New experiences are acquired on the way to perfecting the marketing techniques that are applied to the Cuban economy and a call is made to the contribution of practical forms for economic development, which is so important for the growth of the country.
Currently, Cuba is carrying out profound transformations in the economic sphere in order to mitigate the shocks of the crisis that the world is going through and to lay the foundations for the country's development, safeguarding the social conquests of recent decades. One of the decisive lines of the economic take-off to which the country is urged is precisely that of Improvement initiated in the Cuban business system, whose fundamental objective is to achieve competitiveness by increasing efficiency.
The perspective with which institutions are viewed is rapidly changing and their results are no longer shown only as an entity, but also as they affect the infrastructure of the markets, giving their management greater responsibility for decision-making as It is stated in Guideline number 8 of the Party and the Revolution: “The increase in powers of the entities' directorates will be associated with the elevation of their responsibility regarding the efficiency, effectiveness and control in the employment of personnel, material resources and financial managers; coupled with the need to hold accountable those managers who, with decisions, actions or omissions, cause damages to the economy. ”
Watchmen of the application in all spheres of the Guidelines of the economic and social policy of the Party and the Revolution, all entities are directed to a better administration and planning of the market economy, under the concept that “The planning system Socialist will continue to be the main way to direct the national economy, and must be transformed into its methodological, organizational and control aspects. Planning will take into account the market, influencing it and considering its characteristics. "
In the achievement of these levels of competitiveness, Marketing plays an essential role as a fundamental activity of the operational area; In this sense, it occupies a special place and this is specified in the General Bases for Business Improvement.
On the analysis of the aforementioned, the issue is justified based on the fact that in recent years the country's economy has seen the need to modify recognition and inclusion techniques in the markets as the only way to achieve the effectiveness and profitability of entities., so that they develop the global and individual economy of each worker who works in them, increasing their productivity through the increase of material stimulus complementing morale.
With these bases and the constant call of the nation to the real rationalization of resources, our entity has been drawing up policies and strategies that ensure the permanence of the institution in a profitable and functional way.
The beginning of the year 2016 represents the beginning of an awakening in the development of the Cuban economy and a reorganization of the entire business and financial system of the country, exempt from these transformations, the institution does not remain, they are a fundamental point of being the main provider of the service of purchase sale between the two currencies in force in the national territory to natural citizens and as a bank of financial services to the foreign public. As this is the main activity carried out and the main source of income, a change in strategy is required to prevail in the market.
If the aforementioned, we apply it to Cadeca, SA as an entity affiliated to the Banking System of our country, entity that constitutes the frame of reference for this work, it must be admitted that today, our Money Exchange, offer a service capable of being perfected, hence, for this work, we have identified as:
Issue:
The absence of a Marketing strategy limits increasing the services offered by our Money Exchange offices and therefore satisfying the needs of our clients with the required quality.
To solve this problem, it is investigated in the variants to solve how to apply Marketing in the development and institutional future of CADECA, in a way that allows modifying its permanence in the markets. Taking for this analysis as Object of Study the Implementation of the Monetary Policy Application Process and as Research Field the Analysis of the Operations carried out by the institution outside the purchase - sale of national currencies (CUP - CUC).
That is why the objective of this work is defined: To demonstrate the convenience of applying the variables of marketing in ensuring the future of the entity through the activity it carries out or through the modification of its corporate purpose.
Develop or cry
Valuation
Undoubtedly, when thinking about a service, it is necessary to understand the needs that motivated that service and the initial way in which it is conceived, hence the analysis of the place (Plaza), the definition of the profit margin in our case (financial institution), definition of the product or service portfolio, as well as the ways in which real and potential clients are made known, our services are elements that must always be present, only from the knowledge of these variables is that an organization can devise strategies that allow it to achieve its true purposes.
Implementing the Guidelines drawn up by the Party and the Revolution and specifically Number 55, which determines the main activity consisting of the Purchase and Sale of National Coins, proposing:
"Progress will be made towards monetary unification, taking into account labor productivity and the effectiveness of distributive and redistributive mechanisms. Due to its complexity, this process will require rigorous preparation and execution, both objective and subjective. ”
It is said that for the realization of this service, no Marketing work is carried out, so to comply with this guideline it is essential to apply the Marketing Variables applied to the activities that would be maintained, as well as the application of Strategic Direction that promote greater effectiveness in decision making and the reorganization of the institution.
Marketing, also called marketing, is the art (and knowledge) of making good use of opportunities to increase company sales, it is a business attitude that teaches to identify, discover, know and master the products and services that satisfy the customer needs.
The concept of marketing starts from a simple concern to sell and make a profit . Just as marketing has been changing from a massive orientation , to what has been called one-to-one marketing. Marketing, like any process, is dynamic and changes, constantly changing. This process, despite what is created, has not happened at the same time in all countries, or regions of the world.
Modern marketing came of age after the First World War, when the words "surplus" and "overproduction" became more and more prevalent in the vocabulary of our economies. Mass production methods, both in industry and agriculture, had been developed in the 19th century; after 1920 the growth of marketing was clearly seen.
Generally, there cannot be a high level of economic activity without a corresponding high level of marketing activity. During the time of recession or depression, one soon realizes that there is a slowdown in marketing activity that forces production to decrease. It becomes clear that in our economy "nothing happens until someone sells something" and there is an urgent need for ever-increasing marketing rather than increased production.
Although it is true that any marketing strategy is unique, in some way, because it is specific to a given organization, it must be recognized that there are some differences between the strategies applied to services. Some exclusive aspects of the services that guide the formulation of the service marketing strategy are: 11
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1 Thomas, DRE, "Strategy is different in service businesses", Harvard Business Review, 1978.
- The predominantly intangible nature of a service may make it more difficult to select competitive offers among consumers. When the service producer is inseparable from the service itself, the service producer can locate the service and offer the consumer a more restricted option.
The perishable nature of the services prevents the storage of the product itself and can also add risk and uncertainty to the marketing of the service.
It should be remembered that the basic elements that make up a marketing strategy are those related to the segmentation, positioning and combination of marketing, marketing mix or commercial mix.
The segmentation and positioning stages of the marketing strategy are basically the same for both goods and services. Where the differences do appear is in the elements that make up the marketing mix.
However, it is useful to keep in mind that, in order to segment and define the service company's target market, the market is made up of three main types or groups of users, each of which can be chosen as the market to which the company could privilegely direct its efforts, and then define within this group, those that satisfy certain characteristics or demographic, psychographic, geographic and / or benefits sought. These three groups are: Natural persons, legal persons or organizations and households. According to this approach, a transport company, for example, could choose to meet the needs of households (removals), people (public transport, taxis, etc.) and / or organizations (cargo, personnel, etc.).).Subsequently, you can define more specifically what type of homes, people and organizations, in order to more clearly conceptualize the supply of transport services to be offered for the needs of the defined group and subgroup.
Positioning
Correctly positioning a service in the market consists of making it more desirable, compatible, acceptable and relevant for the target segment, differentiating it from that offered by the competition; that is, offering a service that is effectively perceived as "unique" by customers.
A service, being well positioned, makes the segment identify it perfectly with a series of wishes and needs on its own scale of values, making its degree of loyalty greater and stronger than those offered by competitors.
In positioning, the following stages are usually distinguished:
a) Current Positioning (identification)
It consists of determining the place where the service is currently located according to the preferences or tastes of consumers, compared to competing services.
To carry out this analysis, it is important to determine variables related to the service itself, variables attributable to the company and, finally, variables attributable to the environment, they are called attributes, and those that are relevant to the target segment must also be determined. Subsequently, the most direct competitors are selected and with this information as a basis, a study should be carried out on the sample of interest, in order to obtain a clear vision of how the service is perceived and positioned in the minds of customers and in relation to the competition.
b) Ideal Positioning
This stage can be approached from two points of view:
Ideal consumer positioning: consisting of determining what the consumer wants regarding the kind of service offered.
Ideal positioning of the company: it consists of determining what the company wants to determine to reflect as an ideal service. This is where the comparative advantages over its competitors are known from the current position (if applicable).
c) Desired Positioning
It consists of determining the way to position the product or how to reach the ideal situation for the consumer and the company, which will represent the general guide for the elaboration or design of the Marketing Mix (3rd Phase of the development of a Marketing strategy).
It is important to clearly establish, at this stage, the positioning concept or concepts that will serve as the basis for the design marketing strategy, so that the latter does not constitute an isolated phase or one that is inconsistent with the needs or desires of the clients, nor is it left to the free imagination of the participants in the design of the mix.
Characteristic
The Cuban capital limited company CASAS DE CAMBIO SA CADECA, was incorporated on June 14, 1994 and has the following Corporate Purpose (as it appears in the BCC License of 10/2/09).
- Make purchases and sales of banknotes and travelers checks, exchange of bank checks, operations with credit, debit cards and other services related to their activity in national and foreign currency. Provide payment services for social security. Receive and transfer Deposits from entities for their accreditation in bank accounts. Collection of fees. Sale of stamps of other financial services determined by the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Cuba.
Regarding management strategies and guiding policies, it is mainly based on statutes sustained by mission and vision:
Mission
"Contribute to compliance with monetary policy and to the proper functioning of the country's economy, providing natural and legal persons with services for the sale of national and foreign paper money and other means of payment, as well as other related services in the national territory"
View
"Continue perfecting the work to guarantee optimal service in the coming years, backed by the professionalism of its workers."
Character
Every service entity is committed to achieving customer satisfaction, as set forth in guideline 313: "Apply effective consumer protection that guarantees compliance with the duties and rights of all borrowers and consumers of goods and services."
From a marketing point of view, both goods and services offer benefits or satisfactions; both goods and services are products. The narrow vision of a product tells us that it is a set of attributes, tangible and intangible, physical and chemical, brought together in a special way. The broad vision, the marketing vision, says that it is a set of attributes, tangible and intangible, that the buyer can accept to satisfy his needs and desires.
Given the characteristics of the institution, CADECA, SA characterizes as a service provider. The entity has identified and put into practice its portfolio of services that today is subject to revision in order to adjust it to the requirements of the new scenarios towards which it must project.
It is therefore essential to analyze the combination of these characteristics, which creates the specific context in which a service organization must develop its marketing policies. The most frequently established characteristics of the services are2:
Intangibility
Services are essentially intangible. It is often not possible to like, feel, see, hear or smell services before purchasing them. Opinions and attitudes can be sought in advance; a repeated purchase can rest on previous experiences, the customer can be given something tangible to represent the service, but in the long run the purchase of a service is the acquisition of something intangible. From the above it follows that intangibility is the definitive characteristic that distinguishes service products and that intangibility means something both palpable and something mental. These two aspects explain some of the characteristics that separate product marketing from service marketing.
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2 Cowell, D. Marketing of Services, Legis, 1991, pp. 25 - 29.
Inse
Often services cannot be separated from the person of the seller. A consequence of this is that the creation or realization of the service can occur at the same time as its consumption, be it partial or total. Goods are produced, then sold, and consumed while services are sold, and then generally produced and consumed simultaneously. This is highly relevant from a practical and conceptual point of view, in fact, functions within the company have traditionally been clearly distinguished in a very separate way, with certain interrelations between them, generally at the level of coordination or transfer of information that serves to input for one or the other; however, here we can appreciate more a fusion than a coordination, the production staff of the service, in many cases,It is the one that sells and / or interacts more directly with the client or user while the latter uses the service ("consumes").
Hete
It is often difficult to achieve standardization of production in services, because each "unit". Provision of a service may be different from other "units". Furthermore, it is not easy to ensure the same level of production from the point of view of quality. Likewise, from the point of view of customers it is also difficult to judge the quality before the purchase.
Perishability
Services are liable to perish and cannot be stored. On the other hand, for some services a fluctuating demand may aggravate the perishability characteristics of the service. Key decisions must be made about what maximum level of capacity should be available to cope with demand before service sales suffer. Attention should also be paid to times of low levels of use, reserve capacity or the option of short-term policies.
term to balance fluctuations in demand. Take the case, for example, in the capacity of a hotel versus a manufacturing company, the latter has greater flexibility to cope with increases in the quantity of goods demanded and can, in general, increase production shifts to cope with it..
Owner
Lack of ownership is a basic difference between a service industry and a product industry, because a customer can only have access to use a certain service. Payment is made for the use, access or lease of certain elements.
C
Given the aforementioned corporate purpose, the entity will suffer considerably with the monetary and exchange rate unification, which is why the application of marketing is highly important for the services expected to be incorporated, or for the exploitation of those that are currently exploited, in addition of the sale and purchase of national currencies.
It is necessary to highlight that today, before monetary unification, Cadeca has its highest income (%) from the purchase and sale of coins, a service that will necessarily decrease after unification.
Although the reality shows that more than the speculations that can be carried out, even by the most qualified personnel of the institution, the application of techniques for the study of the consolidation in the market of the functions that are ensured will be maintained and is one of the the main route of entry into the country for foreign exchange, as well as prestige in the influx of foreign clients.
This study will be of great relevance for decision-making and positions regarding the future of the institution, which is why a change in the commercial policies that are approved and generated by the operations carried out is necessary for the subsistence of the entity and its workers.. Hence the importance of the application of marketing variables that allow knowing the entity's real state and forecasts when the monetary unification process becomes effective.
TO
As the first phase of the analysis of the state and perspectives of the entity to adapt to the new change in the process of subsisting and achieving a favorable position in the market, the form of management must be changed until a Strategic Management is consolidated, starting, as defined by P Kotler, a “Development process and a m in advance of a viable fit between the company's objectives and resources and the changing market opportunities. The objective of the strategic direction is to model and restructure the business and product areas of the company, so that they give satisfactory benefits and growth ”.
At the moment when the beginning of the well-known “Day 0” is marked, where the process of monetary unification will begin, unifying the currency system, not even rates, the entity's main source of income will disappear, which is in the difference between the sale of the CUC and CUP.
However, making a more careful analysis, through fundamental Marketing variables, of the situation that lies ahead, we will have to:
Posi
- Decrease in the volume of operations for this concept, source of the highest percentage of income, that is, Loss of Market Share. Need to diversify the Service Portfolio in the entity's corporate purpose as a non-bank financial institution, including the banking system, exemplified in the processing of Customer Deposits, Payments to Retirees, etc. Reorganization of the current plant, so that large investments are not incurred, focusing on niche markets, especially tourist boarding sites, hotels and affluence areas of foreign public.
CADECA has a weak and unfavorable position that warrants an immediate change in strategy.
Market Development and Growth:
Starting from the forecasted position, the entity must take pioneering positions in the inclusion of the new market conditions through:
- Implement advertising to new services already identified and newly incorporated. Ease in applying interest rates. Extension of office networks in tourist places. Advocating excellence in customer service aimed at achieving customer loyalty Place the service points in suitable and strategic places, facilitating access to the premises of the elderly and disabled, applying this International Marketing Standard. Provide operational and communication facilities to the needs and preferences of customers according to their culture and origin.
Conclusion:
Encourage expansion policies in the most profitable markets, mainly in tourist areas, in addition to accessibility for all types of public.
Customer analysis:
Given the location characteristics of the offices and the main operations they carry out, it will be important to work with different treatment in each one according to their particularities, that is, direct the institution to adjust depending on the characteristics of the environment:
Municipal Branches:
It will be important to prepare ATMs with more experience in operations that can perform a wide range of services that until now have not been performed.
Currency Exchange Hotels and Airports:
Increase the training of workers in cash and languages, since the public will be mainly foreigners. The operations will be maintained without undergoing changes, since those currently carried out are Purchase Sales of Foreign Currencies and Purchase of Travelers Checks.
Customer service depends mainly on the training and quality of the personnel that provide the service, so the greatest attention should be focused on cashiers who interact directly with the public.
Expected Results
Based on the aforementioned, if the recommendations provided in this work are applied, especially in the Action Plan, CADECA, SA will be in a position to face the new changes, achieving profitability from achieving new competitive advantages., especially the one referring to the creation of a sustainable competitive advantage, consisting in the willingness and commitment of its contact personnel to offer a quality service, as well as diversify the services that are provided today.
| Not. | A ctivity | Date | Partici p before |
| one | Carry out a diagnosis of the current situation of the service that we provide today in the Exchange Offices and Branches. | 05/31/2017 | Communication and HR Specialists |
| two | Application of customer satisfaction surveys to know their state of opinion and the improvements to implement. | 05/31/2017 | Communication and HR Specialists |
| 3 | Development of interviews with opinion leaders to learn about current problems and suggestions for strategies to follow. | 05/31/2017 | Communication and HR Specialists |
| 4 | Submit the design and production of the Cadeca Identity Manual to the entity's senior management. | 06/30/2017 | Director in charge of Marketing Management in the entity |
| 5 | Develop an advertising campaign, aimed at strengthening the image in airports, hotels, boarding areas and places in general where there is an influx of foreign tourists. | 08/31/2017 | Communication Specialists, Director in charge of Marketing Management in the entity |
| 6 | Reorganize the currently installed plant, taking into account the location of the markets to which today they commit the entity's social mission. | 09/30/2017 | Specialists, Director in charge of Marketing Management in the entity, Specialists and Director of Investments. |
| 7 | Develop a Program for the Strengthening of Values, aimed at achieving superior quality standards. | 12/31/2017 | Director in charge of Marketing Management in the entity, Specialists, mass organizations and policies |
Conclusions
At the end of this work, results have been obtained through the application of marketing variables, through which it has been possible to conclude that:
- The entity Casas de Cambio A. is in a dominant and leading position in the currency exchange market, mainly determined by monetary duality. When a process of monetary unification begins, it will greatly suffer its sources of income, making it essential to application of strategic change and management techniques. The application of marketing techniques to the services provided will be the only way to ensure the profitability of the institution. The implementation of a Marketing Plan that allows the institution is imminent. ensure a place in the market in the face of competition from entities that are already operating in these services Training in marketing techniques for all personnel, with the main emphasis on ATMs that serve the public directly,constitutes the insurance of assuring public influx, gaining the good judgment of the services provided
recommendations
Based on the results obtained at the end of the application of the procedures and variables reflected in the work, it is recommended:
- Begin the process of implementation of the marketing variables in the operation of the institution, even before the transformations begin. Include and keep informed and oriented to the personnel who will intervene in the change process, ensuring their correct training. The Senior Management of CADECA, SA the Action Plan attached to the following work, aimed at seeking a competitive advantage consisting of the attitude of contact personnel towards quality services. Hire the advice of specialists in the areas of marketing and advertising of markets that support and guide the new process to apply
