International marketing in an enlarged European Union: Some insights into cultural heterogeneity in Central Europe*

Journal for East European Management Studies, 2008 by Skinner, Heather, Kubacki, Krzysztof, Moss, Gloria, Chelly, David

European identity

"It has been suggested that while societies are steadily moving together that the similarities between cultures will become much greater than their differences" (Pugh/Hickson 2002), diluting distinctive individual national culture (Williams 1999), and contracting the role of the nation state (Steger 1998). Fuchs and Klingemann (2002) believe that "many feel the EU can attain democratic legitimacy only if a European demos with a collective identity takes shape". The authors are concerned that "in view of the cultural plurality and heterogeneity of European nation states, it is doubtful whether the constitution of a European demos with a tenable collective identity is possible at all". Authors such as Zielonka and Mair (2002:1) agree, believing that an enlarged EU "will be a much more diversified entity following its planned eastward enlargement". They cite elements such as political culture, language, religious beliefs and popular culture as revealing both similarities and differences between cultures. Laitin (2002) does not believe that such generalisations can be made across a newly enlarged EU. He believes that there are fundamental differences between nations from Central and Eastern Europe on the periphery of the European Union and nations that are closer to the "continental norm". His view was opposed by former Czech president, Vaclav Havel, who speaking in the European Parliament in 2000, declared that:

"Europe is one political entity... The idea that there could forever be two Europes - a democratic, stable and prosperous Europe engaged in integration and a less democratic, less stable and less prosperous Europe - is, in my opinion, totally mistaken. It resembles a belief that one half of a room could be heated and the other half kept unheated at the same time. There is only one Europe, despite its diversity, and any weightier occurrence anywhere in this area will have consequences and repercussions throughout the rest of the continent"

From a marketing perspective, Willis (1991) over 15 years ago argued that the European Community is not customer-oriented and "this is nowhere more clearly indicated than in the recent adoption of the slogan 'single market'", that has been used often since EU Enlargement in 2004.

Burgoyne and Routh (1999:113) discuss the findings of the Eurobarometer 46 (1997) survey into perceptions of self and national identity in member states, a survey that is periodically undertaken by the European Commission. "One question asked respondents whether 'in the near future' they saw themselves in terms of their 'nationality only', as 'nationality and European', 'European and nationality' or European only'." Aggregating data in each country, across "Europe as a whole, 51 per cent saw themselves as 'European' to some extent", but "in all countries, those who felt mainly or wholly European were in the minority".

Segmentation in the European Union

There has been a changing paradigm in marketing away from the traditional "mix-management" approach towards issues of relationships and creation of customer value (O'Malley/Patterson 1989; Brownlie/Saren 1992; Gronroos 1994). Mercado, Welford and Prescott (2001) note that the traditional perspective involved identifying differences between markets, areas for product and service development, structures for local responses, and mix management strategies. This is now moving towards a new perspective of identifying common groups between markets, areas for standardisation and differentiation, structures for common practice and efficiency, and key areas for problem solving and common development.