Russia Profile
December 6, 2005
No Longer Marketing for the Masses
Consumers are Changing Along with the Ways Advertisers Reach Them
Interview by Paul Abelsky
As consumption patterns and the general level of affluence in Russia change, companies are working to adjust their marketing approach. Validata marketing and sociological research firm is one of Moscow’s most established companies in this field. Russia Profile’s Paul Abelsky spoke with Maria Volkenstein, the company’s president, and Yulia Yuzbasheva, who directs ValidataKIDS, which focuses on younger consumers, about what has changed – and what hasn’t – in Russia’s consumer culture.
RP: What are the main differences between marketing strategies in Russia and in the West?
YY: There is one basic difference: In Russia, one group of the population is practically cut off – those over 50 years old. Marketing practically ignores them. We are almost never commissioned for studies that focus on this age group. Instead, emphasis is placed on younger consumers. In the West, on the other hand, a much larger share of marketing is directed toward the older sector.
MV: And that’s perfectly logical. After all, in the West, these are the people who have the most money to spend and the time to spend it. In our case, people in that age group have not earned enough to draw the attention of marketing campaigns; rather, they are the poorest consumer sector. The reason our firm opened a separate division oriented toward kids and teenagers is because this segment is experiencing a boom.
RP: What would you say distinguishes individual consumer behavior in Russia?
MV: Russian consumers do not yet have as much experience as their counterparts in the West. They have a more functional approach: abstract categories such as the company’s public image, its environmental policy or humanitarian commitments do not worry consumers here. More than anything, they are concerned about what they can get from the companies as individuals.
RP: I’ve heard that some people turned against IKEA when it sponsored a controversial reality show on television.
MV: I think it’s a minor phenomenon. People are much more worried about what they are buying, for how much, and for what use. The emotional component of consumer attitudes is only slowly developing. Teenagers are much more responsive in that way.
YY: Indeed, younger people are very brand-oriented and well-informed; they fully inhabit this world of marketing, although perhaps not to the extent that it happens in the West. When Russian teenagers purchase a brand, they also buy into its implied emotional component. In addition, adolescents play an increasingly greater role in influencing their parents’ choices and preferences. Slightly older people, above 30, tend to look for functional characteristics rather than any intangibles, although that’s gradually changing with time.
RP: Are companies adopting a more deliberate approach in developing brand loyalty and cultivating their own kind of customers?
MV: No doubt about it, this process has really taken off. Over the past 10 to 15 years, we are seeing a greater differentiation both of products and their intended consumers. The implicit message is that if you fit a certain profile, then you need this product, it’s tailored perfectly for you. What’s more, there’s a kind of segmentation of consumption inside the family. Those goods that were previously aimed at all family members in equal measure, such as coffee, for example, are now selected in a more individual way: women may prefer one type of coffee, men – another, and a wholly distinct kind will be reserved for guests or general consumption. Many products are moving from the sphere of common or all-purpose use to individualized consumption. Cell phones are the most obvious example, cars are another. When making a choice, usefulness has been eclipsed by other concerns.
YY: Of course, one of the main reasons for this is the simple fact that people have more expendable income. So, companies offer products intended for individual use: this is a car best suited for women, while that one can serve the entire family. This has become very clear and noticeable.
RP: But is this an approach that encompasses the entire consumer market? Or is it mostly limited to those in the highest-earning sector?
MV: Well, for the most part this concerns the middle and upper-middle class, but it’s not limited to them. There’s a greater choice of products across the board. When a customer is selecting a less expensive product, he still applies the same logic, choosing between, say, a Russian-made car and a foreign one. The consumer is guided by what suits his needs better and what’s communicated by the brand. But this reasoning does not extend to all products in equal measure, of course. Such differentiation and individualization is spreading at different speeds in different categories of consumption.
YY: What’s also characteristic for lower-class consumers in our country is an effort to enhance their self-esteem in some way. They want to appear more rich, glamorous and successful than they truly are. That is why such people could have the same products intended for daily consumption and others for guests that are intended to flaunt their more fanciful self-image. Even in the case of something as basic as baby food, the parents may purchase an affordable item, but keep a more expensive brand on the shelf just for display. This is especially true for products like cigarettes or coffee that easily communicate status or success. Judging by our studies of teenager consumption, especially in the regions, adolescents are much more materially minded in comparison with their peers in the West, who seem to be more engaged with philosophical or emotional problems. Our teenagers are much more interested in earning money; they want a house, a family. Material concerns are coming to the forefront.
MV: Indeed, society as a whole is becoming more material.
RP: Is this a gradual trend?
MV: It’s gradual but very powerful. It extends to spheres of social activity far beyond consumption, such a politics. Money seems to be behind everything now.
RP: Are expectations and demands from consumers also changing? What’s happening on the level of consumer psychology?
MV: This psychology takes the form of a pragmatic attitude to companies. A kind of craving has developed toward promotions. The consumer’s position is that companies owe him something, whether freebies through promotions or in other ways. Another assumption is that the manufacturer takes on all the responsibility; there is hardly any sense of a mutual contract or accountability.
YY: We are also seeing the results of promotions aimed at small children. Nine and 10-year old kids say that unless the company sends them this or that trinket, they’ll sue them. And this mind-set is also evident among other groups.
MV: In general, the Russian consumer tends to be a rather passive creature in relation to companies. It’s not so much that he places demands on them, but rather that he feels they have some inherent obligations, while he has none.
RP: What about the sense of trust that’s built into a purchase? To what extent does that play a role?
MV: Trust obviously plays an important part in every transaction. One doesn’t buy a product unless trust is involved. The situation is more complex when it comes to trusting the company or the manufacturer in a more general way. Usually, it comes down primarily to trusting product quality and nothing else.
YY: There’s a feeling that our people are less demanding because they don’t want to think too much, prefering to hope that everything will turn out well, trying to steer clear of any bad feelings. They may even have knowledge of specific unfavorable claims made about particular products, but people are still reluctant to be distrustful in a broader sense.
MV: I think this is a distinctly Soviet-Russian quality, which consists of a skeptical attitude toward what used to be propaganda and is now advertising. There is a duality at play here: on the one hand, you believe what’s being said, but at the same time, on a different level, you mistrust everything and everyone, seeing conspiratorial motives everywhere.