Service branding: do employees know what we stand for? The inside story

Abstract

Extreme competition is exerting unprecedented pressure on service organisations to create a unique and strong brand relationship with customers and employees alike. However, in the race for brand positioning with external customers many organisations tend to forget that their brand promise to the external customer is ultimately delivered by the employees. The paper explores the employee perception of internal branding in service organisations in India and tries to identify the gaps in internal branding practice. A single cross-sectional survey was administered to collect quantitative data from 162 employees across service organisations. This was supplemented by in-depth interviews with branding experts and practitioners. The study reveals that employees perceive a substantial gap in internal brand communication, internal brand awareness and internal branding efforts in organisations.