Social Mobility and the Demand for Luxury in Russia: A Typology of Russian Consumers of Luxury Goods

Abstract

BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) countries, the largest and fastest growing emerging markets representing about a half of the world population (Wilson & Purushothaman, 2003; Lanzeni, 2008), need particular attention from the marketing scholars and practitioners. Rapid change of disposable income and accumulated wealth in BRICs resulted in steep increase of luxury consumption significantly exceeding the growth rate of GDI per capita (O’Leary, 2008). This phenomenon was registered by brand managers and advertisers catering to the luxury market segment, but consumer behavior requires further scholarly research to be adequately explained (Conway Dato-on & Moustafaeva, 2004; Okonkwo, 2009). Russia due to its unique social, cultural and geopolitical characteristics represents a particular challenge for such research.