MARKETING

 

                                                   

          For the past forty or fifty years, many of us have admired the marketing skills of wine distributors from the Beaujolais region of France.  Every third Thursday in November, a handful of merchant/growers manages to capture the palates and wallets of wine drinkers throughout the globe.  From Buenos Aires to Stockholm, Sydney to New York, Paris to Tokyo, pre-shipped cases of New Beaujolais are simultaneously opened on the stroke of midnight, Central European Time, giving to the awaiting throngs a taste of the undistinguished product of the gamay grape. What had once been little more than the pet wine of Lyon, (generally drank as an aperitif, or to accompanying a brunch-like meal called a machon) annually leaps to the forefront of world consciousness.

            Other French products have followed suit.  Most conspicuously, Perrier has done for water what some gooey syrup did for seltzer back in Nineteenth Century Atlanta.  For a while it seemed impossible to enter a tavern anywhere between Manhattan and L.A. without catching sight of rows of tiny green bottles sitting atop bar counters and tables.  Glasses of Perrier with lemon and ice replaced beer, bourbon and martinis as the drink of choice in a suddenly health conscious nation.  Consumed year round rather than during a brief spell in autumn, the fizzy water opened the door to dozens of clones.  Today, Americans from coast to coast enjoy not only French sparkling water but also the residue of spas and fountains from California, Colorado, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Fiji and Fuji.  Whereas a generation previously it was inconceivable for an American to pay for flat water in Paris, today no sophisticated Yankee diner would dream of ordering a carafe d’eau when an endless supply of Evian, Volvic and Contrexeville are available. 

            France aside, it is our own bottled water that dominates today’s American market.   Even in the High Rockies, where water is cool and pure, bicyclists, hikers, skaters and pedestrians tote around plastic containers distributed by the same people who produce and bottle sweet sodas.  What did you think?  That the managers of Coke and Pepsi were caught in a time warp somewhere beneath the Champs-Elysees?

            Another trend whose marketing brilliance cannot be overlooked is the promotion of an event rather than a product.  You got it, Brother!  Thanks to Online Casinos, Las Vegas Resorts, magazine and book publishers, poker has become an intrinsic part of the national psyche.  Most of all, incessant television broadcasts have brought the game to a new level of international prominence.  What a difference between today and the years (1969 – 1999) when I played the game professionally in Paris!   Believe me, I had to come up with any number of cover stories in order to conceal that I was making a living at what was then considered a less than ethical profession.  Well, it is not that way any longer.  Today, thousands of young people are happy to acknowledge that it’s the poker business they want to get into.  Why not?  What would you rather do, play cards with your friends at the Bellagio or sift through papers in a solitary cubicle? 

            They are here in Las Vegas right now.   Youngsters by the thousands have assembled to pursue the dream of a life style only a few will be able to attain.  Indifferent to the odds against them, they have come to play in the $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament that promises the winner both an emormous monetary prize, and the glory of a world championship.  8,500 strong, they are without exception, people who love the game of poker.  While representatives of other age groups are certainly present, you can be sure that the vast core of this army is composed of people between twenty and thirty. 

            From now until tournament’s end, wherever one chooses to play will be teeming with young men and women from every corner of the earth.  Since eight-five hundred people cannot compete simultaneously, and since many contestants will quickly be eliminated, the visitors head for any place in town with a poker room.  The MGM is packed. The Wynn has an interminable waiting list.  Not one seat is available at The Mirage, The Venetian or The Red Rock.  Harrahs, The Palms, Caesar’s Palace and The Mandalay have rarely witnessed such business.  At one table, I was told that six of ten players were contestants at the World Series.  Not one of them was close to forty, and not one of them had paid the full entry price.  I don’t know how many participants qualify each year by winning Online (or other) tournaments, but apparently they are plenty.  Heck, why not, if you can get in without having to pay ten thousand bucks?

            You know what?  One of these days Americans might become fed up with Beaujolais Nouveau, and grow tired of Perrier.  We might even return to the realization that besides being a hell of a lot cheaper, much tap water is as good as bottled water.  Not that we should worry about the marketing industry.  They will always come up with something new.  If not, there will still be poker.  That is one phenomenon that is not about to disappear. You can be sure that 8,499 of the 8,500 players in this year’s tournament will be joined by untold thousands of non-participants in hoping that next year will be OUR year.  It has to happen.  It’s human nature.