Marketing of places and development of localities



The administration of the localities should be concerned about the way in which the local offer is presented to different categories of consumers, increasing the attractiveness of the locality, ensuring the flow of investments, people, information, technologies, qualified specialists. In order to encourage these flows, it is advisable to model the target audience's perception of the locality, a possible goal to be achieved through the marketing approach towards managing the locality.

Key words: marketing places, marketing mix.

«Every place competes with other places to get the economic advantage. Communities are launching various initiatives to attract commercial companies and production units, corporate headquarters, investment capital, tourists and conference participants, sports teams... all of which promise to bring more jobs, higher incomes, more trade, more investment and development» [1, p.16]. Therefore, a new market has been formed, the market place, where the localities present themselves as bidders, the territory being presented as a product, and the marketing as an activity designed to promote and sell this product. Localities that fail to impose themselves on the territory market as bidders are at risk of remaining at the same level of development. Under these conditions, it is recommended to pay special attention to the possibilities of applying the marketing of places to ensure the sustainable development of localities.

The marketing of places involves the application of marketing tools at the level of the locality, considering its peculiarities and specificity, as well as the communication to the target audience of the information about the locality, the formation of the positive image of the locality, the information about the manufactured goods on its territory, the popularization of the investment attractiveness of the locality. It is worth mentioning that in the case of the marketing of places, the main purpose is not to earn income, but to increase the competitiveness of the locality, to increase the welfare of the citizens. Among the strategic objectives to be pursued can be highlighted the following: boosting the development of local society; contributions to population growth; creating a favorable climate for the development of the business environment; supporting small and medium business; encouraging exports of products made in the locality; attracting investments, etc. Achieving the above-mentioned goals and objectives involves identifying the financial resources that can be obtained from both budget sources and foreign direct investments. By identifying the economic, social, cultural particularities of the locality, it is possible to solve the problems it faces and achieve the objectives. In this sense a possible solution would be the marketing approach that will enable the locality to increase competitiveness and the level of development.

To begin with, it's important to identify the target segments. The potential consumers of the locality are natural and legal people, who present interest to the locality (visitors, travelers, investors, etc.) as well as natural and legal people, the attraction of whom should be avoided (firms with precarious situations, ex-prisoners) and can be divided in the following target segments:

1. Visitors, who may be business visitors and visitors without business purposes (tourists, travelers, relatives, friends). The money spent by this segment on the commune's territory influences the population's incomes, the occupancy rate of the inhabitants and the breakdowns in the local budget.
2. Permanent residents, residents and workers. Communes can attract unskilled labor force (servants, day workers) and qualified specialists (doctors, teachers, agronomists, foresters, etc.).
3. Investors and industry, which is represented by service and production companies, economic investments, trading companies and new business sectors.
4. Export markets, the activity on these markets expresses the commune's ability to produce goods and services that physical and legal people from other localities are willing to buy [1].

Like classic marketing, in place marketing, strategies are developed for each of the elements of the marketing mix, according to particularities of the localities. Thus, the product is the offer of the locality, the price involves the identification and establishment of the payment terms and conditions for the offer of the locality, the placement — the marketing of the opportunities identified in the locality, the promotion — the creation and the promotion of the image of the locality.

The locality itself is regarded as a product, which is required to be designed, promoted, sold. The «product» in this case represents the potential of the locality and constitutes a complex set of products and services (investment offers, tourist and cultural activities, information on public services, etc.) meant to different categories of customers. In place marketing, the product is a complex structure consisting of three components:

1. Quantity and quality of resources on the territory of the locality, namely geographic position, natural, social, technological resources. Natural materials can include building materias, energy resources, mineral deposits, soil, water, climatic conditions, etc. It is subject to the analysis of their distribution and the provision of the respective resources of the branches of rational economy. Social resources are composed of all the relationships between people living in this territory. It is necessary to characterize the population (structure by age, migration, birth, etc.), its distribution in the territory, traditional occupations, social structure etc. Technological resources are presented by those resources that enable the production activity. This category includes: the existing conditions for supporting the small and medium business, the possibility of applying advanced technologies, the number of people able to work, the business climate, the development of the infrastructure, etc.
2. Indicators of the economic and social development of the locality. The man looks at the locality as the place where he will spend his/her life, he/she will work, will be paid for the work done and will spend his/her own income. So, the person chooses the locality as an object of satisfying his/her own economic and social interests. Indicators reflecting the level of economic and social development of the locality are: average wage per inhabitant, the minimum consumption basket, salary deductions, unemployment, health insurance, education system, production volume of enterprises, sales volume of goods and services, etc.
3. The internal factors, represented by the legislative and executive committee of the locality, exercising the leading functions. Local public authorities should be aware that they are acting in the interest of citizens and that their behavior depends on the attractiveness of the locality.

All these characteristics are of major importance for citizens who decide to live or work in this territory. So, the locality is socially, geographically, economically, politically appreciated, and in any situation, there is the possibility to compare and choose according to the requirements of «consumers».

The price also plays an important role in the social-economic development of the locality. Under market economy conditions, the price is a link between supply and demand. In case of place marketing, the development of the pricing policy is based on the same principle. The price of the land depends on the demand for the proposed offer, the administration of the town being limited in the price adjustment actions, because the way of price formation of the place has certain peculiarities. In place marketing, the price is expressed in the costs incurred by consumers. On different target segments the price of the territory is formed from various types of expenses. For resident citizens, the cost consists of the cost of living, the level of wages, pensions, incentives, the price of products and services offered. For non-resident citizens (tourists) — from the cost of holiday vouchers, pocket expenses, daily allowance. For entrepreneurs — in the first stage, there are expenses related to transportation, food, accommodation, time and effort of experts involved in gathering information about the locality, the veracity and accessibility of the information, the choice of location of the activity. The second stage considers the costs of project development, land preparation and actual construction. The site vendor is sometimes deprived of the possibility to influence prices on some products and services, for example, the price of construction materials, machinery, because the existence of permanent suppliers is possible. Here, the seller can intervene by offering exemptions, lowering the tax, creating a favorable business climate, and delivering production conditions, thus retaining the investor.

Distribution, as an instrument of site marketing, represents all the activities related to the placement of the offer and the marketing of the opportunities of the locality. The location of the production of goods and services depends largely on the specific nature of the activity. The location of the enterprise is also based on the existence of natural resources, human resources and consumers on this territory. So, every locality fits into a particular business. Requirements to intellectual potential, advanced technologies make it more difficult to choose the territory. From the choice of the land, the information is selected to create and increase interest in the locality.

The promotion actions aim at forming and consolidating the positive image of the locality, increasing the attractiveness and competitiveness of the locality, stimulating the use of available resources outside the locality for the satisfaction of their own interests. Promotion activity involves the establishment of information relations and continuous communication between the site bidders and the external environment. So, careful selection of media is recommended, targeting promotional messages to target segments according to the specificity and the offer of the locality. Messages should be adjusted to each segment and provide a coherent picture of what the locality offers, as the image plays an important role in shaping the public opinion about the locality and in the decision-making process of investors, tourists, residents, etc.

There are no identical localities and therefore, when developing the marketing mix, it is necessary to consider the available potential, the historical past, the material and financial means, the interests of the population and the economic agents, etc. The development and realization of the marketing mix at the local level, following a well-defined plan, will contribute to the efficient achievement of the strategic objectives and to the increase of the social-economic development of the locality.

References:

1. Kotler Philip. Marketingul locurilor.–Bucureşti,Editura Teora, 2001. 384 p. ISBN 973–20–0094–5
2. Панкрухин А. П. Маркетинг территорий — СПб.: Питер, 2006. — 416 c. ISBN 5–469–00705–5
3. Chiriac L., Caun V. Marketingul rural şi atractivitatea investiţională a localităţii. — Chişinău: ASEM, 2013,190 p. ISBN 978–9975–75–653–2.