Contemporary marketing practices in Russia

Purpose - This study investigates the validity of the relationship paradigm in contrast with the marketing-mix paradigm with respect to modern Russian markets. Moreover, the specifics of Russian marketing practices are outlined and a comparison with marketing practices in other countries is provided. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is rooted in the theoretical framework of the "Contemporary Marketing Practices" project. Data about marketing practices are gathered with standardised questionnaires and groups of organisations are identified using cluster analysis, the gap criterion, and canonical discriminant analysis. By comparing scores for relational marketing as well as transactional marketing, the marketing practices are described and contrasted with those in Argentina and Canada. To assess the success of different combinations of marketing activities, association rules are computed. Findings - Contemporary Russian marketing practices cover only a narrow spectrum of the diversity of marketing practices observed in other nations, and the overall intensity of marketing activities is low in comparison with international benchmarks. Overall, the relevance of the traditional transactional marketing concept holds for current practices and market conditions in Russia. Relational activities are considered as merely additional rather than as alternative options of developing organisations' marketing. Practitioners can adjust their marketing to the patterns of profitable activities revealed by this investigation. In particular, the new possibilities arising from IT-based marketing are found to be not utilised by vendors who are already established in Russian markets. Originality/value - The paper brings Russian markets into the academic discussion. Additionally, the use of association analysis for the evaluation of patterns of marketing activities and their success is introduced.