Can Advertising Convince Cubans to Shop without Cash?

By Elías Amor Bravo (14ymedio)

HAVANA Times – The Cuban communist regime is committed to advancing its banking reform, the so-identified as “bankification”  (rounding up cash into the banking institutions and forcing people to use magnetic playing cards for buys.) Now they have gotten into promotion, selling a marketing campaign in which condition banks offer you a bonus of up to 6% to clients who pay for items and services with cards or on-line. We will have to hold out to see if this obvious incentive has the meant result and if the authorities are eager to suppose the expenses for its implementation.

The reality is that these publicity campaigns logically have a cost, and no one will have to account for the impression on the operation, so experimenting can be an option to see if Cubans will use plastic funds, as the regime desires, and stop employing hard cash.

The 6% reward is small, contemplating the large inflation that at this time exists in Cuba, but it has its quantitative scope and in some circumstances could act as a system of attraction for the realization of electronic payments in retailers.

The marketing campaign is aimed at the 3 solutions that exist on the Island: cell transfer for the on the net payment solution via the QR code, Enzona the option to scan a QR and TPC code and POS to use a magnetic card. In addition, the reward of industrial financial institutions (Bandec, BPA and Metropolitan) gains folks who pay electronically with out difference of the form of possession of the institution or entity that helps make the sale.

Will this campaign generate outcomes? It is not uncomplicated to forecast, but it have to be taken into account that accomplishment will rely not only on the price reduction or reward, but on other points that in the present-day truth of Cuba are crucial for this to function.

And what will come about if the digital payment is created, and the dreaded day by day blackout happens?

The daily experiences of the Cuban Electric powered Union [UNE] are continue to calamitous. On Monday the 14th, the provider was all over again afflicted by a era capability deficit from 7:45 p.m., even though it was reportedly restored at 1:39 a.m. on Tuesday the 15th.

The electrical method carries on to be affected by all sorts of situations daily, some predictable and other people much less so, these kinds of as the unexpected exit in the early morning program of unit 5 of the CTE Nuevitas electrical plant and the non-recovery of gasoline levels in the engines of the cellular technology of Melones and Regla, as properly as the breakdown of the Felton plant, the Mariel 1, and the Renté, the latter beneath eternal routine maintenance.

The point out electric powered business (UNE) continues to strictly comply with President Diaz-Canel’s order to report on the availability of the Countrywide Electrical Method each working day and foresee a feasible deficiency of company, and men and women start out to get fed up mainly because the trouble nevertheless is not settled, even when the full procedure is in provider.

That said, what could transpire if a blackout takes place when building the digital payment? What occurs to bankification then, and what takes place to the 6% promoting campaign? You have to think about every little thing so that when the “affectation” arrives thanks to the variation among the availability and the demand from customers for electricity, the client who is heading to make the digital payment is not stuck midway. That transpires and can continue to come about.

And if on making the electronic payment the network goes down or commences to operate with the common slowness, that would exasperate any individual.

The complaint of Cubans about the terrible solutions of the condition telecommunications enterprise ETECSA is everlasting, and if the fundamental solutions are affected by the cuts and command programs of the regime, the digital transactions, relatively far more refined, can stop up creating a martyrdom of waiting around for the vendor and the customer. Witnessed from this point of view, it may well seem to be that the 6% incentive is much too tiny.

And if when going to the shop to invest in the products, it turns out that the previous device has been bought and there is no ensure of when the up coming one particular will get there, even in an establishment that sells in MLC [magnetic dollars], this is in which the deficiencies commence to be distressing.

The lack of replenishment of State merchants is a function of Cuban commerce that is magnified by the lack of foreign forex. The truly required goods are scarce, and this goal fact can be a challenging blow to the bankification that the regime intends.

So in these three scenarios and their numerous mixtures, the electronic invest in, no subject how a great deal the reward, are unable to be manufactured, and the customer, unhappy, will be forced to postpone his determination.

What do you think the individual will do the upcoming time they require that solution?

What they often do. Acquire income from any ATM that has funds, and go to the informal market exactly where it will be easier to carry out the transaction and return property with what is desired.  

You never have to be a professional and internet marketing strategist to recognize these procedures. Electronic payment can do the job as an incentive, but other simultaneous conditions must happen for the sought after operation to acquire place.

And then there is the timing for the start of this incentive. In basic principle, scarcely two weeks, from August 15 to 30. Completely insufficient. But what do the authorities intend? Probably Cubans will be knowledgeable of these steps right away and will be completely ready to carry out the functions.

All those who concern digital signifies of payment do not need to acquire nearly anything, and this marketing campaign does not curiosity them. Individuals who do not have a usually means of payment, provided the deadline and the shortages (plastic income is scarce since it has to be imported) also will not have time just before the 30th.

Who are the communist leaders fooling with these distasteful improvisations that strike a blow to the morale of a individuals who just want to be equipped to eat just about every working day? Anything is pretty simple and at the similar time contradictory. Banking companies, as condition agents that do not have to exhibit accountability, increase the bonus to 6% for prospects who pay out for products and services by means of cards or payment gateways, but they do not estimate the expense that this can entail for their accounts, and what is even worse, whether or not they will attain clients inclined to continue with digital payments.

It is an attempt to comply with the orders of the communist hierarchy, so that the routine sees that what they purchase is carried out. I consider it is an embarrassing exercising that will conclude in complete failure.

Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba

Examine much more from Cuba in this article on Havana Instances