Russian Consumer Culture

According to Holt (2004), the marketing practices employed by many corporations fail to achieve their potential within a given market because of the simple oversight that they do not put the targeted consumer culture first. Holt (2004) argues that cultural relevance drives brand preference, not the other way around. The consumer culture is therefore decisive when branding, and the branding approach must be adapted to the current consumer culture stimulations in order to be effective (ibid).

Broadly speaking, consumer culture is defined as ‘a system in which the transmission of existing cultural values, norms and customary ways of doing things is carried out through consumption in everyday life’ (Lury, 2011). Hence, consumption will in this

Instead, in the study of consumer culture, the meanings only need to be widespread enough to be treated as shared or common (ibid). Thus, as we use the term consumer culture on the Russian middle class consumer, we are not claiming that every single middle class Russian do share the same values and practices that drive their consumer choices. Nevertheless, the consumer culture of JYSK’s target segment is studied in order to identify general tendencies and patterns that may be useful knowledge for JYSK to take into consideration in their expansion strategy to

al. (2000) have highlighted that customer satisfaction is the result of comparison between customers’ expectations and customers’ perceptions. In other words customer satisfaction is seen as the difference between expected quality of service and customers’ experience or perceptions after receiving the service. Cultural issues are arguably one area affecting customer experience and perception of a service (ibid).

According to Holt (2004) cultural issues at different levels – national, organizational, individual – influence all customer relationships and sales negotiations. One important feature of Russian culture is its emphasis on personal relations and the generation of favourable customer experiences is therefore of particularly high importance for the general Russian (Svetlana Gertsen; Jens Nørgaard-Sørensen).

Having long been protected from competitive pressures, most Russian retailers have yet to recognize the full importance of pleasing the customer. Poor customer service and generally unappealing retail environments create a disproportionately high number of unpleasant shopping experiences (Landor Associates, Jan 2014). According to Land associates (Jan 2014), Russian service has almost been non-existent for 70 years, but since the establishment of the free market it has improved steadily. They found that over half of Russians (54 per cent) think that service is improving in the country, but they still think that it fails to meet the high standards that