah's invests in the probability of customers returning by submitting customer profiles to a database and targeting those customers for direct marketing. In this way, a customer-centric approach is applied to direct marketing, where customers' potential behavior dictates the marketing action taken.
CRM Program Components and Targeted Strategies
To support this approach, several CRM programs were implemented at Harrah's. The objective of the New Business Program, for example, was to improve the process of converting new Total Gold members into loyal Harrah's customers. Through this program, customer worth predictions are used to make more effective decisions regarding marketing to potential customers and to enhance customer loyalty.
The Loyalty Program for the Frequency Upside was designed to target customers estimated to give only a small proportion of their potential time and loyalty to Harrah's. This enabled Harrah's to create programs through which these customers were encouraged to spend more time at Harrah's properties. The Loyalty Program for the Budget Upside was used to identify customers who were allocating only a small portion of their gaming budget to Harrah's while directing the remainder toward competitors.
The purpose of the Retention Program is to target customers who are showing signs of attrition or who have broken their historical visitation patterns. The Total Gold program, meanwhile, was designed to encourage cross-market visitation by Harrah's customers. Customers who visit destination markets are encouraged to visit and play at Harrah's facilities in those locations.
Conclusion
Harrah's CRM strategy — combining database marketing with the Total Gold loyalty program — represents a sophisticated, customer-centric approach to building long-term business sustainability. By investing in predicted rather than observed customer worth, and by structuring programs across the full customer lifecycle, Harrah's is able to maximize marketing efficiency and profitability. Nonetheless, the ethical dimensions of data collection must remain an ongoing priority, and transparent policies regarding customer privacy are essential to maintaining the trust on which the entire CRM model depends.
References
Berndt, A., Herbst, F., & Roux, L. (2005, Fall). Implementing a customer relationship management programme in an emerging market. Journal of Global Business and Technology, 1(2). Retrieved from
Buttle, F. (2008). Customer relationship management. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2010). Managing business ethics. John Wiley and Sons.
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.