PUBLIC MARKETING AS A STRATEGIC COMPONENT OF PUBLIC MANAGEMENT. A PILOT STUDY IN CLUJ COUNTY ON THE EXISTENCE OF BASIC MARKETING CONDITIONS IN THE LOCAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN ROMANIA

Public Marketing has grown to be an ever increasing part of the general concept of marketing, especially after the late 1970s when a series of fundamental changes occurred concerning the structure and functioning of the welfare state. Since then, public marketing has been constantly expanding as a field of study and has becoming ever more important especially with the new managerial paradigms that emphasize the role and needs of the citizens-clients in developing public policy. The present paper aims to put together a general picture regarding the concept, its development and characteristics, challenges posed by the specific conditions of the public sector and some basic conditions necessary for adopting public marketing as a managerial component of any public organization. In the second part of the paper, we present the results of a qualitative pilot study that aims to identify whether the local public authorities from Cluj County, Romania have the basic conditions for implementing a strategic public marketing component. The results show that the institutions analyzed are far from offering a framework needed to encourage and eventually adopt public marketing as a regular and necessary activity of any modern public organization.