تحولات بازاریابی کسب و کار استراتژیک در اروپای جدید: نگاه به گذشته و چشم انداز

The unification of Europe is causing considerable effects on industrial marketing strategy. Roughly ten years ago the Industrial Marketing Management journal published a study on the expected consequences of the European Union (EU) single market. In the current study, we investigate the actual results of the single market formation on industrial marketing in the EU and compare them to the expectations noted by industrial marketers a decade earlier. We find that the effects differ markedly from those anticipated and that they have important implications for business marketing practice in the EU.

The European Union common market formed in 1993 with 12 member nations. Since then, it has grown to 25 member states, a population of 450 million, and a GDP higher than that of the United States. Speculation on the eventual effects of the single market was rampant in the years prior to 1993, and many conflicting opinions were expressed by both practitioners and academics. An important undertaking in the business-to-business marketing domain was a study by Saghafi, Sciglimpaglia and Withers published in Industrial Marketing Management in 1995. Those authors surveyed executives of industrial firms regarding the expected impact of European unification on marketing. The results of that survey provided a first insight into the expected marketing implications of the internal EU market formation. Now that the European single market has existed for a decade and has expanded to an even larger entity, it is important to revisit this issue and to examine whether the early-90s expectations have been met. This article aims to update marketers' understanding of the European Union and its effects on industrial marketers through a fresh survey of executives. Furthermore, this work compares and contrasts executives' pre-formation expectations of the effects of the EU on industrial marketing and the current reality.

Academic research is still evolving on the degree of homogenization of EU markets and the extent to which marketers can standardize price, promotion, distribution and their industrial product or service offering. Indeed, ten years after the formation of the European single market, we are still unsure as to the benefits of the union from an international marketing viewpoint. This study is perhaps the first of its kind to evaluate the developments in the marketing environment in the European Union from the perspective of business practitioners. The overall objectives of this study were to investigate the impact of Europe's internal market creation on strategic marketing decisions and to compare the current situation to the expectations of industrial marketers ten years ago. For future research, keeping tabs on developments that are relevant to industrial marketers continues to be an important task. The marketing environment in the EU is constantly evolving. As the Managing Director of a business marketing consulting firm said, “… I believe the effects of the single European market are in their early stages.” There is also ample opportunity to examine the causes for some of the discrepancies we found between earlier expectations and current reality. For instance, why have cost savings not materialized to the extent expected? While we provided some hypotheses based on our data and existing literature, examining such causes in more detail may be warranted.