Leaving nothing to chance

You can't win if you don't play. State lotteries across the nation work hard to drive that message home to consumers. Likewise, if people don't play, the lotteries don't win - and neither do the worthwhile causes they fund.


In Missouri, where proceeds from the state lottery will be earmarked for education beginning next July, selecting the right scratch-off games to offer is serious business. What colors attract the most attention? How many scratch-off windows should be on the card? Is the promise of one large jackpot or many smaller prizes more appealing?

The Missouri Lottery works with Market Directions, a Kansas City-based marketing research firm, to test new games as well as monitor public attitudes toward the lottery in general. The research firm has conducted numerous quantitative and qualitative studies for the lottery since its inception six years ago.

The Lottery introduces a new scratch-off game every six to eight weeks, and conducts three or four games simultaneously. Game concepts--which can be submitted by the Lottery, its advertising agency (Kansas City-based Valentine-Radford) or other vendors--are tested by focus groups twice a year. "This actually is new product research," says Susan Spaulding, president of Market Directions. "Games have a very short life, so the concept must be just right coming out of the gate.'

The results of the focus groups have a track record of success, leading to such popular instant games as Bingo, 7-1121, Joker's Wild, King's Ransom, and Deal 'em Wild. In fact, such successes have made the Lottery a $220 million annual business, with 44 percent of sales coming from scratch-off games. "We've found focus group research to be very helpful in developing our target market," says Mark Higgins, research manager for the Missouri Lottery.

Statewide input

The most recent focus groups were conducted in mid-May for games to be introduced later this year. The process, from recruiting to reporting, took approximately three weeks. Participants were recruited for sessions in three locations: Kansas City, St. Louis, and Moberly (in central Missouri).

Random telephone recruiting sought a cross-section of playing frequency-- heavy players (once a week or more); infrequent (two or three times per month) and lapsed (former players who have stopped). The groups of 10 were also divided by gender. The recruitment process has been fine-tuned over the years, Higgins says, to include frequent, high volume players.

Valentine-Radford and the Lottery's instant ticket vendor mocked up 15 games for use in the focus groups, which were moderated by Kathy Collins, account supervisor for Market Directions. Participants were asked to "shop" among the mock-ups for $30 worth of tickets.

Bright colors

Preferences were surprisingly similar statewide and across gender and playing frequency lines:

  • Color: Bright colors generated the most interest.
  • Theme: Most men preferred an action theme, while many women liked bingo. Market Directions attributes the preferences to familiarity with the themes. A horoscope theme was universally disliked because it was considered corny, Collins says.
  • Windows: Games with nine scratch-off windows won out over those with six because participants perceived a greater chance of winning.

Prize preferences, however, varied by frequency of play. Participants were asked to rank statements such as "This game has 400,000 $10 winners" and "This game gives you the opportunity to win a top prize of $50,000."

Frequent players favored many small dollar prizes, but infrequent players liked the idea of one large jackpot. Most liked the option of large jackpots being distributed monthly for life.

Most participants would rather not bother with side prizes, such as dinner at a restaurant, although men were interested in an opportunity to win a car.

Hot button issue

 Although results were largely consistent statewide, Market Directions found a much stronger emotional attachment to the lottery in Moberly (population 13,000), Collins says. "When the lottery was first introduced in 1986, Moberly had an $86,000 winner. Word travels fast in a small town, and people still think they may be the next big winner. People there are emotionally involved with the Lottery and feel it belongs to them."

At the end of each session, Collins asked the participants to voice any concerns or recommendations to her as if she were director of the lottery. The most common questions were about the allocation of funds, which since have been addressed. Missouri voters in August approved a constitutional amendment requiring all lottery proceeds to go towards education.

Following up

The Lottery, in conjunction with Valentine-Radford, has used the information as a blueprint to develop new games. "This information is vital for us to understand game preferences and how lottery players make their decisions," says Karl Ploeger, senior account executive at Valentine-Radford.

"We take the rankings that were awarded to each game, then summarize those rankings to determine which to run now, which need further development and which have no hope," the Lottery's Mark Higgins says.

The research has been right on the money, Ploeger says, and has led to a string of successful games.

"Our research is important in helping the Lottery understand what it needs to do," says Market Directions' Susan Spaulding. "But maybe just as importantly, it tells them what not to do."

For example, requiring players to scratch off an American flag has been unpopular. "Obviously, a lot of other things - such as prize design, winnability, advertising and promotion - go into the success of a lottery game," Higgins says, "but these focus groups have been an invaluable tool in selecting the right games."

Armed with timely research, the Missouri Lottery looks to a future in which lottery players, as well as education in the state, continue to come up winners.