Old wine, new bottles

“[W]e’re not selling a shoe or a bottle of water. We’re selling an experience,” says Isle of Capri Casinos Vice President of Brand Marketing — and friend of S&G — Julia Carcamo (left). Those words should be engraved on certain bean-counting casino bosses’ foreheads. Isle is certainly an example of a company that had to rather painfully reinvent itself, particularly with regard to the perception that it gone from industry leader to laggard, derisively known as “Pile of Debris.”

As part of former CEO Jim Perry‘s “new broom” regime, Carcamo was among those charged with differentiating the newer Isle properties from their older, tattier brethren. Hence the dusting off and remarketing of the Lady Luck brand for the older — and downmarket — properties. It was also applied (with positive results) to the former Casino Aztar riverboat in Caruthersville, Mo. After being a ward of the state, following the takeover of Aztar Corp., the boat has regained financial momentum under the Lady Luck flag.

Through the looking glass. Also doing some reinvention is former Harrah’s Entertainment veep Marilyn Winn. After switching teams to Wynn Resorts, she became Marilyn Winn-Spiegel and now Marilyn Spiegel, the better to put any association with “the H word” behind her, I suppose. That’s more reinvention than she ever did with the various Strip properties under her aegis since the catastrophic LBO went through. (I hear the words “Marilyn Winn” and have visions of peeling paint.) Coming from the cheeseparing regime at One Harrah’s Caesars Court to Wynn, finding that they “change carpet at least every nine to 12 months” at Wynncore must seem like the height of extravagance.

Unlike bombastic casino dilettantes such as Morgans Hotel Group and Smilin’ Sammy Naz(arian), Spiegel knows the casino business from the cage on up. That’s probably better than her former boss knows it. Now she’s part of a belt-tightening regime at Wynncore. Her first priority, now that she’s shut down restaurant Alex, is to ‘de-silo’ the various departments within Wynn’s Strip operation. That only makes sense. I could never understand the silo mentality among certain companies with multi-casino Vegas operations (*cough*MGM Resorts International*cough*), let alone within a single casino.

Spiegel’s rationale for closing Alex (“to drive the fixed costs of your restaurants over more covers”) mirrors a concern that some have about what she portends for Wynncore. Dr. David G. Schwartz summarizes it nicely as “to apply [Harrah’s] bottom-line oriented, value-driven strategy to Steve Wynn’s namesake, substituting five-star service for an economy of scale.” Spiegel says it’s quite the reverse but the fact that El Steve tapped one of Gary Loveman‘s inner circle to be his new right-hand person sends a message of “Thrift, Horatio!” There’s no doubting Spiegel’s experience and aptitude (being a Phil Satre protege is a strong endorsement). It’s her intent that causes trepidation.