| Terms like “regional marketing“ sometimes seem to provide more clarity than they really do. In our case the English term includes two related, but quite different meanings. In German we use two different wordings: “Regionalvermarktung“ refers to the “marketing of regions“, while “Regionalmarketing“ is directly related to the “marketing of regional products“.
In both fields of application, the definition of what is meant by “region“, or by which critera a product is to be considered as “regional“, is most often freely invented or defined by the stakeholders themselves. Only on the product line there is a special EU initiative to protect producers and consumers from falsification, the “EU regulation 510/509/2006 on the Protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuff“. |
Guided by this regulation, regional specialities require a EU-wide protection, which maybe either the P.G.I. Protected Geographical Indication or the P.D.O. Protected Designation of Origin. Main differences and application criteria will be explainded furtherdown by Dr. Thiedig.
What is relatively useless, is trying to find a so called “definition“ which pretends to bring about clarification by bringing all aspects into one sentence. Hopefully by the end of the seminar we will have a clearer picture of what we understand by “Regional Marketing“ and which of the different dimensions will be useful and applicable under the specific situation in our different countries and regions. |
 Continuing these first considerations, the moderator tried to establish the context for our topic, which is build on three major roots:
- the EU cohesion policy, which has its clear orientation in “working for regions“
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 the EU consumer protection policy, which is of growing importance in our open markets- and finally a growing regional countermovement to face the globalisation and give it a more human, social and cultural dimension.
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 In order to comply with these trends, regional marketing concepts have to answer a series of critical questions, also regarding the central question what we define as “our region“. It is very obvious, that political-administrative boundaries still are important, but other criteria like socio-cultural traditions, natural and geographical criteria play an increasing role. |
 Without a well prepared and sound delimitation of what is included (and excluded) by forming the “region“, no (or any) instrumental marketing mix will be the right one and the different options of organisational set-ups will be most probably only the second or third best option. |
Welcome Address Ms. Barbara 