Abstract

This article discusses the application of the marketing concept in deriving solutions to the financial crisis faced by the local government of New York City. The problems of New York City are not singular. The city's maladies are really not so different, except in degree, from those of numerous other financially plagued municipalities. The underlying causes tend to be the same. Thus, the ensuing discussion is also applicable to an assortment of local governments, even though the well-publicized New York City example is used as a familiar case in point. The first postulate of the marketing concept holds that a business should fulfill consumer needs and wants in the target markets in which the firm chooses to operate. If a firm is to remain competitive, it must take its orders from the marketplace. The validity of this principle has been corroborated time and time again. Analogously, the goal of a city government should be to fulfill its constituents' municipal needs and wants. Consumer orientation in city government is achieved through the introduction and fine tuning of needed services at prices the public is willing to pay in the forms of taxes and selective remunerations such as bus and subway fares.