Regional images and the promotion of quality products and services in the lagging regions of the European Union

Nick Tzamarias

Project Background

Over the past ten years, there has been considerable change in the way rural development is viewed (as well as practiced) by institutions, academics and others involved, both at national and EU level. The reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy and the associated reduction of agricultural production subsidies have been coupled with a more "integrated" philosophy of rural development.

The increased exposure of rural areas to "global" markets and competition meant that support to rural lagging economies would not longer be viewed in a principally "agricultural" context, but in broader terms encompassing other sectors important to the rural economy, namely food processing, light manufacturing and crafts, tourism. In addition, environmental sustainability and social/cultural development have also grown in importance.

Since the mid-1980s rural areas have been facing what a number of researchers have conceptualised as the post-productivist transition (Shucksmith, 1993; Ilbery and Bowler, 1993). Ilbery and Kneasfey (1997) referred to the following theoretical characteristics of post-productivist transition:

The reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are set to continue in the light of the 1996 US agricultural policy reform and the next round of the World Trade organisation 1n 1999 (Ilbery and Kneasfey, 1997). For example, further cuts in guaranteed prices and the introduction of an upper ceiling on income aid have been suggested in the latest proposals of the European Commission (Agenda 2000, 1997). In this context, rural communities need more than ever to both add value to existing production as well as to identify alternative economic opportunities.

Whilst considerable research has been conducted on different aspects of household pluriactivity and rural economic diversification, there has been little analysis of the marketing and promotion of quality products and services from the lagging regions of the EU. Indeed, much investment in rural development has occurred without a realistic assessment of the market for new products and services; existing policy has tended to ignore the marketing gap between producers and consumers. Yet, marketing and the promotion of 'place images' need to become important elements in future rural development measures, especially if further socio-economic desertification in the lagging regions of the EU is to be arrested.

The GENERAL OBJECTIVE of this project is to help public and private institutions develop strategies, policies and structures to aid the successful marketing and promotion of quality products and services in the lagging regions of the EU. Innovatively, it will link together work on regional imagery and marketing in relation to the relative success and failure of quality products and services, of both an agricultural and non-agricultural nature. The project will examine the producers and consumers of quality products and services, as well as the institutions marketing them. Information from these surveys will be modelled in an expert system to produce a good guide for the future development of regional images and the marketing of quality products and services in the lagging regions of the EU. The project will last for 30 months and the widest dissemination of results is envisaged, with target groups including relevant EU and national government agency personnel in the areas of rural development, agriculture, food, tourism and quality policy; the academic community and social sciences in particular; and the producers and consumers of quality products and services.

Objectives

The main aim of this project is to help public and private institutions develop strategies, policies and structures to aid the successful marketing and promotion of quality products and services in the lagging regions of the EU. In more detail, the research has four interrelated objectives.

- To measure the local and regional cost-effectiveness of current marketing strategies and promotional activities among small and medium rural enterprises (SMEs), both farm and non-farm, in selected lagging regions of the EU; and to assess the perceptions of the owners/managers of the SMEs on existing activities for the promotion of a regional image in relation to particular quality products and services (INITIAL AND INTERMEDIATE PRODUCERS OBJECTIVE).

- To explore consumers' perceptions, wants and needs in relation to the purchase of quality products and services from specific lagging regions; to examine consumers' perceptions of the links between location, quality image and actual product and service characteristics; and to identify the social, psychological and economic factors influencing consumer behaviour as regards the products and services of lagging regions (CONSUMER OBJECTIVE).

- To examine the marketing environment, strategies and activities, and institutional structures developed by both local authorities and development and marketing agencies to improve the marketing of quality products and services in selected lagging regions of the EU; and to identify both good practice of quality policies used today and barriers and threats to the image of quality products and services in the lagging regions (INSTITUTIONAL OBJECTIVE).

- To provide and overall evaluation of regional marketing initiatives for quality products and services produced by SMEs (farm and non-farm) in the lagging regions of the EU; to evaluate the cost and effectiveness of such schemes and elements of good practice; and to develop and forecast the impact of future regional marketing strategies for quality products and services under different scenario and policy contexts (POLICY OBJECTIVE).

To accomplish these main objectives, the following detailed objectives will be followed:

1. A 20 year economic review on the selected study regions within each country. The intention is to highlight any local variations in socio-economic development and to examine past and current regional and local marketing schemes and initiatives, both as an important context for an examination of the marketing and promotion of quality products and services. This initial review will also help to measure the relative success and/or failure of institutional and business behaviour at different spatial scales and to reflect possible regional and local differences in consumers' wants and needs.

The large-scale study regions in each participating country (either of Objective 1, 5b or 6 status) are the following:

Finland - South-Ostrobothnia and Northern Savo

France - Basse Normandie and Auvergne

Greece - Achaia/Korinthia and Arkadia

Ireland - Southwest Region and Northwest Borders

Spain - Valencia and Aragon

United Kingdom - West Wales and Grampian Region

In combination, the study regions will permit the examination of a number of quality products and services.

2. The use of concepts on place images and marketing to develop a theoretical framework for the project. This will require the review and integration of national literatures on place images, agricultural and business marketing, and rural development. The adopted conceptual framework will need to incorporate producers, consumers and institutions and to permit and examination of their potential roles in the development of regional images for quality products and services.

3. A formal analysis of the existing marketing structures for the products and services of the study regions. The objective is to apply relevant concepts and models from the business and marketing to the existing marketing structures which producers and institutions are using to define a regional image for their quality products and services. This will help to establish a theoretical background for the empirical work undertaken below.

4. A business survey of both initial and intermediate producers of quality products and services in the two study regions within each country. This will involve a survey of up to 100 businesses in each region involved in the production of specific quality products and services. The survey will help to measure the cost-effectiveness of current marketing and promotional policies in the respective study regions. It will also allow an assessment of the producers' perceptions of policies for the marketing and promotion of a regional image in relation to specific quality products and services.

5. Examination of the social, psychological and economic factors influencing consumer behaviour in relation to the purchase of quality products and services from specific lagging regions. This will involve a survey of around 200 consumers, possible drawn from urban areas adjacent to the selected study regions. The research also presents an ideal opportunity to ask consumers adjacent to the study region (in one country) about their perceptions of quality products and services from the other study regions (in the other countries). The survey will permit an analysis of the expectations of consumers, the type of quality products and services that fulfil these expectations, the effects of local culture on consumer attitudes, and the consumers' perceptions and images of the selected study regions.

6. Examination of the marketing strategies developed by institutions for the promotion of images for quality products and services in the selected study regions. A survey of approximately 20 institutions (e.g. local authorities, development bodies, marketing groups) will help to measure their expenditure on the promotion of either a regional image and/or specific quality products and services, in terms of staff, time and money. A particular feature of the institutional survey will be the institutions' views on why some quality products and services and sub-regions, and some ,marketing strategies and institutional actions, are more successful than others; thus the opportunities and constraints for particular products/services and regions will be explored.

7. Recommendations on policies and strategies that could (better) promote particular quality products and services in the lagging regions in the future. Using some of the results from the producer, consumer and institutional surveys, an expert system will be developed to model and forecast the future development of regional images and the promotion and marketing of quality products and services in the lagging regions of the EU. In turn, the results generated by the modelling exercise will be compared, through focus group interviews, with those aspects of image promotion and marketing that agency representatives and selected producers of quality products and services think should be developed in the future.