Groceries Retail Prices Monitoring as a Tool of Socially Oriented Marketing in Russia

Abstract

Marketing in the social products sector has peculiar features. The low marginality in this group of products is compensated to trading companies by the preferential treatment of the government and a positive image in the society. The price monitoring methodology for the analysis of social groceries offer becomes of particular importance. This article is intended to contribute to better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the price monitoring mechanism applied to the offer of socially important food products. Based on the classical approach to the methodology of price monitoring, we selected and justified in this study a sample of social food products having a high value throughout the vast territory of Russia. To identify the role of the various channels of goods, we selected a sample of surveyed chain and disperse (independent) stores. The obtained results led to the conclusion that the Russian retail trade is highly volatile in terms of the minimum prices for social food products. The high level of price volatility related to such products may reflect the current crisis phenomena in Russia.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s4p457