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Abstract
This paper originates from an EU-funded research project1 whose objective is to conceptualise and to analyse the
links between the use of regional imagery and the production and marketing of quality products and services in
twelve peripheral rural regions of the EU. After establishing a conceptual framework which draws from various
disciplinary perspectives, especially geography, economics and marketing, the paper bases its analysis on extensive
empirical work which includes interview surveys of three groups of relevant actors in each study region : the
producers of quality products, actual and potential consumers of such products, and relevant developmental and
regulatory institutions.
Perceptions of quality and of regional imagery are compared both between, and within, these groups ; and the
strategies available for strengthening these attributes, developing linkages between them, and exploiting them
through the marketing of appropriate products are examined. While drawing on the experience of a variety of regional
circumstances within Europe, the paper makes particular reference to the West Wales region where rapid
institutional change and severe recession in the livestock industry highlight the importance for rural development
purposes of moving from "commodity-based" to "value added" production against the background of a relatively weak
regional image.