Towards relationship-based territorial marketing

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of taking into account the relational paradigm in territorial marketing.The frenzy of globalization and the exacerbation of competition between territories justify the use of marketing to promote and strengthen the economic and residential attractiveness of the territory. An attractiveness considered as a strategic objective for countries. This is how both the strategic and operational dimensions of territorial marketing are borrowed by public managers to tend towards the expected objectives. However, it is clear that static economic attractiveness is insufficient in a context where the "global market of territories" is subject to tough competition. Countries have every interest in switching from a paradigm based on the flow of incoming foreign investments to another whose focal point is the anchoring of foreign companies established in the host country. Said anchoring reflects the quality and intensity of the relations maintained between the foreign company and the host territory. It is in this perspective that we consider that the use of relational marketing by territorial managers fuels the dynamics of the anchoring of foreign companies. This is the extrapolation of the relational paradigm to the territory, thus justifying the importance of relational territorial marketing. Otherwise, if relational marketing allows companies to build lasting and fruitful relationships with their stakeholders, territorial marketing in its relational dimension allows territorial managers to maintain intense and quality relationships with foreign investors. The latter will be more inclined to take root and develop in the host country while contributing to its territorial projects.

By adhering to a conceptual approach, we will develop in this paper the literature on territorial marketing as well as relational marketing to arrive at relational territorial marketing.

Key words: territorial marketing, relationship marketing, relational territorial marketing, territorial attractiveness, territorial anchoring.

Classification JEL: M31, F23

Paper type: Theoretical Research