Marketing Consequences of European Internal Market Unification: An Executive Perspective

SUMMARY

The European Union (EU) is now ten years old and many of the hundreds of directives envisioned by its founding members are now in place. From an international marketing perspective, what has the EU's internal market really achieved over the past decade? This study may be the first of its kind to address the marketing implications of the European single market formation from the perspective of the European corporate managers. In particular, the study addresses progress in the harmonization of marketing programs, effectiveness and efficiency of post-unification marketing in the EU and resulting effects on marketing strategy in the EU over ten years. While the results of this study point to significant progress towards a more pan-European marketing strategy, the European executives who participated in our study suggest that results are not uniform over all areas of the marketing function.

KEYWORDS:

• Europe
• internal market unification
• EU expansion/enlargement
• European Monetary Unit
• marketing mix standardization
• pan-European marketing strategy
• single market