Global promotion of HSE Saint Petersburg scientific laboratory of logistics research: academic and commercial perspectives

Moreover, in Moscow logistics sphere is developing very successfully. Thought, there are no specific narrowly focused laboratories in this field, there is the School of Logistics where people can be learned a wide range of logistics disciplines and contribute to research in this sphere. The School has various directions of scientific studies: logistics audit of company's operation, development of various concepts and technologies in supply management sphere and their implementation, contemporary approaches to logistics field, mathematical and economic modelling of supply chain system, and others. The School of Logistics usually participate in various scientific events and organize their own ones. The faculty, also, support the publishing of the scientific journal “Logistics and Supply Chain Management”.

Furthermore, in Moscow some research papers of Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology touch upon the topic of supply chain management. We consider that in perspective researches in logistics sphere can be conducted in Research Laboratory of Social Research of the city (Moscow), which is aimed to study the living and development of the city by its residents that is closely connected with transport. The same sphere of interests can share Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (Moscow).

1.9 Analysis of ongoing promotional activities of Scientific Laboratory of Logistics Research

Scientific Laboratory of Logistics Research fully meets the development trends of the logistics services market. Сurrently, the main activities of the laboratory are: inventory management (in particular, with low demand and short time series); qualitative (expert) assessments when making decisions; assessment of reliability (based on failure models) and supply chain efficiency (methods of economic analysis).

As for the ways of searching the customers, the Academic Supervisor of the laboratory of the laboratory identify the communication with scientific colleagues as a beneficial way of customers searching, for example, professional interaction with the HSE Center for Applied Research and Development in St. Petersburg. Among the major customers of the laboratory, one can distinguish: State Unitary Enterprise «Passazhiravtotrans», HSE - St. Petersburg, the Committee for Public Service and Personnel Policy of the Administration of the Governor of St. Petersburg.

Speaking about the methods for popularization of scientific results, the only source of informing the general public that the laboratory use is the website of HSE St. Petersburg, where the current news is posted. That is information about new researches, future meetings and events (conferences, lectures, seminars, masterclasses).

In comparison with the colleagues from other HSE scientific laboratories, who use a wider range of activities for laboratory promotion and popularization of its scientific researches, the promotional activities of Scientific Laboratory of Logistics Research may be improved and some of them may be borrowed from the colleagues. Moreover, the director of the Center for Organization of Science and Academic Development in the interview noticed the possibility of improvement of that sphere of the laboratory operation.

1.10 The popularization of science and researches' results in Russian Federation and abroad

The popularization of science and its results is one of the first missions of every government. In order to contribute to the country's growth, the state should develop and invest in all spheres of country development, including scientific discoveries, researches and education. Such areas of study need a lot of investments and support.

In April 2020 the President of Russian Federation Putin V. instructed the government of the Russian Federation to develop additional measures of state support for the popularization of science by June 15, including providing for the creation of educational animation and film productions. Moreover, on the meeting in Cherepovets Putin answered the questions from students, innovators, managers and others who worried about the science popularization and education programs. Putin promised to finance many projects, ideas, help people with difficult situations with education from federal budget, correct some laws and develop new suggestions for improvement the popularization of science in Russia. Likewise, the Ministry of science and higher education of the Russian Federation takes many orders to provide grants for people who have won competitions in scientific and technical fields.

To compare with others countries, The US consistently holds the lead in R&D investment. According to the research of Institute for Statistical studies and Economics of knowledge of HSE university in 2017, the US accounted for 34 % of global spending in this area. In total, $502.9 billion was invested, which was 2.7 % of the country's GDP. The next countries invested most of their budget on internal science and developments are China - $408 billion, Korea - $170 billion and Germany - $114 billion. Russia holds 10th place with spending of $37,3 billion. However, in terms of the share of science expenditures in GDP, the top five are Israel (4.25%), the Republic of Korea (4.23%), Switzerland (3.42%), Japan (3.29%) and Sweden (3.28%). The United States and China, the leaders in terms of domestic spending on R&D, occupy the 11th and 18th places in terms of their share in GDP, respectively (2.79 and 2.07%), while Russia holds only 35th place with expenditures of 1.10%. (ISSEK, 2017).

One more way of the collection of investments on discoveries and promotion of researches is scientific foundations, which help many projects. There is the range of different funds both in Russia and abroad. For example, they include: 1) The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The Japan society for the advancement of science (JSPS) is an independent administrative organization that aims to promote the advancement of science in all areas of natural, social, and human knowledge. JSPS plays an important role in the administration of a wide range of scientific and academic programs. 2) Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research. The Foundation encourages international collaboration and supports international mobility by providing opportunities for researchers to gain experience or work within international research groups or by inviting researchers from abroad.

Some of Russian foundations can be distinguished:

1. Oxford Russian Foundation. The Foundation promotes the dissemination of current educational initiatives that are promising for the development of Russian education, and conducts joint events of Russian and British educational centers.

2. Russian Science Foundation. The Russian Science Foundation was established on the initiative of the President of the Russian Federation to support fundamental and exploratory research and develop research teams that hold leading positions in a particular field of science. The Foundation conducts competitive selection of scientific, scientific and technical programs and projects in several areas. Such areas, in particular, are the conduct of proactive fundamental and exploratory research by research teams, individual scientific and scientific-pedagogical workers, the development of scientific organizations and educational organizations of higher education, the creation of world-class laboratories and departments in scientific organizations and educational organizations of higher education, the development of an experimental base for research.

The popularization of researches' results in Russian Federation and abroad began to exist and continues growing via the channels, which are scholarly communication and scientific social media. One of the examples is an educational and networking project RVK “Laboratory of communications” in Russia, which was formed in 2015. The goals of the project are to synchronize the vision and develop common standards for information exchange between the research community, the media and the general public, as well as identifying a new class of specialists: communicators in the scientific field. The main tasks of it are to help the scientific, educational and media communities establish effective interaction, learn to understand each other, meet common communication standards, and contribute to the development of a culture and infrastructure for information exchange between science and the media. Immediately after the project was created, they started regular activities, the laboratory was awarded a special prize “the Best project for promoting scientific achievements and innovations” in 2015. There was the research of the dynamics of the development of the field of scientific communications conducted, which revealed a trend to increase the audience's interest in scientific achievements and discoveries, and an increase in the number of users of scientific sources by 60%. Also, many regions of Russian Federation were involved in the project and they created the collection of best practices in the field of scientific communications "Formula of scientific PR 2.0". During 2015, more than 150 publications were published in Federal and regional media, the events of the project were covered by 3 media partners. The laboratory's activities so far include conducting scientific master classes, various intensives such as the intensive on scientific museums at ITMO in 2017, the first science slam of scientific communicators in 2017, events on scientific communications and updating the aggregator of scientific news "Open science". Also, Moscow campus of HSE University is known by the fact that their professors hold open lectures in Gorky park for everyone who want to visit. The professors of St. Petersburg campus sometimes hold open lectures in bars, cafes and lecture halls. These activities are also used for promoting and distributing of the results of HSE studies and discoveries of other known universities.

Сonsidering all of the above, there is the range of countries, which invest in the fields of science, research and developments more, than Russian Federation. Consequently, some scientific institutions and centers experience difficulties with research execution, promotion of the results of their researches and attracting the specialists and students to this sphere. However, in 2020, there is a tendency for the state of Russia and its President to understand the importance of popularizing and supporting science and scientific institutions. Moreover, the field of science gets from the funds, which were founded for money collection for the benefit and development of discoveries. Also, there is the organization of scientific communication of ITMO university, which help to popularize the researches' results and popularize science to the masses. HSE University professors in Moscow campus arrange open lectures in the Gorky Park, while professors of St. Petersburg campus hold open lectures in cafes and lecture halls, that can be used for popularizing results of research too.

2. Analysis of situation

This paper is aimed to analyse the operational activity of the logistics laboratory of the HSE university, which was created in 2013 in St. Petersburg. Speaking about its main tasks, they are: conduction of research and project works for various enterprises and for strategic goals of the university, organization of commercial additional professional education in the sphere of logistics. The logistics laboratory function due to perspective scientific directions of study in supply chain management using modern computer technologies.

As it was already mentioned, science popularization is quite an important and perspective activity and direction of study, development of global promotional tools for Logistics laboratory aimed on science popularization in general and on the increasing the popularity of the HSE University and Lab in academic sphere in particular. Furthermore, supply chain management is quite a popular direction of research, as with the development of informational technologies, logistics sphere started to change and new methods and techniques are needed to be observed (Bьyьkцzkan, Gцзer, 2018). This fact draws students and experienced specialists to this sphere.

Logistics laboratory conducts various researches that are significant and can be interesting to a wide audience of people. Consequently, the relevant problem of the research lies in the fact that existing promotional tools cannot provide that spread of scientific knowledge and the range of marketing tools are needed to be extended in order to raise the awareness of the laboratory and its researchers among students, educational institutions and in international academic sphere. We aim to solve this task through development of the promotional strategy which will be effective in this particular case. That creation of popularization strategy will allow to rise the laboratory brand in academic sphere among researchers and potential customers and investors. Furthermore, with the regard to the tendency of science popularization, automation and digitalization, promote the logistics laboratory will be relevant these days and benefits for the HSE university and its reputation. Moreover, it could contribute to attracting students and new specialists of logistics field to the lab.

As for the formulation of the research programme, it is organized as follows. Firstly, we will analyse the official website of the laboratory to collect all the information about it. Secondly, we will do two in-depth interviews which consists of open-ended questions with the director of the Center for Organization of Science and Academic Development and Academic Supervisor of the laboratory. This type of interview is chosen, as it allows to gain more detailed and reliable information about laboratory activities without our own influence of the respondent and, consequently, to identify main problems and tasks of the laboratory correctly. The interview will last for, approximately, one hour. Thirdly, we will examine the existing literature about laboratories promotion, that could be relevant and applicable in our case to understand the best practices in this field. Further, the next stage is content analysis of the interview that lead to analysis of the data. Then, we will conduct the next analyses, which will help us to investigate the company internally and externally and propose the global promotional methods for it: market analysis, SWOT, Pest, Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning and Benchmarking analysis. The mentioned analyses allow as to divide market into customer segments, to make conclusions about target market and target audience, to identify key partners and competitors and concept of positioning. Also, we will be able to suggest the new tools of promotion for HSE Logistics laboratory after implementation of the comparison of its promotional activities with the best practices of similar laboratories worldwide. Next, all collected information will be used for creation of the set of global promotional tools for the benefit of science and laboratory popularization. Finally, we will give our recommendations on the basis of well-reasoned arguments.

As for the formulation of the research programme, it is organized as follows. Firstly, we will analyze the official website of the laboratory to collect all the information about it. Secondly, we will examine the existing literature about laboratories promotion, that could be relevant and applicable in our case to understand the best practices in this field. Thirdly, we will carry out two in-depth interviews with the director of the Center for Organization of Science and Academic Development and Academic Supervisor of the logistics laboratory. This type of interview is chosen, as it allows to gain more detailed and reliable information about laboratory activities without our own influence of the respondent and, consequently, to identify main problems and tasks of the laboratory correctly. Further, the next stage is content analysis of the interview that lead to analysis of the data. Then, in order to propose the promotional activities, appropriate for HSE logistics laboratory it is needed to investigate the company internally and externally and conduct the following analysis: extended SWOT, PEST, market analysis, Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning and Benchmarking analysis. The mentioned analyses allow as to get information about internal conditions, external environment and the market, to divide market into customer segments, to make conclusions about target market and target audience and concept of positioning, to find out the best methods of popularization of leading scientific units. Finally, all collected information will be used for creation of recommended promotional activities appropriate for HSE logistics laboratory for the benefit of its popularization.

The analyses are presented below.

2.1 Extended SWOT analysis

The SWOT analysis is needed for identifying the internal strong and weak sides of the laboratory, its abilities and risks. Extended SWOT analysis is used for descripting of strategy of strengths and opportunities, strategy of weaknesses and opportunities, strategy of strengths and threats and weaknesses and threats. The analysis is made by analyzing activities of the lab, website of HSE University and based on the answers of the interview of scientific laboratory of logistics research advisor Valery S. Lukinskiy and Director of the center for organization of science and academic development Marina Y. Makhotaeva.

Strong sides of the lab include focus on real processes-integrated management of material and related information, financial and human resources flows; scientific potential that is many years of practical experience in the field of logistics and experience in researches and work with governmental and commercial orders; active participation of laboratory workers in international conferences with their presentations and reports; an international cooperation with the University of Finland the Pan-European Institute (Turku School of Economics, Finland); provision of services and preparation of research on the orders of public authorities and private companies; provision of services for qualitative (expert) assessments in decision-making; evaluation of reliability based on failure models and supply chain efficiency (methods of economic analysis). As for weaknesses, there are lack of time for all projects; lack of specialists and scientific staff in the laboratory; reduced activity on the laboratory's website due to the business of laboratory researchers, infrequent updating of information; lack of marketing activities, tools for promoting the laboratory and the absence of marketers; the logistics laboratory is not so well known in comparison with other HSE laboratories in the internal and external academic environment.

Opportunities description involves the demand for research in the field of logistics and SCM, an increase in the number of private logistics firms; increase in material state or university support allocated to logistics research; international cooperation with foreign universities, specialists and organizations; trend in research in the field of digitalization of logistics processes and assessment of the impact of coronavirus on the supply chain; people's interest in logistics, the tendency to trend towards obtaining the profession in the field of logistics; an increase in the number of applicants and those wishing to receive additional education; publication in prestigious international scientific journals.

Description of threats include the next risks: global economic downturn, reduction of financial support from HSE University and the government of Russia and the decline in demand for orders in the logistics industry due to coronavirus infection (Seanews, 2020).

The strategy of strengths-opportunities (SO) includes these activities that must be carried out in order to use strengths to increase the capabilities of the company and become even better. The laboratory should strive to maximize both strengths and opportunities. Focusing on the strengths of the lab, it can obtain the next capabilities: attracting successful students, beginners and qualified specialists in the field of logistics to transfer many years of practical experience, research experience in this field and work on real processes, provision of an exchange of experience, exchange of specialists of the lab, development of networking with the University of Finland, possible joint discoveries and publication of joint research in electronic resources or journals of foreign universities and expanding international cooperation with other foreign universities through existing links with it; creation of a corporate identity and logo of the laboratory to position itself as a modern scientific brand that provides quality consulting services, makes the range of important and up-to-date researches, is an expert in its field and constantly develops there; increasing the number of laboratory researches in the logistics sector with presentation of them at conferences; be the first laboratory who increases the number of studies on contemporary topics, present its results at conferences, universities and even open informal urban events (parks, cafes, lecture halls and scientific meetings) like several professor of HSE arrange in Moscow and Saint Petersburg; actively publishing the researches' results on the laboratory's website in details and distribute inside the university, an increase of the number of additional education courses and master classes, attracting prospective students to the university and logistics companies for cooperation and the provision of services.

Weaknesses-opportunities (WO) strategy presents the activities which are directed on overcoming weak sides and using the presented opportunities. The problem of lack of time for project and research work can be solved by increasing the staff of the scientific lab through attracting new employees, for example, students, who will assist leading experts and other workers in order to contribute to the number of projects growth and to be able to take more orders for research. Infrequent site updates can be corrected by engaging and assigning tasks to a marketer, copywriter, HSE Students or workers, and software developers who work on HSE sites and applications, who can regularly update the site and fill in information about current events and research at the laboratory. In order to increase of people's awareness about the logistics laboratory, it is needed to use various tools to promote the laboratory in the internal and external environment. Firstly, start a closer collaboration with the faculty of logistics to increase awareness in the internal environment and attract students, involve them in research with the opportunity to take advantage of and develop their modern young ideas and developments. Secondly, collaborate with companies with attracting their real projects and cases and in the same time attracting students is an excellent opportunity to unite employers, researchers and students to carry out scientific and practical activities, thus giving students the opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge in practice in the laboratory; opportunity to undergo practical training and employment in the laboratory and promote the laboratory both in the academic market and in the market of commercial orders. Collaboration with HSE University laboratories in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow helps to recognize the laboratory inside the university. Thirdly, collaborate on the Russian and international academic market with universities and other scientific communities and publish in prestigious cited journals and resources contribute to promotion on the global academic market. Fourthly, contact third-party designers or the faculty of design of the HSE Saint Petersburg with the task of branding the laboratory: make a personal logo, corporate identity, position the laboratory as a young, innovative brand.

Strengths-threats (ST) strategy include those advantages which can protect the laboratory from uncontrolled external factors. The goal of these strategies is to maximize the development of string sides and minimize the risks. To cope with the downturn in the global economy, activation of scientific studies in the time of crisis after a coronavirus infection. As for possible decline in demand for logistics research, the logistics lab can avoid this, as scientific potential, professionalism and reputation in the market will always result in demand for research and projects from the laboratory. However, if dramatic downturn in the global economy happen, the logistics sphere, the success and activities of logistics companies may be severely affected, and they may simply not have free financial resources for consulting services of the laboratory, however, there may be an opportunity when companies need the help of the laboratory to restore a stable situation in the organization.

The strategy of weaknesses and threats (WT) involves activities that minimize weaknesses to avoid threats. In order to be in demand, well-known and always on the ear even in times of crisis, the lab should provide free online lessons and master classes on educational platforms and YouTube; tell people more about their research, their relevance and importance, their success, their large customers, publish their reviews, attract sponsors through carrying out research on current topics; after the quarantine is lifted, arrange offline seminars on current topics in logistics; hold lectures on the popularity and prospects of the logistics profession with the help of volunteers, the head of the lab and its employees; send information about news, discoveries, events and new researches of the lab to the HSE news, create inform channels: laboratory page in VK or telegram channel with news and again offer of cooperation and joint works with famous scientists and famous universities.

2.2 PEST analysis

It is essential to examine external environment of the laboratory to find out the most useful promotional activities. To evaluate the influence of external factors on the laboratory's operation PEST analysis should be conducted. It is necessary to identify trends and factors in political, economic, social and technological spheres that may make the laboratory's operation harder or improve its position on the market. Moreover, the stated factors should be analyzed by the expert in terms of significance and degree of influence of each factor and how they will change over years.

Political factors have a great impact on scientific and technological development in Russia, as well as on development of logistics sphere. All that, consequently, influence the work of the logistics research laboratory. Speaking about current situation, there is an active state policy in the field of scientific and technological development, notably implementation of the strategy of scientific and technological development until 2035, the National project "Science", the state program "Scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation for 2019-2030." Also, the investments in that sphere are regulated, the government policy on management of investments is aimed at formation of effective system of investment attractiveness growth. The governmental programs are also aimed at international cooperation between scientists from different countries in order to increase the effectiveness of Russian science with the help of beneficial cooperation. Furthermore, the program protects the identity of Russian scientific developments and governmental interests in this sphere. The implementation of that governmental programs can be monitored on the official website "Scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation". All the stated governmental programs positively contribute to the development of scientific researches in Russia.

The topic of science popularization is also quite important nowadays, on which governments projects contribute a lot. So, in 2019 the Russian Academy of Science created the Commission on science popularization. The Commission has a wide range of directions of work, but some of them can be distinguished among them, such as interaction with employees of research units and universities and support of educational and scientific events in purpose of science popularization. That fact has a great impact on development of research and scientific organization and promotion of their results.

Some of the governmental decisions has an effect on the sphere of logistics, for example changes in the international trade. According to PwC analysis (2019), the One Belt and One Road Initiative may lead to the rapid growth of transport corridors, which in its term will lead to growth of trade volume between European Union and China. The international logistics will change because of new land trade routes and new investment projects on their development. That positively contribute to the development of logistics sphere.

Overall, the political factors have a great impact on development of logistics sphere and influence the scientific unit's operation a lot.

Not so long time ago the coronavirus has changed the world a lot. Among other spheres it has a negative impact on economic situation of the country. So, according to Moody's forecast, Russia's GDP will decline by 5.5% this year and the growth rate of the country decline. Furthermore, due to such changes in the economy, according to the data of the analytical center of NAFI, there is a decrease of companies' income, consequently, the decrease of their expenses accrues, also, on scientific researches. The virus influences the transport and logistics industry, too. According to Peregrine Storrs-Fox (director of risk management at TT Club of Myuchel Insurance Ltd.) the coronavirus negatively influences that sphere of operation, namely there are reduction in the volume of goods produced and delays in sending, that have a strong impact on income of cargo owners and other logistics companies. Speaking about The HSE University operation, it has a direct influence on the scientific laboratory. So, University budget allocation policy changes may occur due to the unstable economic situation in the world (due to coronavirus) and lead to decline in funding.

Nevertheless, there are projects that positively influence the transport and logistics sphere. So, there is a strategy of railway transport in the Russian Federation until 2030. According to it, more than 20 thousand km of new lines are planning to build and the density of the railway network will be increased by 24%.

It can be seen that the virus influences the economic situation of the country dramatically, moreover, its impact is negative. That affects every sphere of activity and scientific researches are not the exemption.

As for the social factors, the coronavirus has an impact on this sphere, too. So, it is expected the increasing interest in scientific researches in different spheres of science, which facilitates business processes and helps them to overcome crises. Moreover, World Health Organization accelerates the pace of research and innovations fighting against the virus, which will lead to the activation of scientific communities not only in the medical, but also in other areas.

Another factor that influence the Laboratory is changes in status of HSE University prestige. So, In the QS 2020 ranking, the HSE rose to 110th place, in comparison in 2019 it was on the 113th place. Mostly, that happened due to research activities of the University, namely the growth of citation indicators, which means that HSE researches are becoming more and more popular. Actions of other universities has an effect on science popularization of laboratories results, also. Creation of specialized training for specialists who are aimed to transfer the scientific knowledge from scientists to a wide audience contribute to science popularization a lot. For example, in 2019 there were opened a new master's program “Scientific Journalism and Communication” at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University. That may be a positive tendency of teaching specialists who will successfully contribute to this sphere. It is also very important to provide freedom of information and media independence in order to transform the actual information from the scientists to the general public without any restrictions.

Overall, social factors do not have such a dramatic impact, as political and economic, though they a quite important to monitor them for the laboratory operation.

Another type of factors is important in term of the laboratory researches, its technological factors that determine the directions of researches. The main trends are presented in the PwC analyses “Review of transport and logistics development trends in 2019”. According to it, artificial Intelligence developments may influence the logistics sphere a lot. Artificial intelligence-based solutions can fundamentally change the management mechanisms of operations, transportation and networks, but at the current level of maturity, such solutions will require more than 3 years to enter the mass market. The next trend is digitalization that affects the development of transport and logistics and solutions in the field of digitalization and new trade routes, such as by decisions in the implementation of new software. Experts notice that in the medium term, process automation will have a moderate impact on a large number of segments of the transport and logistics industry - mail, courier delivery, express delivery, package delivery, online commerce, freight forwarding and supply chain management. Another important factor is the development of Information technology, for instance, e-commerce, block chain, management systems. The researchers claim that Information technology development and spreading will have a moderate impact on all segments of the transport and logistics services market, which will become noticeable no earlier than in 3 years.

The technological factors that are closely connected with the scientific developments of the laboratory, that means that influence of stated trends is dramatic.

The evaluation of factors in terms of their significance and degree of influence on laboratory operation and how they will change over years is presented below. They are evaluated by Academic Supervisor of the logistics laboratory Lukinsky Valery Sergeevich in the Table 1 below the text.

Table 1

The evaluation of PEST analysis factors in terms of their significance and degree of influence on laboratory's operation.

*The evaluation was made by the Academic Advisor of the Laboratory of Logistics Research Lukinsky Valery Sergeevich.

2.3 Segmentation and targeting

To identify the main groups of consumers and their characteristics the segmentation and targeting analysis should be carried out. That is needed for successful selection of promotional activities that will be beneficially work in the case of the Laboratory.

Speaking about the market, it is the academic research market, where is possible to find the partner, cooperation with which will be beneficial for researches. The laboratory of logistics research is aimed to find international partner universities, scientific laboratories and centers, and the same scientific institutions in the Russian Federation.

As for the international partnership:

· The scientific universities should be from developed countries, such as Germany, Holland and Finland.

· Areas of research should be logistics and supply chain management (material and related flows management).

The Russian partners are chosen according to their research activities and scientific potential in the field of logistics and supply chain management.

The market of commercial research is very important in terms of additional source of finances for the laboratory researches and future development. The most beneficial segments on this market are private companies and governmental bodies.

Private companies should meet the following requirements:

· Big company with about 2600 monthly volume shipments of transport.

· Operates on international market.

· Manufacturing company.

The example of such company is a group of companies “Sveza”, which is world leader in manufacturing birch plywood.

The cooperation with government is also a beneficial source of additional projects. The research laboratory has successful experience of working with some of them and the most perspective is the projects with the following ones:

· Administration of St. Petersburg,

· State unitary enterprises (Metropolitan, «Vodokanal», «Lensvet», «Passazhivototrans», «Gorelektrotrans», etc.)

As it was already mentioned, science popularization is extremely important is science development. Successful promotion of scientific results is aimed not only at drawing students, new researches, scientific communities and business units but also at creation of positive image of the University, where the laboratory operates. The successful popularization of research results allows general audience to know about the HSE logistics laboratory, increase its popularity and awareness and, consequently, increase the popularity of HSE University brand. That, in its tern, contribute to more scientific researches carried out by the university.

In the case of the laboratory, the general public is people from 16 years old have started to think about their future profession and about the university to enter). That young generation can be drawn at informal events and lectures, such as VK fest, through social media and social networks. The older groups can be also drawn by social media and events but with the more serious content.

Speaking about the academic job one, it is a market of people working on administrative or teaching positions in higher education institutions and other scientific or research institutions. On this market the most attractive segments are students of HSE, who can be a source of additional help in researches and a future potential scientific worker; scientific researches from other institutions in Russia and from abroad for the exchange of knowledge and work experience.

According to the interview with Academic Supervisor of the laboratory, the laboratory is willing to draw students of HSE studying on the program "Strategic Logistics Management", who meet the following requirements:

· Has basic knowledge in the field of logistics and supply chain management.

· English proficiency at the advanced level: search, reading literature, writing texts.

· Has a developed skills of data searching and data analysis.

· Interested in inventory management, qualitative assessments in decision making, assessment of reliability (based on failure models) and supply chain efficiency (methods of economic analysis).

As for scientific researches from other institutions in Russia and from abroad, they will get the position in the laboratory due to their working experience, according to the same requirements for the both groups:

· Research experience in the sphere of logistics and supply chain management.

· Publications in leading journals.

· Fluency in English.

Overall, we identified the following segments: universities, scientific laboratories and centers in the Russian Federation and abroad, private companies, government bodies, the general public, HSE students, new employees from the Russian Federation, new international employees. The main consumers and attracting audience of the HSE Logistic Research Laboratory are focused on the academic research market, commercial research market and academic job market.

2.4 Positioning

It is important to have an overall picture on the laboratory's place on the market and its distinguish features. For beneficial promotional activities exploration, the positioning should be carried out.

The Scientific Laboratory of Logistics Research is the scientific research laboratory, which operates as a part of HSE University and carries out researches in the logistics sphere. The main consumers of the laboratory services are big manufacturing companies operating internationally and governmental bodies, such as Administration of St. Petersburg and state unitary enterprises. The Laboratory carries out consulting activities and meets companies' needs in logistics and supply chain management spheres (material and related flows management). Unlike its competitors, companies that provide consulting services in logistics sphere, the laboratory has a great scientific base of knowledge and experience, moreover, due to continuous research activities it obtains up-to-date information about logistics sphere. Also, the cooperation with other research laboratories allows researchers of the laboratory to solve problems and tasks of the companies connected with related areas of logistics. Thus, the customer gets a working solution of its task or problem, with the use of modern knowledge and techniques in sphere of logistics and supply chain management.

Also, the laboratory is aimed at popularization of its scientific results in order to spread the scientific knowledge to the general public and increase the awareness about the laboratory in academic circles and increase the popularity of the HSE University.

Overall, the positioning strategy is formulated as follows: St. Petersburg HSE Scientific Laboratory of Logistics Research carries out researches and provides consulting services in the logistics and supply chain management spheres for big international manufacturing companies and governmental bodies, such as Administration of St. Petersburg and state unitary enterprises, unlike its competitors, the laboratory has a great scientific base of constantly updated knowledge and experience due to new researches and use modern techniques in tasks solving.

In conclusion, the formulated positioning strategy reflects the main competitive advantages of the Laboratory and form the overall image of the Laboratory on the market.

2.5 Market analysis

In order to have the clearest understanding of the studying market, the industry and its players, the market analysis should be conducted.

The largest and most developed logistics companies are located in the USA and Europe, which account for 85% of the market, while Russia's share of the global market is considered low enough for such a favorable location between Europe and Asia - 1, 4% (IMF, 2018).

There are three main types of services in logistics section. They are transportation and forwarding services. integrated logistics and logistics management services. There is international classification of logistics services which has used in foreign market predominantly. It assumes several levels of the services. The first partly logistics (1PL) is independent logistics, second partly (2PL) is usage of services of highly specialized operators like transport services, warehouse services, IT services, etc. Third partly logistics (3PL) is one of the popular and common type of the companies whose logistics functions are outsourced to the logistics operator of the complex logistics service. Examples of large companies that furnish complex logistics services: Schenker, NLC, FM Logistic, KIA and Kuehne&Nagel. One more type is Fourth Party Logistics (4PL), the services of which include inventory management, supply chain planning, integration of information technology systems, management of document flow, strategic planning, consulting, personnel leasing, and other services. Also, there is fifth Party Logistics (5PL) imply 4PL services with big use of the Internet as a single platform which provides deep and comprehensive coordination and interaction with the customers (Ojala, L., & Celebi, D., 2015).

Leading logistics companies over the world are Amazon, TNT, UPS, DHL, FM-Logistic, Kuehne and Nagel, DB Schenker, STS Logistics (Arvis, J. F., Saslavsky, D., et al., 2016). Leading logistics companies in the Russian market are national logistics company according to Infoline Logistics Russia rating of 2018 are open society RZD, “United transport and logistics company - Eurasian railway Alliance”, Russian division of DHL Group, FM Logistic, The Group of Companies Eltrans and others.

Regarding the world tendencies of international logistics development, there are the impact of globalization and internalization on modern logistics and the growth of cargo transportation volumes in containers (Yakunina, 2014). As for main tendencies of the leaders of the companies on the world logistics market, the development strategy of many leading 3PL operators is focused on the development of their own technology platforms. For example, in March, EXPA Logistics announced the introduction of the DriveXPO mobile platform in Europe. Previously, the system was launched in North America. Also, the German Corporation DHL recently introduced the digital platform CILLOX, which is done for connection of shippers and carriers in Germany and Europe.

Regarding the results of 2019 and trends of 2020, the logistics field development was distinguished because of 3PL operators consolidate logistics services market between them, while medium and small companies have difficulties with high competition and harsh requirements from the government. There is a trend for automation and digitalization, this will develop and be important in 2020. The defining factor is consumer capacity of the population, which will determine the growth rate and direction of development of the logistics industry (Kolotvina, 2020). By 2020 every company will manage supply chain in real time with the use of internet of things.

In 2020 and 2021, a significant slowdown in production is expected, as well as a decrease in demand due to the high observed level of inflation and a decrease in the purchasing power of the population due to coronavirus infection. (Kolotvina, 2020). Moreover, according to the Global Customer report 2019, testing of robotics in the warehouse has increased by 18% compared to last year. So, there will be activation of robotization in 2020. Over last years the logistics industry has begun to integrate artificial intelligence, including intelligent transportation, route planning, and demand planning. Apart from artificial intelligence, augmented reality and advanced intelligence will probably be used in the next year. Advanced intelligence combines human intelligence with automated artificial intelligence processes. As an example, the use of advanced intelligence logistics planning may even exceed the use of Artificial Intelligence only, because it is a combination of human capabilities (customer service, experience, flexibility) with artificial intelligence technologies, which should perform the rest repetitive and tedious work.