In contrast to the usual scale of city management, in the village of Niederkirchen city marketing is exercised on a rather small spatial scale. The responsible actors did not wish to follow the usual approach targeting opportunities and threats of fast economic growth but rather on the needs of the citizens. Because of this orientation, everybody was invited to participate in shaping the future of the municipality in the context of city marketing.
City marketing is a modern management instrument for an integrated development of the municipality.
It shall remedy the present unfavourable economic and social conditions and provide an alternative to the increasing competition of cities and municipalities. Classical methods are not sufficient anymore. Citizens, decision-makers and interest groups jointly develop recommendations for actions and measures which will improve the municipality . At first, it was only planned for two years, but interes-ted citizens can become involved beyond this period. At the beginning, representative interviews of households and interviews with selected local businesses were conducted.