Companies are refocusing on the emerging markets in BRIC countries. With China, India and Brazil, Russia is back on the radar of multinationals. Despite its familiarity, the Russian market offers particular challenges to FMCG manufacturers, particularly when launching new innovations. This paper investigates the various opportunities for, and barriers to, launching innovations in Russia. The author aims to answer the following questions: What is the typical success rate of innovations in Russia? What makes Russia different from the perspective of launching innovations? How does the market environment in Russia influence launch expectations and launch strategies?
Traditional research rarely fuels the creative brand development process. At its best it evaluates and optimises. At its worst it kills ideas. This presentation describes how fresh sources of insight can help generate the 'big idea' for a new brand and maximise its chances of success.It makes direct reference to the recent creation and launch of a new Russian mainstream beer, Tri Bogatyrya (Three Knights) for SABMiller, to illustrate how 360° insight can be a true catalyst for creativity.
The paper considers the case of the BeeLine brand in the context of the rapid changes in the market situation in the Russian telecom industry before and after the financial crisis of 1998. The BeeLine story exemplifies the diffusion of the innovation model in general, and with regards to specifics of Russia as a country with an unstable economy, highly uneven income distribution and belated technological modernization. The BeeLine case highlights the role of brand image as it applies to the provider brand, specifically in terms of re-defining notions of leadership and prestige along with the widening customer base for mobile phones. The competitive situation in the Moscow cellular market also reflects the dynamics of relationship between a brand leader and a challenger brand.
This paper is based on research conducted in Russia during its transition to a more liberal economic and political system. The data cited are taken from VCIOM nationwide surveys and polls conducted in 1989-1997. Russia shares most common features of emerging markets, including a very narrow affluent segment; a thin layer of the would-be middle class; and a huge population which consumes cheap unbranded products. The specifics of the Russian market discussed include the situation when the bulk of purchasing capacity is concentrated in young cohorts, and the phenomenon of a state as the principal domestic client of research. There is a tendency among Russian consumers to declare preferences for locally produced products (mainly food) but this finds no correlation in the structure of the populationâs purchases. Consumer behaviour appears to be dependent on factors other than those of consumer ideology. Negative reactions towards advertising, considerably more pronounced in the older age groups, are being gradually transformed into more tolerant attitudes.
This paper is based on research conducted in Russia during its transition to a more liberal economic and political system. The data cited are taken from VCIOM nationwide surveys and polls conducted in 1989-1997. Russia shares most common features of emerging markets, including a very narrow affluent segment; a thin layer of the would-be middle class; and a huge population which consumes cheap unbranded products. The specifics of the Russian market discussed include the situation when the bulk of purchasing capacity is concentrated in young cohorts, and the phenomenon of a state as the principal domestic client of research. There is a tendency among Russian consumers to declare preferences for locally produced products (mainly food) but this finds no correlation in the structure of the populationâs purchases. Consumer behaviour appears to be dependent on factors other than those of consumer ideology. Negative reactions towards advertising, considerably more pronounced in the older age groups, are being gradually transformed into more tolerant attitudes.
The paper describes the real situation with media planning and media research in Russia which may be similar to the problems of most developing countries but extremely complicated with the enormous geographical stretch of Russia. The main point discussed is that up to now media planners cannot apply techniques of effective planning to Russia and in accordance this agencies are not able to spend advertising budgets correctly.
Russia is a vast agricultural market; even in the current depressed state of the economy, farm inputs represent multi-billion dollar purchases. Consumer market research is developing rapidly, but with interviewers located in the large cities with little appropriateness for rural interviewing. The isolated rural areas, the huge distances, and the problems of infrastructure place great challenges on agricultural research in Russia. This paper examines the application of classic quantitative market research methods and how the difficulties have been overcome in the last few years. The paper presents results from a 1995 450 farm survey concerning arable farms. There are not just the much publicised changes of privatisation and failing economic structures but also the change in attitude of the farming managers. Buying behaviour is changing rapidly, new distributors of farm inputs are appearing. However, the vestiges of the old command system remain, not necessarily in the structure but often in the mentality of the operators. Whilst the path forward does not look totally smooth and simple, there are encouraging signs of new merchant structures emerging and of farm managers gaining a more commercial acumen. As FarmTrak prepares for its third survey in 1996 the investment in training and resources of the market research discipline look well in place.
The present article is the description of applied research, conducted by the Scientific Research Center "V-Ratio" (Moscow) by the order of one of the largest financial companies in Russia. The first chapter of the article gives a brief spetch of the development of the financial market in Russia, and the private investment situation in autumn 1994 within the research period. It was the period when the most agents of the given market faced the problem of sharp decrease of return from investments into advertising. To clarify this question and to work out practical recommendations were the primary objectives of the research project. The second, third and fourth chapters present the results of the three most important blocks of the research, obtained by qualitative and quantitative methods: focus-group, expert estimation of commercials, and surveys. The main conclusion of the research is as follows: the content of advertising campaign of a customer firm does not correspond to the type of its potential clients from the market. Besides during the research one could make a conclusion about the relative depletion of the demand at the segments of the market being researched. Recommendations developed on the basis of the conducted research allowed to stabilize sale at reducing of advertising budget of a customer three times.
These unique surveys of Russia's regions offer insights into the development of one crucial aspect of capitalism -- attitudes and policy preferences among both opinion leaders and the general public. Begun in 1994 and continuing today, these surveys track trends in support for free market reforms and related social and political issues among the regions of the Russian Federation. The surveys' findings are profiled by region and key demographic variables (gender, age, education, occupation, ethnicity). A multi-variate index of support for capitalism is developed and presented for the twenty-four regions with several demographic breakouts. Key findings include: o Russian public opinion overall is negative, emotional and pessimistic about the future. Russians are discouraged by the costs of free market reforms and are likely to take out these feelings on incumbents in the upcoming elections. o According to our regional surveys, most Russians see their personal economic situation as poor and unlikely to improve in the coming year. Russians are ambivalent about market reforms, tending to oppose those that might spark inflation or job losses and supporting those that provide greater freedom of choice for individuals. o Based on a nine-point scale of attitudes toward capitalism, we find that most Russians are lukewarm in their support for the free market. Enthusiasm is greatest (though still muted) in Murmansk, Maritime Kray and Komi; weakest in Pskov, Voronezh and Bashkortostan. Not surprisingly, capitalism is supported by those most likely to benefit from it: the young, urban dwellers, the university educated and those in the managerial or executive ranks. o In the eleven regions where we conducted both elite and public opinion surveys, we find that the general public is twice as likely as elites, on average, to reject capitalism in principle. Divergences between the leadership and the general public are greatest in Sverdlovsk and Krasnodar Kray and, significantly, are least in Komi and Tartarstan.
The paper reports the results of a detailed study of the cardiovascular marketplace in Russia. This was a diary study executed among 97 generalists and 50 specialists working in polyclinics across Russia. The study covered all aspects of 2,367 patient visits, including comprehensive patient details, risk factors, symptomatology, condition[s] treated and the drug or drugs started, switched and/or continued. Further, details of the doctors treating each patient were also collected so that data could be cross-analysed by doctor characteristics. Key findings included the very young age of the cardiovascular patients, a high diagnosing level of ischaemic heart disease (IHD), a low frequency of cholesterol testing and the high usage of very old drugs (notably reserpine) at the expense of expensive, newer products. These results, where appropriate, are also compared with findings from analogous studies in other countries. Finally, and in order to give some insight into the workings of front-line medicine in Russia, general information about how the patient-doctor relationship works in Russia also forms an important part of this paper.