The marketing of public services: a NEW comparative analysis of citizens’ expectations

The purpose of this work is to verify the validity of marketing theories in the field of public services by means of an empirical analysis. The study is based on the results of market research carried out in 2004, 2009 and 2014, concerning the expectations of the citizens of Gorle (a small town on the outskirts of Bergamo, in the north of Italy) with regard to administration policies. The contribution of the present work empowers previous analysis, and underlines the important factors that should be taken into consideration for the future as well as how expectations in the three groups of answers have changed over a period of ten years, giving a dynamic impact to the research. Based on the citizen-users’ perception of real life, this study can be interpreted as a concrete picture of real (everyday) life and the emerging data provide a snapshot that will lead the new administration in the next five years, regardless of any political belief. The current literature on this subject has been considered to see the object of the research in perspective and to relate it to what has emerged from the field analysis.