Keller (2008:13) discusses the highly pervasive nature of branding in the 21st century and highlights the extent to which branding has influenced the world at large. He depicts the spectrum of influence with examples of branding at work from physical goods, services, retailers and distributors, online products and services, organisations, individual people through to sports, arts and entertainment, geographic locations such as individual country branding, and down to the fundamentals of ideas and causes such as the World Wildlife Fund. He continues by highlighting that branding has become a complex issue and that it requires sophisticated and rigorous management systems to address the strategic function that it serves and that it delivers appropriate results to the organisation, product or service that it represents. To this end, Keller (2008:59) has conducted work in the area of brand equity, helping brands to track and measure consumer perception and increasingly for organisations to financially account the
42 value of their brands, although little account of the internal brand is made in the financial determination of the value. Earlier, Keller (1999:43)
suggests that the positioning of the brand and the essence of its meaning lies at the heart of all marketing activity and ultimately drives the
economic value for shareholders. He adds, however, that such positioning efforts must also pervasively influence organisational adoption. He posits that this can be achieved through aligned brand mantras that
communicate, simplify and inspire people in the firm, thus highlighting the need to build brand on the inside of the organisation too; ensuring that they enable the brand experience and contribute to the development of brand equity in the organisation.
Aaker and Joachimsthaler (2000:65) updated the model of brand
leadership at the turn of the century, recognising the need to depict the emerging paradigm of strategic brand leadership as the replacement of the classic, tactically oriented brand management system pioneered in the previous century. In their work, they focus on the principles of brand identity creation and positioning, brand relationships and architecture systems, and the advent of channel development that will move brands beyond the isolationist activity of advertising in order to break through the communication clutter. This, they suggest, signals a new era and approach to looking at branding more holistically in organisations, recognising the increasing importance of the internal brand. Aaker (2004:11) also addresses the evolution of the corporate brand as an increasingly important property that should receive appropriate branding attention in order to address the concepts of attracting talent, defining its heritage, values and priorities, addressing the local versus global debate and positioning itself as a good corporate citizen through community outreach initiatives or cause-related issues such as the environment.
43 Kapferer (2008:137) discusses the principles of the new rules of brand management, suggesting that branding is an end in itself, often receiving too much attention and seen as the prerogative of the marketing and communications function. He purports that this undervalues the role played by other functions in the organisation in ensuring a successful branding policy. He claims that branding really is at the terminal phase of a process combining the firm’s resources and all of its functions, focusing them on the strategic intent of building differentiation. He suggests that the organisation that mobilises its internal resources of added value can set itself apart from its competitors. His assumption is that brand is strategic and essentially encapsulates competitive advantage.
Sherrington (2003:133) talks of demand-led growth and has conducted some pioneering work on segmentation and innovation in the sphere of an intuitive and practical approach to building brands, acknowledging that much of his thinking applies externally to the customer and that the business and marketing fraternity would do well to pay as much time, investment and energy to the internal organisational audience. He suggests that there have been significant strides forward in the
development of internal branding to the extent that many organisations now employ functional experts within. He purports however, that internal brand building is not nearly as effective or impactful as the external
equivalent and attributes this to factors such as the inequality of spend, inadequate brand discipline and typical internal organisational
complexities. He suggests a rigorous approach to internal brand building built on the same principles as those of the external function, including internal market insight, segmentation of audience, use of change agents or brand ‘ambassadors’ and effective use of appropriate media and their respective channels.
44 Sartain and Schuman (2006:5) bring a strong focus to internal branding and propose that employees have a key role to play in brand delivery and this makes the building and nurturing of the employer brand as critical to the organisation’s success as promoting the customer brand. In doing so they also highlight key aspects that serve to orientate the importance of brand as a construct on the inside of the business:
• Brands have become realities of business and every business essentially has one.
• Brands simplify the value, opportunity and results that the organisation and its customers expect.
• Brands are ultimately commercial and have considerable value, capable of standing the test of time.
• Brands influence customer choices at each touch point and they flow from the intersection of culture and people.
• Brands define the customer experience and connect them through functional, emotional and inspirational dimensions.
• Emotional connection is at the heart of a consumer’s relationship with a brand while brand loyalty is the holy grail of any consumer relationship.
• Brand has qualities that bind and serves as a language that
simplifies the exchange between the individual, the customer and the business.
• A business also has a brand as a place to work and brand can therefore simplify how business addresses people issues and builds organisational capability.
Vallaster and de Chernatony (2005:181) posit that internal brand building as a process to align the behaviour of the staff with brand values is
growing in importance and recognition; in particular, in service industries where there is an ongoing challenge to overcome the variability of service
45 interaction and delivery. They highlight the distinction between service quality, which is more about functional issues and suggest that the branding of services is more about internal consistency, placing greater emphasis on managing the total brand experience of services, and is more about social processes. Their findings bring into focus the significant role of staff, the impact of culture in sharing meaning, and the essential role of leadership in the process.
In a subsequent report focusing on the leadership role specifically, Vallaster and de Chernatony (2006:761) advocate that the heightened attention that internal brand building is receiving is to reduce the gap between the desired corporate brand identity and that perceived by the firm’s stakeholders. Vallaster and de Chernatony (2006:778) also
highlight that internal branding is a strategic matter that needs to be developed from and supported by top management, enabling leaders to design brand-supporting corporate structures that enable brand
behaviours. Sartain and Schumann (2006:21) question whether an effective brand identity can be built by business if its employees do not buy into it. They suggest that the key role that employees play in brand delivery makes nurturing the employer brand as critical to the
organisation’s success as promoting the customer brand. Lings and Greenley (2009:41) support this view in their study on the impact of
internal and external market orientations on firm performance in the retail sector, suggesting that there is benefit to be derived by investing in
internal resources that drive market orientation, which ultimately impacts customer satisfaction.
Melewar, Karaosmanoglu and Paterson (2005:59) probe the issue of the organisational or corporate brand through a research project that
examines the concept, components and contribution of corporate identity and have identified the interrelationship between corporate
46 communication, visual identity, corporate culture, corporate behaviour, corporate structure and corporate strategy; suggesting the need for
further research and investigation. Ind and Bjerke (2007:2) also postulate this notion in their view of a participatory approach to the brand building process and the integration of the external brand building activities of the organisation with those within the business.
With regards to the human resources aspect of the branding discipline, the concept of the employer brand is also receiving increased levels of attention, supporting the realisation that brand has a role to play on the inside of the organisation. Backhaus and Tikoo (2004:502) suggest that employer branding represents an organisation’s efforts to promote, both within and outside the firm, a clear view of what makes it different and desirable as an employer. Their study embraces the combination of a resource-based view with brand equity theory. Aurand, Gorchels and Bishop (2005:167) examine human resource management’s role in
internal branding and in the process recognise that their policies typically focus on the internal workings of a firm rather than the
interconnectedness of these activities with external constituencies. They conclude that an increased integration of marketing and human resources will result in employees being equipped with a deeper understanding of the brand and their role in enhancing the brand promise and reducing confusion arising from misaligned messages with regards to brand
positioning. This points to a need for increased inter-departmental levels of collaboration and, specifically, the coming together of the marketing and human resource functions of an organisation when considering a new approach to a current problem. Consequently, Sartain and Schumann (2009:13) make the updated connection of the role of brand as a nurturer of talent, in the integration of brand, and the employee value proposition defined within the human resources context. Their approach to employer branding draws a strong connection between the role of brand and the
47 impact that it exerts on organisational culture. This topic is discussed again later in this chapter.
Berthon, Ewing and Lian Hah (2005:151) further probe the aspect of employer branding in a survey that specifically assessed the dimensions of attractiveness in the employer brand, suggesting that brand will be as critical in attracting employees as it is customers. Younger, Smallwood and Ulrich (2006:23) examine the organisation’s brand as a talent
developer, identifying nine qualities that differentiate such organisations and enable them to develop competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talented employees. Wheeler, et al. (2006:97) make the connection between brand and corporate identity as an employee attraction and retention mechanism, suggesting that managers and organisations have yet to understand how this can be utilised to direct employee behaviour. In recognition of this growing connection between the brand and the employee, King and Grace (2010:938) offer what they position as the first known empirically-tested model of employee based brand equity, suggesting a contextual or organisational cultural element in the determination of brand equity. They further that there is a need to reflect the perceptions of employees who are currently under represented in the models developed within the existing internal engagement
literature.
Devasagayam, et al. (2010:210) propose building brand community
membership within organisations as a viable internal branding alternative. They draw interesting inferences from strong external brand communities such as Nike and Harley Davidson, for example, where customers are enmeshed in a network of relationships with fellow customers who are centred on the brand. They posit that internal brand communities could exhibit similar characteristics based on the nature and frequency of participation that could develop emotional buy-in within the organisation
48 and could ultimately help companies increase the proportion of positive employees or brand champions, linking to the idea initially developed by Thomson (2002:11).
In a very recent study, Thorbjornsen and Supphellen (2011:68) address the determinants of core value behaviours in service brands, suggesting that this important area is understudied within the marketing of services. They posit that employees are both co-creators of the brand and key actors in delivering the brand’s content and promise — this view is extrapolated in this thesis under the notion of the very issue of brand alignment within the organisation. They argue that while past research has suggested that strong organisational identity and corporate culture have positively influenced firm success, it is essential for employee
behaviour to be coherent and aligned with the external positioning of the brand if it is to be perceived by customers as differentiated, attractive and consistent. They further that this defines core value behaviour in an
organisation and suggest that this needs to evolve in line with the external brand positioning of the organisation, but caution against the downside risk of empty value statements creating cynical and dispirited employees, consequently alienating customers and undermining
managerial credibility. They define core value behaviour as the extent to which employee behaviour is in accordance with the brand’s strategically defined core values and posit that empirical research to answer this important question is practically non-existent, in both organisational and marketing journals.
It is this need for a holistic and strategic approach to the alignment and integration of the internal and external brand for sustainable competitive advantage that defines the direction of this thesis.
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