UK casino operator Rank Group is to employ immersive market research in order to improve its understanding of its customer base.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Rank is the latest UK-based firm to undertake such research.

The company is planning to send staff into the homes of its customers to learn more of their daily habits, which, on the surface, may seem to have little to do with their entertainment and leisure choices. They will then visit casinos and Mecca bingo clubs with them to observe the whole process.

"At Mecca there are already back-to-floor initiatives [in which head office staff work at the clubs]," Jon McPherson, Rank’s group head of insight and analytics, told the newspaper. "But immersion with a customer is very different from seeing things through the eyes of the employee."