The battle to harness people power

Citation

Edwards, H. (2008), "The battle to harness people power", Strategic Direction, Vol. 24 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2008.05624gad.005

The battle to harness people power

Article Type: From: Strategic Direction, Volume 24, Issue 7.

Edwards H. Marketing, 30 January 2008, Start page: 26, No. of pages: 2

Purpose - To ask whether HR professionals should have a greater say in the marketing message to ensure that frontline staff are true brand ambassadors. Design/methodology/approach - Presents a case study of easyJet. Findings Many marketers seem to be unaware that frontline employees are key promoters of the brand they represent and even those who appreciate their significance often fail to engage employees with their approach to internal marketing. Points out that discontent in the workplace needs to be resolved before employees are asked to add brand evangelism to their existing duties or the company risks exposing its internal problems to consumers. Adds that marketers need to establish and maintain a dialogue with the HR department and work collaboratively on staff engagement and goes on to report that HR professionals are now seeking to actively influence and shape marketing strategy because HR needs to have a say in the message to ensure that employees accurately represent the brand. Originality/value - Comments that the unassailed right of marketing to assume sole stewardship of the brand at the highest level is under threat from a most unexpected quarter, namely HR. ISSN: 0025-3650 Reference: 37AE065

Keywords: Brand image, Human resource management, Internal marketing, Marketing communications