The Possibility and Expediency of Marketing Variability in the Conditions of a Scarce Market (the Case of the Market of Solid-rolled Wheels-957)

The relevance of the study is due to the need to study the limits of the permissibility of business behavior of companies in the conditions of economic turbulence that has developed under the influence of various macro and microfactors. The disruption of logistics chains against the background of the first sanctions restrictions, the introduction of protective duties, a comprehensive system of state support for the industry (the “trade-in” program for changing the car fleet) led to new structural and behavioral models of the functioning of markets, which required understanding and selection of an adequate policy of state regulation. The purpose of the study is to consider the strategy of behavior of the dominant player with a pronounced differentiation in pricing policy in relation to different counterparties in a scarce market on the example of an antimonopoly case against a dominant economic entity in the market of solid-rolled wheels with a diameter of 957 mm within the borders of the Russian Federation (2018-2019). The objectives of the study are to consider how the implementation of three important elements of the company’s marketing strategies - price formation, market segmentation based on the Buchanan product concept and the selection of counterparties, as well as methods and technologies of discount policy in conditions of unsatisfied demand, can affect the functioning of a scarce market and affect price growth for two years. In the context of this study, the transformation of the mechanism of price discrimination in scarce markets is presented. It is noted that the behavior of the dominant entity regarding the establishment of a monopolistically high price in a scarce market looks economically unconditioned, the establishment of a differentiated final price for the sale of goods to various buyers at a level higher than the prices of the period preceding the shortage indicates price discrimination of the first and second degree. The analysis of various types of discounts shows that sales promotion is not a necessary marketing tool, as it reduces the monopoly profit of the seller and does not contain motivation for the formation of competitive initiations. The main gain of the consumer is not the volume of potential discounts, but the speed of searching for goods, contracting on any terms, the promptness of concluding transactions and obtaining maximum financial gain in conditions of uncertainty.