Проблемы сегментирования потребителей по признаку принадлежности к общественному классу в современной России

The article deals with identification of the main problems of consumer segmentation on social class grounds. The author examines some major theories of social stratification and approaches of different schools of thought. Based on the theoretical foundations of the social stratification the author makes a hypothesis on the possibility of its use in marketing and in particular for market segmentation. The article provides the description of the main social classes in the USA, which is cited in marketing literature, but the author doubts its using in modern Russia for a number of reasons. As the basis for consumer segmenting on social class grounds the author suggests to pay attention to the research of T. Gurovaya and M. Tursin. The author reveals the problems of this structure application by marketing, which are as follows. First of all, the complexity of the segment structure can not represent exactly the model under formation due to the fact that the description of variables does not match with the consumer grouping. Besides, the complexity of the structure can not consider segments in order to build marketing mix. The author emphasizes that the study was conducted for different purposes than solving marketing problems, but can be used as a basis for further developments in this area.