The AAG Review of Books ISSN: (Print) 2325-548X (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rrob20 Marketing Without Advertising: Brand Preference and Consumer Choice in Cuba Sarah A. Blue To cite this article: Sarah A. Blue (2014) Marketing Without Advertising: Brand Preference and Consumer Choice in Cuba, The AAG Review of Books, 2:3, 102-104, DOI: 10.1080/2325548X.2014.919154 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/2325548X.2014.919154 Published online: 14 Jul 2014. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 894 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rrob20 The AAG Review OF BOOKS Marketing Without Advertising: Brand Preference and Consumer Choice in Cuba Emilio Morales and Joseph L. Scarpaci. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012. xx and 229 pp., photos, diagrams, tables, illustrations, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. $135.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0-415-89698-6); $135.00 electronic (ISBN 978-0-20313414-6). Reviewed by Sarah A. Blue, Department of Geography, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX. Marketing Without Advertising: Brand Preference and Consumer Choice in Cuba is written by Cuban businessman Emilio Morales and geographer and Cuba expert Joseph L. Scarpaci. Scarpaci has written three books and dozens of articles on Cuba, providing high-quality, field-based empirical work on topics ranging from urban planning to heritage tourism. Scarpaci now serves as Chair and Associate Professor of Marketing at West Liberty University. Emilio Morales offers the unique perspective of a highranking Cuban professional who worked for many years on the island as a liaison to foreign corporations investing in Cuba’s recently dollarized sector of the economy. From 2000 until he migrated permanently to the United States in 2006, Morales directed strategic planning for the marketing division of CIMEX, the largest “dollar store” chain, controlled by the Cuban Council of the State (p. 160). Together, these authors are well positioned to provide insight into the past, present, and future of marketing and advertising in Cuba. This volume offers a “snapshot” of the reality of contemporary Cuban consumption (and limited marketing). The authors predict that the five years from 2012 to 2017 will be key to Cuba’s transition toward a gradual privatization of the economy and anticipate the eventual acceptance and implementation of mass marketing in Cuba’s near future. Anticipating the end of the U.S. embargo against Cuba and an opening for U.S. businesses, Morales and Scarpaci lay the groundwork for future marketing in Cuba. The current state of retailing, marketing, consumption, brand awareness, and brand development is analyzed here for future vendors and investors. Through analysis of Cuban government data, surveys, focus groups, and in-depth case studies of Cuban joint ventures, the authors seek to dispel misconceptions about Cuban society and its economy. Namely, the Cuban marketplace is not a blank slate, nor are Cubans naive, time-starved consumers. The authors conclude that Cubans have developed their preferences through word of mouth and have modest or practical consumer desires, not the crazed behavior of those perpetually denied access to consumer goods. The greatest strengths of this volume are the authors’ firsthand knowledge of Cuban culture, society, and economy; their access to Cuban government data; and their use of empirical data gathered in Cuba. During Soviet times, Cuban data were routinely dismissed as fabricated and unreliable. Although the authors do not discuss the underlying assumption of the data’s reliability, their reliance on it suggests that Cuban economic data have become less politicized in the last two decades. These are the data that potential investors will have to work with in the near future. Morales’s experience provides a level of detail about the inner workings of socialist mechanisms that is generally unavailable to an English-speaking audience. For example, the authors detail the organization and workings of the Ministry of Internal Commerce (MINCIN), including its role in restructuring commerce The AAG Review of Books 2(3) 2014, pp. 102–104. doi: 10.1080/2325548X.2014.919154. ©2014 by Association of American Geographers. Published by Taylor & Francis, LLC. and retail services in Cuba in the early 1960s and its subsequent development of a longitudinal consumer panel database on Cuban consumer behavior before its elimination in the early 1990s (pp. 22–24). Informative tables based on primary data sources are found throughout the book; examples include a comprehensive summary of macroeconomic policy changes in Cuba from 1959 to 2011 (Table 4.1), case studies of nine joint-venture and state companies operating in hard currency in Cuba in 2011 (summarized in Table 6.1), a compilation of recent policy changes (Table 7.2), and Cuban phone company statistics on cell phone use and expenditures (Table 7.3). The book’s primary focus is marketing, and its target audience is retailers interested in marketing their products in Cuba in the near future. There is a considerable amount of marketing theory and jargon that will not be as compelling to geographers. For example, Chapter 3 examines the applicability of the “consumer based brand equity (CBBE)” model to a future Cuba. Chapter 6 examines the successful joint-venture brand promotion of nine Cuban products in depth, with the objective of providing insight into “the comparative advantages, weaknesses and opportunities for sector-specific forays into the Cuban market” (p. 111). The volume provides a fine level of detail regarding specific Cuban products or brand development that would certainly be useful for foreign investors or Cubans on the island who work in this sector. On the other hand, the focus on marketing and Cuban data also results in a lack of engagement with the existing English-language literature on remittances and the informal economy. Political scientist Susan Eckstein’s extensive work on social remittances in Cuba, for example, is missing from the discussion. With special emphasis on the post-1993 economic opening, the authors emphasize the key role of remittances in introducing new brands and brand preferences, providing capital for small businesses on the island, and overall providing an alternative to societal dependence on the state. Cuba and remittance scholars will find Chapter 7 of interest, as it gives a new “marketing” twist to the study of remittances in Cuba and is rich in empirical data. The emphasis given here is the impact of remittances on household purchasing power, consumer behavior, and entrepreneurialism. Branded goods, sent primarily from family in Miami, are one way that Cubans acquire brand knowledge and preferences. Morales and Scarpaci argue that remittances have reshaped Cuba’s economic and social spheres, increasing family ties with exiles, creating a hierarchical workplace where access to hard currency is prioritized, shaping consumer and entrepreneurial tastes SUMMER 2014 and preferences, and increasing individualistic and materialistic lifestyles. The authors use Morales’s access to Cuban economic data to estimate remittance figures and associated purchasing power since 1993. Their estimates appear high relative to other estimates—US$1.9 billion in 2010 and US$18.1 billion total since 1993—but are grounded in published Cuban statistics combined with estimates based on the number of airport arrivals to and from the island. The authors estimate that remittances account for two thirds of all hard currency in circulation. Although the volume’s primary contribution is to those investors interested in marketing their products in a future Cuban economy, geographers who are interested in the Cuban economy, specifically remittances and exported products such as tobacco and rum, will also find valuable detail here. What might strike other readers as an excessive amount of detail would serve geographers who are interested in knowing more about Cuban joint ventures, remittances, or iconic Cuban products. Chapter 5 is an in-depth case study of the Casa de Habanero franchise, a Spanish-Cuban joint venture that has successfully marketed Cuban cigars internationally. In Chapter 6, a discussion of cigars sold under the Habanos S.A. brand includes a four-page detailed description of the origin, history, and production of Cuban tobacco. The four-page glossary, filled with both Cuba-specific and marketing terms, is a useful resource for anyone studying the Cuban economy. For the nonbusiness audience, however, the overuse of acronyms such as WOM (word of mouth), B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) is irksome. Marketing Without Advertising engages with the Cuban American community in Miami, where there is great potential for future investment in Cuba. There is a tension throughout the book between criticizing the Cuban system (required for any cache with Cuban Americans in Miami) and veiled praise that recognizes progress Cuba has made in the eighteen-year span that marks the initiation of limited capitalist reforms and the writing of this book (1993–2011). The examination of a Spanish-Cuban joint venture that produces processed meats under strict international codes of quality control, for example, gives the reader an overall impression of high-quality products that is unexpected in a communist economy (i.e., in comparison to media reporting on Chinese food products). Rather than emphasizing the high quality of these Cuban products (which is stated in passing as fact), the authors stress the closed nature of the economy and the inability of the Cuban consumer to purchase more given their limited salaries. Although both are true (joint-venture Cuban products are in general of high quality and Cubans 103 have very limited purchasing power), the book has a constant underlying tension that counters indirect praise with direct criticism of the economic system and Cubans’ lack of access to marketing. Cuba is one of the few countries in the world that could claim to be liberated from advertising. Marketing and advertising, with their close association to consumer capitalism and its attendant ills, have historically been ideologically incompatible with Revolutionary Cuba. The country’s nearly 500 billboards promote political or 104 public health and safety messages rather than consumer products, and its four national television outlets and more than seventy radio stations are free of commercial advertisements (p. 108). Due in part to the fifty-two-year U.S. embargo, Cuban rather than U.S. brands of soda, personal hygiene, fast food, alcohol, and tobacco products dominate the Cuban marketplace. This book is laying the groundwork for the near future when Cuba is no longer a commercial-free oasis. So one possible “take away” message—although perhaps not intended—is “Get there as soon as you can!” THE AAG REVIEW OF BOOKS