Internal brand equity defines customer experience

Abstract

Purpose

Brands scintillate on the twin pillars of external brand communication and staff commitment to the envisioned customer experience (CE). However, until very recently the contribution of staff to internal brand building has not received the importance it deserves. With customers becoming more knowledgeable and moving towards a holistic experience rather than buying “products”, the quality of customer interaction (CI) is becoming the deciding factor in brand creation and CE. From this on‐going research based on the emerging services dominant logic popularised by Vargo and Lusch, this paper aims to explore a model to measure the awareness, understanding and commitment of staff to the vision of the service‐oriented brand.

Design/methodology/approach

Answers to a Likert questionnaire with six question sets will give researchers an insight into the awareness, understanding and commitment of staff to the brand vision. At a later stage researchers will use the above data to calculate the internal brand proprietor‐like quality rating of the organization based on the percentage of employees at high/low internal brand proprietor levels. Findings will assist in understanding and improving quality of CI and brand image.

Findings

Successful brand builders identify and spend aggressively on interactions that will have the most impact on revenue growth and profitability and ensure that the touch points that matter are synchronized to successfully convey the brand's promise (Hogan).

Research limitations/implications

Limitations of this research are sample constraints and test persons being highly involved in the research. More accurate results could be obtained if future research is carried out on a sector‐wise basis.

Originality/value

The paper explores a model to measure the awareness, understanding and commitment of staff to the vision of the service‐oriented brand.

Citation

Ghose, K. (2009), "Internal brand equity defines customer experience", Direct Marketing: An International Journal, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 177-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/17505930910985125