ISSN 2039-2117 (online) ISSN 2039-9340 (print) Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 6 No 3 S3 May 2015 275 Marketing Evaluation of Public Transport Quality Attributes: Review of Two Waves of Research Roman Sidorchuk Irina Skorobogatykh Department of Marketing, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow, the Russian Federation Email: Sidorchuk.RR@rea.ru Doi:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s3p275 Abstract Marketing activity in the sector of public transport (PT) is focused on the development of alternative to private cars use. Creation of this alternative requires development and delivery of value propositions to private cars’ owners. Such value propositions should be significant to the owners and lead to switch to public transport use. The paper is designed to promote better understanding of possibilities and limitations of attributes, which define PT quality aspects focused on the attraction of private cars’ users. We carried out two waves of research based on the methodology of parametric indicators use. Attributes under study are the following: cleanliness in PT, ticket sale speed, availability of cellular communication signal, availability of WiFi, availability of navigation tools in PT, etc. Findings allowed drawing the following conclusions: characteristics of PT service indicators can be improved based on regular researches; increase in PT service quality didn’t lead to decrease in private cars number; it’s necessary to carry out the analysis of private cars’ owners’ values to find out value propositions significant to them and consequently leading to shift to PT use. Keywords: marketing, public transport, Moscow, quality of services, customers’ satisfaction Introduction 1. Marketing mission and objectives are ambiguously perceived in academic literature and business practice. It’s especially difficult to define marketing place in the sphere of state services and in the sphere of public services subject to public regulation. One of these spheres is the sphere of public transport (PT). The process of deregulation doesn’t affect this sphere yet. Particularly, in Moscow one of important aspects that prevent PT deregulation is traffic jams issue. Historically traffic infrastructure of Moscow was determined by the primacy of public transport, as a result constraint of parking space became one of the most important outcomes. Moreover, the “old” part of the city within the Third ring road prevents principal widening of existing or building new traffic arteries. Specified problems are accompanied by significant growth of private motor transport number. According to “Region rating by the number of cars per 1000 residents” (Region rating by the number of cars per 1000 residents is made, 2014) the growth of private cars in Moscow over 2013 made up 4,7%. Automobile lending programs play a key role in this phenomenon. In Moscow and the Moscow region mostly young people aged 25-35 use consumer loans for private car purchase. As a rule, they are managers and specialists, who are active drivers and spend much more time driving than adult drivers. In addition, over the period of 2006 – 2013 in the region adjacent to Moscow a large number of accommodations were built. Owners and families of those accommodations prefer to work and spend spare time in Moscow that exercises significant influence on automobile traffic state (the growth of cars number in the Moscow region over 2013 made up 5,4%). All the above mentioned lead to traffic jams. Based on the results of The world capital of traffic jams (The world capital of traffic jams, 2014) research review, average congestion level of common streets in Moscow in 2013 was 66%, in case of high roads this indicator was equal to 63%. During rush hours time delay in a traffic jam is 74 minutes on the basis of one-hour path. According to the estimate of the head of Department of Transportation and Road Transport Infrastructure Development of the city of Moscow Liksutov M. (Liksutov M., 2014) permissible quantity of cars on Moscow roads is exceeded by almost 500 thousand. The heaviest day for driving in Moscow is Tuesday both in the morning and in the evening. On this day the capital’s traffic network is congested by 120-160%. The above-mentioned circumstances became a prerequisite to the need for PT research based on some parametric indicators analysis. Research client is public institution “Organizator perevozok” of Moscow city (based on tender won by Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution HVE Plekhanov Russian University of Economics).