Focus on Customer Loyalty For many years hospitality firms practiced conquest marketing. The goal of conquest marketing is to create as many new customers as possible. While marketing executives understood that it was important to satisfy the guests while they were on the property, they believed that guests’ satisfaction was the overall responsibility of the operations people. Marketing’s sole responsibility, they reasoned, was to continue to find new customers. Marketing has changed and marketing executives now realize that their sole responsibility does not end when the customer walks in the door. Instead, they need to be concerned with the whole experience of their guests in order to ensure that not only will guests return to the property, but they will also tell their friends to come and visit. This emphasis on the encouragement of repeat business is what is now called loyalty marketing or retention marketing. This type of marketing is the wave of the future. What do we mean by loyalty? Rob Smith, president of the loyalty marketing firm Focal Point Marketing, claims that loyalty occurs when the customer feels so strongly that you can best meet his or her relevant needs that your competition is virtually excluded from the consideration set and the customer buys almost exclusively from you – referring to you as “their casino” or “their hotel.” Loyalty marketing is important because loyal customers are more profitable than non loyal customers. Research has shown that when compared to non loyal customers, loyal customers are profitable because they spend more money while on property, they are more likely to serve on advisory panels thus providing free advise, and more likely to tell management when problems occur thus staying and not going to other properties. They also tell on average 10 people about the property towards that they