1. ENTERING
LAS VEGAS
Course name: Brand Management
MGT 320
Instructor: Chris Shallow
Presented by: Svetlana Puchkova
Anglo American University
Prague 2012
2. SIN CITY START UP CITY
Tony Hsieh, the CEO of shoe and apparel site Zappos.com (a division of
Amazon.com) wants to turn the often overlooked and economically depressed
downtown area of Las Vegas into a dense urban neighbourhood teeming with
artists, entrepreneurs, and Internet workers
❖ $350 M of his own money to be invested in LV
❖ 1 400 employees will be moved to the former 11 storey City Hall building in
downtown LV in 2013 (already posted in wiki)
3. ZAPPOS.COM
..A BIT OF A HISTORY
❖ 1999, Internet shoe retailer store. Investments of over $500K
❖ 2000, Revenue of $1,9M
❖ 2007, Gross sales $870M, expanded to sell clothing and accessories
❖ 2008, Annual Sales $1B; “23rd on Fortune’s top100 companies to work for”
❖ Amazon.com is buys Zappos.com for $940M in a stock and cash deal
❖ Tony Hseih remains as Zappos’s CEO. “Today we think of Zappos brand as
about great service, and we just happened to sell shoes”
❖ Key insight: Excellent customer service
4. LAS VEGAS
..A BIT MORE OF A HISTORY ))
Spanish “the meadow”, describing the area and existence of spring water there
In 1905 a railroad was built to connect Salt Lake City and Los Angeles and in the
same year the city of Las Vegas was established. The man considered as the
“father” of Las Vegas was businessman C.P. “Pop” Squires with his wife fell in
love with the place and played a major role in its development
1931 - “turning point”:
❖ “The Gateway to Boulder Dam”, later renamed Hoover Dam, provided
thousands of construction jobs near LV during the Great Depression and
made the area an attractive destination
❖ The process for obtaining a divorce was simplified;
❖ First gaming licence was issued;
❖ Pair-O-Dice Club formed on Highway 91 (Las Vegas Strip) was formed.
5. LAS VEGAS
..A BIT MORE OF A HISTORY ))
“The winners are those who control the game.
All the rest are suckers.”
Mayer Lansky and Benjaming “Bugsy”Siegel
..on their way from LA to LV
6. LAS VEGAS
..THE GLAMOROUS PLACE TO BE ))
❖ 1946 Flamingo resort was built and named after
“Bugsy” Seigal’s show dancer girlfriend Virginia Hills’s
long skinny legs
Later he was murdered in her Beverly Hills house,
which brought a lot of attention and publicity to Las
Vegas, which then became an edgy and glamourous
place to be
7. LAS VEGAS
..”BOMBS AND BOOM” ))
❖ 1951 - “Able” a nuclear bomb testing site about 100
km from LV. Over 928 bomb experiments were
conducted in Nevada and would not be disclosed until
1990s
❖ Atomic cocktails, postcards, atomic hairdos, ability to
see a bomb bursting in the desert
8. LAS VEGAS
..”BOMBS AND BOOM” ))
❖ 1951 - “Able” a nuclear bomb testing site about 100
km from LV. Over 928 bomb experiments were
conducted in Nevada and would not be disclosed until
1990s
❖ Atomic cocktails, postcards, atomic hairdos, ability to
see a bomb bursting in the desert
9. ATOMIC TESTS FOR TOURIST ATTRACTION
❖ 1954 - more than 8M visitors annually and $200M
spent on gambling in LV
❖ 1957 - UNLV was founded (which was not the major
event since the city was building its reputation on
gambling and atomic tests)
Legalised gambling became untouchable from federal
control
10. ATOMIC TESTS FOR TOURIST ATTRACTION
❖ 1954 - more than 8M visitors annually and $200M
spent on gambling in LV
❖ 1957 - UNLV was founded (which was not the major
event since the city was building its reputation on
gambling and atomic tests)
Legalised gambling became untouchable from federal
control
13. KING’S TRIUMPH IN VEGAS
❖ 1969 - 1977 - the
biggest Las Vegas icon.
Elvis Presley played
837 shows
Contract for five years
for four weeks, twice a
year for $125K/week
(in today’s money it is
approx. $2M/week)
14. LET IT ROLL..
❖ 1966 - billionaire Howard Hughes lobbied legislators to allow corporations to own
casinos
❖ 1970 - 1980s - dark era for the Las Vegas. Fire and gangster Spilotro’s expansion
❖ 1989 - Mirage. Steve Wynn build the only one for the last 16 years and the biggest
casino resort
❖ 1998 - Steve Wynn, the famous Bellagio, the world’s most expensive resort, $1,8B
The new resorts began to grow like mushrooms after rain since then
“..the time of biggest construction booms and housing bubble in the nation”
15. PROVOCATIVE CAMPAIGN
2005
Key ingredients:
❖ To be able to stand for something, do not try to
be something for everyone
❖ To decide what you are and what you actually
are not
❖ “Brand exist in minds and hearts of
consumers. We needed emotionally charged
campaign that would taped into both”
16. WHAT HAPPENS
HERE STAYS HERE
❖ Three step approach:
❖ Accounting Planning “You cannot spend enough time to speak to your
customer”. KI - people can cut loses in LV like nowhere else
❖ Brand Positioning “if you cannot boil dow your brand in three words you
are not trying hard enough” Simple, Concise, Relevant
❖ What happens here stays here “gives to consumers a permission to
enjoy themselves in a way they do not do elsewhere”
17. LUCK, ..OR DESTINY
❖ First media campaign. Gained $6M before first media
dollar was paid
❖ The line has been used by many celebrities on
numerous events and appeared in many TV programs
❖ 2006 Las Vegas reached 2nd “hot brands” in America
(behind Google)
18. THE PARTY IS OVER
Las Vegas in crisis
❖ Highest unemployment rate 15,5% (September
2010)
❖ More then 70% of homeowners with mortgages
owe more to the bank than their houses are worth
19. “Las Vegas has never been much good at
diversification”
But will there be enough room under one “umbrella”
for Sin City and Start Up City or there is there room
only for one fascinating story?
25. CONCLUSION
I believe that there would not be failure in Zappos/
Vegas cooperation
The brand Las Vegas is going to get its, such needed in
this difficult time capital injection, job places and hope
for brighter future
Zappos, even if it is not successful in turning Sin City
into Business Mecca, would place its name forever on
a history board of Fabulous Las Vegas