Маркетинг истражување во функција на примена на маркетиншката ориентација во процесот на стратегиски менаџмент на населените места

Abstract

In order to achieve competitive advantage, local authorities have to begin to apply marketing orientation. That would require for them to start treating residents, tourists and businesses as „customers/clients“ of „the total city product“. Additionally, local authorities should start the processes of city branding and strategically manage their image. Taking into consideration the above mentioned, the subject matter of this dissertation is to outline the theoretical knowledge of place marketing, while focusing directly towards its use as a „strategic approach“ in local development planning. In addition, special emphasis are put on the role of information on city customers (its needs, satisfaction, etc.). These information is obtained by scientific-based customer research process focused at measuring the customers’ satisfaction of the place and its image. For this purpose, the theoretical concepts used in the primary research of the dissertation arrive from a literature review from different fields including: strategic management, consumer behavior, marketing research, image marketing, etc. It is very important to mention that one of the biggest scientific results of the dissertation is the proposed model for assessing the level of implementation of marketing/marketing orientation of places. Moreover, the models for marketing oriented process of Strategic Planning and process of Place Branding have significant practical use together with the methods and techniques for applied marketing research presented in the dissertation. The above mentioned models were the basis for constructing the questions of the questionnaire used in the on-line survey conducted on a representative sample of 42 municipalities aimed at assessing the current situation of the Macedonian municipalities (a total of 80, plus the City of Skopje). Prior to it, there was a review 62 municipal websites. Finally, a number of useful recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the process of preparing the strategic (marketing) plans for local development were generated by as a result of the primary research of the dissertation.