Marketing of Local Public Services under the Reduction of Administrative Expenditures

The concerns for reducing administrative expenditures have been expressed in the last 10-15 years in concrete initiatives. It is worth to remark the occurrence of networks concerning the application of Standard Cost Model (SCM), aimed to reduce administrative expenditures for affairs. Even the European Commission aims to elaborate and implement a strategy to reduce administrative costs for affairs inside the European Union. We find similar initiatives in OECD, several European states, i.e. United Kingdom, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, as well as other countries. An international project “Cross Country Benchmarking” is important in this respect. These concerns have developed and diversified due to the worsening of the economic crisis. The crisis effects, already visible in the public sector too, lessen more and more the possibilities of satisfying the citizen’s needs. The marketing specialists bring up more and more frequently new marketing instruments that, giving the context, should generate products and services meant to satisfy the citizens’ needs. The product and service, in itself, as well as their price, become the main marketing instruments. The present paper proposes an assessment, based on the two instruments of the public marketing mix, of the way in which the reduction of the administrative expenditures can lead to a reduction in the price of the public services or to their diversification with regard to the consumers’ needs. By using elements specific to the production theory, the product management shall be substantiated, as well as the strategies regarding the prices of the public services.