MKT 3300 10:30am

TEAM 2

Ayala, Alejandro (800190285)

Escamilla, Jaime (800077363)

Faubion, Alyssa (800393993)

Garcia, Maria (800392313)

Secretary

Gonzalez, Zulma (880378926)

Hussein, Amro (800326388)

Rodriguez, Javier (800238786)

Saucedo, Jesus (800132743) Team

Leader

INDEX1) Executive Summary……………………………………………………………I

2) Background………………………………………………………………………...pg.1

3) Situational Analysis…..…………………………………………………………pg.3

A. Economic analysis

B. Political environment

C. Technological environment

D. Socio-cultural environment

E. Internal environment

F. Competitive environment.

4) The Competitors…………………………………………………………………pg.9

5) The Market Research…………………………………………………………..pg.7

6) Summary…………………………………………………………………………..pg.13

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………….pg.14

Executive SummaryOur main goal for the Secoya group is to ask our customers what is

value to them in this industry. We planned to achieve this research by going

out to our clients and contacting them over the phone to ask them a series

of questions to get a better understanding of what they want and what are

their concerns and opinions. Our first step was to obtain a list of our

customers and then decided on a series of open-ended questions to ask

them to help us determine the main factors of concern that we need to work

with. Estela contacted our several clients including Juan Giesbrecht, Anna &

Enrique Neufeld Fher, Francisco Dyck Wiebe, and Isack Friessen. This

sample questionnaire was conducted to obtain feedback from our

customers.

We determined that we needed to come up with a set of questions

through our market research to create a questionnaire that would be

officially tool used to measure value for Secoya’s customers. We took the

time to listen to our customers concerns and what prompt them to keep

handling business with us. Most of our customers concerns were similar,

stating that the main priority is a safe, time saving and reliable, yet

economical process when importing their foreign goods. Most clients have

the goods ready, all they need is for Secoya to have all documentations and

petitions ready in order for them have a successful exportation.

After this we concluded as a group and determined 4 main factors of

concerns that we as a company needed to work with so we can create a

survey. These 4 main factors included time, service, communication, and

legal representation. The method of research we used was to conduct

primary data by creating questions necessary for the positive feedback that

we needed to come up with our conclusive development process. We were

adamant in making sure that the data we collected from our customers did

not include information concerning if what was being asked important or

unimportant? This way would provide biased answers that would not allow

us to fully understand our customers main concerns. Instead, the approach

was to ask general concerns that would allow them to elaborate and

therefore with our responses we can make comparisons and similarities to

develop these main focal attributes of quality

BACKGROUND Secoya International Trading Company was first formed in spring

2006 by Jesus T. Saucedo. Secoya started out very small but now they are

currently on a busy schedule with on average they export 16 to 25 times a

week. To assist with all of the work, Secoya developed a sister company

called Selcova, which is in Ciudad Juarez and is in charge of doing the

paperwork so that the American and Mexican papers matches in transition.

A majority of the company’s business has to do with agriculture and they

export Pinto bean seeds and corn seeds for planting. They also export

vehicles such as motorcycles, ATV’s, and tires for tractors as well as heavy

machinery and industrial forklifts. Secoya Trading Company outsources

with several different companies in business to business transactions in

Mexico. Some of them are Abraham Ham, Semillas Y Forrajes, Comercial

Teika, Llantas bandas y refaciones, and Fertifum.

Secoya does all the paperwork for its clients that want to export

different products internationally. They usually deal with clients who

purchase abroad in different countries such as China, Japan, India, Canada,

and Turkey and deal in transactions across our borders. Secoya, along with

its four competitors GT exporting, Cronos, Trankas, and ASA, control about

80 percent of agricultural exporting from US/Mexico in the El Paso port of

entry. They offer a fast and saver service than the rest and work on Global

and Domestic Freight Forwarding. Secoya specializes In Import and Export

Freight Transportation Arrangement.

The company is looking for new ways to innovate and improve the

business along with customer satisfaction. The company offers quality to its

customers with a fast and reliable service of paperwork and exportation

processes. Customers need our services to insure that they can get their

products to be exported into Mexico and sometimes certain material

imported. Secoyas’ clients expect a rapid and efficient service that will let

them transport their product and reach its destination in a timely manner,

the lower price then its key competitors, and the responsiveness to

customers needs and concerns. Secoya’s job is to take care of handing

paperwork only, but the company goes beyond the basic service customer’s

expectations. Secoya provides the customer an extra service by having an

in-house SAGARPA international inspector. This saves time and money for

our customers.

Situational AnalysisA) Economic analysis

Secoya principal customers are businesses principally agricultural,

industrial, and commercial companies. Some of its principal clients are:

Abraham Ham, who sell farm machinery. Comercial Teaika, sells all types of grains principally sunflower seeds. Anna Neufeld Fher/ Llantas Bandas y Refacciones. Semillas y Forrajes, establish in Mexico and that sell plants for

cultivating. Fertifum, that sells pesticides, fertilizers and other products for the

care of the planting in Mexico and U.S. Motocicletas del n Noreste, that sell equipment, parts and accessories

shop for motorcycles in all states of Mexico.

Most of the economy of this companies and businesses had to be with the

selling of agricultural material as machinery and farming products. Secoya

as a service provider only charges a fee per transaction that includes

services, and other taxes or tariffs, when dealing with high valuable assets

it is much easier to obtain a profitable margin that enables the opportunity

for growth. Lower prices and rising costs have reduced margins placing

significant financial pressure on agribusinesses. Because of this Secoya has

to take into consideration their price in order to stay in the competitive

environment.

B) Political Environment

Secoya may experience a lot of political issues because it is treating with

different countries and each of them must have different regulations.

Secoya is in charge of the paperwork, this means that need to handle with

some regulations like NAFTA regulations. In 1994, NAFTA implement an

agreement where all US-Mexico tariffs would be eliminated except for some

US agricultural exports to Mexico. That is why Secoya employees need to be

aware always of NAFTA changes. Some of the most important political and

legal issues that Secoya experiences are:

Problems with contracts. Failure to understand Property Rights. Lack of attention to paperwork preparation needs. Failure to consider legal aspects of going global (tariffs, duties, and

quotas) Failure to know some new rules of trade implemented actually.

C) Technological Environment

Secoya utilizes the basic forms of communication that are phone,

Internet, computer, fax, and radios. Communication is a fundamental key

for success in business. We communicate to our customers through these

various forms to provide our quality services. Secoya communicates mainly

by sending out emails and making multiple phone calls. Our main media

would be the use of radios between us and our associates in Mexico. It is

fast and efficient to be able to connect abroad in order to get work done. It

is essential to have a strong connection between our customers and

suppliers to make our functional business processes easier and it enables us

to maintain an understanding of our customers needs.

D) Socio-cultural Environment

Most of its customers are Mexican companies that do business by

selling products to other companies. SECOYA concentrates mainly in

exporting American agricultural products, machines, and other materials to

different states in Mexico. For this reason, SECOYA customers are mainly

Mexicans or with Mexican heritage. Most of the contacts and treaties are

made in Spanish and have to do with big industries like supermarkets as

well as with small companies and personal businesses like Mennonites.

Mennonites are the main foundation of our business. Mennonites hire

SECOYA for importing agricultural machines to their communities and also

to export their products to United States. Mennonites’ culture and economy

are based on working in their own land and making their own products to

sell. They are considered as long-term customers that will maintain their

agriculture structure and as consequence of this transporting their products

and acquiring machinery will keep benefiting Secoya. In the other hand,

Secoya also deals big corporations but not as much because they demand

high quantity of services at a low price as if it were a wholesale market as

they are accustomed to. The profit margin of these services are not as

beneficial as with our services with smaller companies.

E) Internal EnvironmentSecoya is formed by a small quantity of members that direct this

company. Jesus Saucedo and his son manage the company and they are part

of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as official

associates. Both of them are in charge of giving control over all the

operations. Also, there is a person in charge of the documentation and a

forklift driver that is in charge of the transportations and warehouse. Estela

Saucedo, Selcova owner, is in charge of the accounting process of Secoya

and the bills of its services. Secoya as it was mentioned before is a small

company trying to grow. For this reason the amount of employees is enough

with the services of the company but with the growth of the market,

customer loyalty, and new customers that this project is attempted to obtain

it must be considered that Secoya will need to hire more workers. This type

of business is inconsistent due to the agricultural economic situation and

fluctuates dramatically from time to time; therefore there is not always a

need to hire more personnel.

THE COMPETITORS

Competitive Environment

Secoya has actually four main competitors in the El Paso-Juarez area.

All four of them are in the international trade business mainly dealing with

agricultural merchandise. GT Exporting, Cronos, Trankas, and Secoya

control 80% of the total agricultural exporting. Secoya’s most important

advantage, and difference in comparison with its competitors, is that it

mainly exports agricultural products and machines which is the target

market of Secoya. The next table shows a chart comparing Secoya’s

competitors in the business environment.

Table 1. The Competitors

Company Name Associations Uniqueness

GT Exporting (Formerly known

as PUMAS)

WALA international Commerce

Since this was the main company where all other competitors were born and it is the

oldest one around, it has more recognition among exporters.

CronosASAMex-us (Mexico)

and Felhaber F C & Co Inc. (US)

Have warehouses both in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Multiple

Associations with several importing and exporting agencies.

TrankasASAMex-us (Mexico)

and Felhaber F C & Co Inc. (US)

F C Felhaber is one of the most powerful companies in the US, so it gives them a

competitive edge.

SECOYASelcova (Mexican

counterpart), Transportes Soto.

A “SAGARPA” (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y

Alimentación de México) Office is located right next door, so permit negotiations take

less time.

Table 2 Comparative TableCompany Name

Services Unique Features

Price/ Sales

Owner Comments

GT ExportingOr Pumas Trading

Freight Transportation Arrangement, Other Management Consulting Svcs

Also do business with Industrial Buckets Of Mexico and International Trading Inc.J

Annual Revenue of $500,000 to $1 million with 9 staff employees

Rogelio Dominguez/Gerardo Trejo

Is the oldest one. All of the owners of the others trading companies in El Paso worked for.

Cronos Paper Work, Converted Paper Product Manufacturing.

Annual Revenue of $120,000

Cesar Jacobo

4 years in business.

Trankas Freight Transportation Arrangement

Work together with Boyd Logistics Inc. who helps Trankas consulting it shipments.

Annual Revenue of $360,000 and has only 4 employees controlling the business.

Tranquilino Rocha

ASA Import/Export, Freight Transportation Arrangement

Ocean Export, Air Export, & Trucking Domestic Heavyweight Air Freight.

Lowest prices than all competitors.Annual Revenue of $500,000 and staff of 9 employees.

Rafael Certucha

New business entering to the international trade competition. (20% of agricultural exportation)

SECOYA Import/Export*, Freight Transportation Arrangement

Global & Domestic Freight Forwarding. Fast and Safer service than competitors.

$360,000 on the third year as compared to less than $45,000 the first year

Jesus Saucedo

Maintain direct contact with it suppliers and customers, as well as with its important

groups as Mennonites.

The Market Share

Figure A. Market Share

The Market Share for Secoya is shown in Figure A. below. The numbers required to calculate the Total Market Share amongst the competitors was estimated using current information given by insiders in SECOYA International Trading Co.

35%

25%

20%

20%

Total Market Share

GT ExportingSecoyaTrankasCronos

THE MARKET RESEARCHOur purpose is to obtain and analyze clients’ opinion and information

to acquire and ideal top of the line service to enhance the satisfaction of

customers with our service creating a stronger bond and increasing the

retention the contentment and approval of our current customers. Our

purpose for this project is to help Secoya figure out how to measure quality

by assessing a survey to get customer feedback that would provides us with

information that we can analyze and create a solution to solve our

customers concerns and improvements for the company.

The way we want to implement a design for this project is to collect

primary research data directly from our customers. We used a random

sampling method to provide us with a list of associates to contact out of the

many Secoya interacts with. We then used different media devices such as

calling our customers and sending emails. We gathered data through over

the phone interviews and then took those answers to create our final

product of how quality is perceived by them. The way we chose to go about

the random sampling method was to put all the names of our patrons in a

hat and we decided to choose eight different companies to collect data.

To start out with our research we went to Secoya company and spoke

to the owner to get a start on our project. He spoke to his secretary Estela

and decided that he wanted us to gather the questions we wanted to ask

and submit them to her. After we gave her what we had and she sat down

with Jesus as he listened in to the phone conversations with their clients

and took good notes of what was said.

After interviewing our customers, we saw that they shared a lot of the

same concerns and viewpoints and how our company could improve on

quality. Our clients shared major concerns about them being located in

Mexico which would require their orders to various producers to be fast and

reliable. As ABRAHAM PETERS THIESSEN stated “I buy my machinery and

I expected to be here with me as soon as possible, I send my driver and then

Chuy takes care of the rest and that’s why I pay him.” We figured out that

one of the main factors of concern was the time of delivery and service that

these businesses needed in order to be efficient. Isack Friessen Dyck from

Tracto Contes Friesen said, “ I select Secoya because it is a company that

works as fast as I want and just as I like. Everything is in place and arrives

at the time that was scheduled.” We determined from these customers that

it is essential to have their products shipped on time. This helped us

understand better that timely involvement is very crucial to business

success.

Some of the customers that we have contacted gave us information

that was relevant to customer service. The responses we got were straight

to the point and told us exactly what they liked and what they wanted. From

talking with our customers, we learned that not only paperwork is crucial to

their business but also picking up their goods and transporting them could

help save time and money by only dealing with one company. Peters

Neufeld from Motocicletas del Noroeste said, “ I like Secoya’s service

because they take care of not only the paperwork but also save me time and

money by picking up my ATV’s and arrive to me all in one cost.” Secoya only

does this type of service for this customer. From doing this service, we have

an idea of expanding the business by picking up and transporting the

product so everything can be cost-efficient. Our customers were able to

express to the secretary how they felt service should be done and gave

some insight on their recommendations for better quality. By expanding our

services, we are able to increase company value by further satisfying their

needs, which would create new prospects for Secoya. This could create new

opportunities because we would increase our number of clientele.

Communication is the first step in establishing business and through

our customers we have found that we have been lacking in this area and we

are looking to improve. Through them we have found that they are having to

be put on hold, to explain themselves in which adds to more time and a

decrease in customer service. Jacobo Fehr Friessen from Semillas

Productivas said, “ Although I like their business overall, many times I have

been placed on hold for a long period of time. During that time I could be

doing other work for my own business.” Abraham Ham Peters also said, “

The only complaint that I have is that I have to explain to Secoya several

times about the services that I needed.” We took these responses and

analyzed that Secoya needs to maximize its’ communication skills in order

be in better standings with our associates. From the customer’s viewpoints

they believe that we are shorthanded on employees and that our

communication is not up to par with our service.

Our group recognizes the value that our customers put towards the

documentation procedures that are used in the shipment of our products.

Secoya deals with the USDA and Jesus is a legal interaction as a

representative of the company. It is fundamental for any business to

understand how to document figures and processes correctly to get jobs

done. Artugo Gomez from Semillias Fertifum said, “ I hire Secoya because

they are legally registered with the USDA and that helps me export my

products to wherever I need to send them.” Anything that needs to be

exported and imported across the borders must have the proper

documentation to avoid mishaps and tardiness. The customers choose

Secoya because they take the initiative to deal with the import/export tariffs

and government regulations on the product quantity and specifications. This

information was concluded from another customers’ perspective, Enrique

Neufield from Llantas, Bandas y Refacciones. He said that, “ Since I export

goods from different countries, different tariffs apply to these products. I do

not worry about any of this because I know Secoya does a good job of taking

care of it.” This benefits the customer because it is a time saving process

that Secoya does for their patrons. They can focus their time in other areas

of the production process and other services of their companies. We felt

that this information was very beneficial to come to a conclusion that

Secoya can figure out ways to expand their legal services to other

businesses who deal with exportation.

ConclusionTo summarize our research processes we started out with an open

ended questionnaire to discover how our customers assessed quality in

Secoya. We then took the time to interview various consumers and gathered

the information we needed for our analysis of what they liked and disliked

about the business. Our main discoveries and findings lead us to believe

that there are four main factors of concern that Secoya should focus on for

improvement. We came to the decision that time, legal representation,

customer service, and communications are key to developing stronger

quality and value towards our customers. Now with this information we

developed a survey with questions regarding these key points that will be

used as a tool by the company to help them better understand what is

expected of them and to discover room for improvement and development.

SurveyDear Customer:

Service

Communication

Legal Representation

Time

Quality

FACTORS OF QUALITY

In order to implement a marketing plan for SECOYA to help it in serve you better, please help us by taking a couple of minutes to tell us about the service that you have received so far. We appreciate your business and want to make sure we meet your expectations. Show your opinion by circling one of the five (5) numbers next to each statement. If you think the company does much worse than expected or doesn’t apply please select 1. If the company does much better than expected or it apply select 5. If your feelings are not strong, circle one of the numbers in the middle.

Service 1) How likely are you to recommend our service to others?

1 2 3 4 5

2) In evaluating your most recent customer service experience, how was the quality of service you received?

1 2 3 4 5

3) How likely do you think customer service influence you in your decision of selecting Secoya as your exporting service provided?

1 2 3 4 5

4) How likely will your overall satisfaction increase if Secoya takes care of the transportation of your goods as well?

1 2 3 4 5

5) How courteous and helpful was Secoya’s personnel with your concerns and needs?A) They solved all my questions and service was greatB) Personnel were very attentive with my needs C) Had some problems understanding my needs D) They did not understand my requestE) They were not helpful at all

Communications 1) What would best describe your experience, when you called? (Circle all that apply)

A) Kept me waiting on hold

B) Had to explain several times

C) Didn't know how to handle problem

D) Had to ask others

E) No improvement needed

2) How often do you have problems regarding communication between you and Secoya?1 2 3 4 5

3) The ability of our employees to answer your questions1 2 3 4 5

Legal Representation

1) The accuracy of our legal information regarding exporting and importing?1 2 3 4 5

2) How safe do you feel with the legal service (tariffs, NAFTA, and other rules) Secoya provided to you?

1 2 3 4 5

3) Have you experienced any legal problems in transporting your merchandise with Secoya?1 2 3 4 5

4) How trustful do you feel about Secoya’s legal knowledge?1 2 3 4 5

Time 1) How satisfied are you with the time required to complete your service/solution?

1 2 3 4 5

2) Receiving prompt service from our employees.1 2 3 4 5

3How often do you do business with Secoya?Less than 2 times a month 2-4 times a month 4-6 times a monthMore than 6 times a month

4) Considering the time, effort and money you spent with us, how would you rate the overall value provided?

1 2 3 4 5

Thank you for your feedback. We sincerely appreciate your honest opinion and will take your input into consideration while providing services in the future.