Europeanisation: A Conversion of the Local Adaptation vs. Standardization Dilemma within the European Public Space

In marketing there is a constant debate between the adaptation and the standardization of the marketing mix elements. Within the marketing of ideas (Fine, 1981), several macro and micro phenomena are in progress which condition the process of societal change. Thus, the policies can be considered as hybrid marketing products and the lobby and advocacy processes as exchanges embedded with elements of negotiation, soft power and persuasion. It is our purpose to pinpoint several research settings in marketing and in european(isation) studies so that we may converge towards new hybrid research frames, thus allowing us to depict some conceptual conversion patterns regarding the European public space and how the meaning makers within the institutional system of the European Union (re)frame the policy, either through adaptation or standardization of (the) meaning. We shall use as an example the EU gender policy and the two action plans for the periods 2006-2010 and 2010-2015.