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This paper aims to examine the strategic importance of perceived internal branding in building symbolic and behavioral relationships with a corporate in the service sector. Research on internal branding has been confined only to how internal staff understand brand values. Despite the importance of alignment between internal and external communication, little emphasis has been placed on consumers’ perception of how internal staff understand brand values. Even before experiencing service, consumers can shape their overall evaluation on service based on external communication about internal training and its congruence with brand values.

The theoretical model of cognitive, affective and behavioral responses is empirically tested using the structural equation modeling approach with a sample of 258 adults. Multiple group comparison is also conducted to identify the difference between user and non-user groups.

The findings indicate that perception of employees’ training and its congruence with external communication enables consumers to shape their cognitive and affective response toward a corporate, which is a source of future purchase intention. How consumers think about internal branding forms their attitudes and images of business and social conduct and enhances their behavioral intention.

The results imply that internal branding should not be limited to organizational communications but should be stretched into a critical topic for external communications. In particular, notable differences between user and non-user groups determined in the model provide further implications for corporate communication.

This paper stretches the concept of internal branding into the area of public interest. Theoretically, it tests a dual process model that suggests cognitive and affective antecedents in predicting consumer intention. Practically, it provides new ground for viewing internal affairs as part of a continuum of external communication and not a separate element of a corporation. The results are conducive to robust customer-firm relationship building in the service sector.

The paper aims to clarify the relationship between organisational structures and individual brand supporting behaviour. It proposes modelling the social transformation process and outlining why and how leadership is important throughout the internal brand building process. The study aims to expand the domain of corporate branding by including a broader range of human resource and leadership‐related aspects than is normally found in the branding literature.

The paper opted for an exploratory study using the open‐ended approach of grounded theory, including 30 depth interviews and one expert group discussion with employees representing middle and senior management having mainly a marketing and corporate communications background. The data were complemented by documentary analysis, including brand documents, descriptions of internal processes, and copies of employee magazine articles.

The paper provides empirical insights about how change is brought about during internal brand building. It suggests that successful leaders act as “integrating forces” on two levels: integrating the elements of corporate identity structures, and mediating between the corporate branding structures and the individual.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

The paper includes implications for the development of a powerful brand image, the development of “brand ambassadors” and for managing the balance between stability and change.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how brand‐supportive behaviour can be enabled.

This study aims to develop a moderated mediation model that enables the examination of the direct relationship between brand orientation (BO) and export performance, the mediating effects of external and internal branding capabilities on the BO-export performance link, and the moderating influence of institutional environment, i.e. regulatory turbulence and policy support.

A time-lag primary data was collected from two-wave survey of 684 cross-industry exporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using an online-email based survey technique, and the research model was validated using ordinary least squares regression analysis in SPSSV.27 and Hayes’ PROCESS macroV.2.13.

Regression findings indicate that the relationship between BO and export performance is not direct, but rather mediated by means of both external and internal branding capabilities. It further helps to uncover the dual role of institutional environment, with regulatory turbulence weakening and policy support strengthening the indirect influences of BO on export performance via external and internal branding capabilities.

This study advances branding literature by conceptualizing and empirically testing the role of BO associated with internal and external branding capabilities and, subsequently, with export performance.

The research findings indicate that brand-oriented SMEs must actively engage in the development of branding capabilities to improve their export performance.

While brand creation is essential for the success and growth of SMEs competing in the worldwide marketplaces, there is a dearth of research explaining the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions through which BO influences export performance.

Starting from the premise that there are critical issues that should drive brand success, this study seeks to investigate the way the UK retail banking industry has sought to build and sustain a strong brand by launching an internal marketing (IM) programme throughout its branch network. Also aims to shed light on the themes of branding in the financial services industry and the relationship between IM and branding.

The study was qualitative and exploratory in nature, since the aim was to explore branch managers' and employees' views and experiences of IM within the UK retail bank industry. Data were collected by carrying out in‐depth qualitative interviews with organisational members working in different positions within 35 business units that represented seven different UK retail banking organisations. The qualitative data were analysed by using the grounded theory approach developed by Strauss and Corbin in 1990.

The data analysis revealed four core themes as constitutive of IM, namely: internal customers; training and education; quality standards; and rewards systems. These four themes are enacted on a constant basis in order to construct a certain sort of organisational reality, one that sets the foundation on building and sustaining a strong corporate brand by changing the organisational culture to one which is more “people”, service‐ and customer‐oriented.

The study focused on one industry, the UK retail bank industry, in order to enhance one's understanding and knowledge regarding the IM theory and practice. This needs to be taken into consideration in generalising the findings to other sectors and geographic markets.

The research shows that the banks studied have adopted IM due to realising that employees represent a valuable source for building and differentiating the corporate brand, since they have a powerful impact on consumers' perceptions of both the brand and the organisation. The IM perspective has the potential to integrate all staff in the branding process and create an organisational culture that sets the foundation for building a strong corporate brand.

The current literature on IM has revealed that there is no universally accepted and adopted IM programme and that those organisations that have adopted IM have developed their own “custom‐made” approaches. The paper reveals the IM implementation approach adopted by the UK retail banks studied.

This paper seeks to propose and test the appropriateness of a brand community within an internal branding framework.

Using the multidimensional constructs of brand community and the strengths of internal branding strategies, this study explores the theoretical underpinnings of combining the two constructs.

Intraorganizational brand communities are presented as a viable strategic possibility for targeting internal branding participants. Results lend strong support to the need for and efficacy of internal brand communities, and provide an opportunity to examine the strategic synergies of pursuing such a strategy for internal as well as external audiences.

The study was delimited to domestic participants. Additional studies are recommended to further test the constructs of brand community membership in an internal brand community.

External branding initiatives and communications can be used internally, among employees, to build positive brand associations and brand affinity. Further, implementing an internal brand community can lead to increases in the emotional buy‐in of employees and ultimately could help companies increase the proportion of “champion” employees.

The study integrates the research streams of brand community and internal branding and studies the viability of conducting internal branding within a brand community framework.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the knowledge of brand building in software SMEs.

The empirical method used is a multi‐case study. Data were collected from 20 companies in the software industry through in‐depth interviews. The data were analyzed using systematic coding and categorization of qualitative evidence.

The study identified five special characteristics of brand building in software SMEs, relating to goals and perceived benefits of brand building; resources in brand building; external and internal cooperation in brand building; means and communication in brand building; and the process of product brand building and its connection to software product development.

The scientific contribution of this empirical study relates to two aspects of brand management: branding in software business and branding in SMEs. A vast amount of literature exists on “brands”, “software business” and “SMEs”, but there is very little on “branding in software business” or “branding in SMEs”. Unarguably, there are two significant knowledge gaps in the literature, and they relate to branding in software and SME industries. Both theoretical and managerial knowledge is needed. This study corresponds to this need by increasing the knowledge of brand building in software SMEs with an empirical study. The present study is characterized by the general limitations of a case study. The results lack statistical reliability, they apply primarily in the case companies examined, and no direct generalizations should be made without further quantitative study.

Directors of SMEs often think that branding is just for big companies, but small companies with limited resources can brand their products and services as well. However, the means of branding are often different. The present study encourages SMEs to systematically think of the potential advantages of branding for their business, and develop creative, targeted, and affordable approaches for brand building.

The present empirical study makes an original contribution to the literature by increasing the knowledge of branding in the context of both SMEs and software business.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of managerial strategies in promoting employee brand consistent behavior. Using a recently developed holistic model of behavioral branding, that suggests that a wide array of managerial strategies affects the branding process, this study addresses two specific questions: what communication strategies, in the opinion of managers, sustain employee brand consistent behavior? And what are the most important factors, both contextual and related to their cognitive-emotional states, that employees think affect their brand ambassadorship behavior?

A long-term research program was conducted based on a multiple methods research strategy to answer the two questions. The choice of different methods was mainly based on the specific characteristics of the two targets: communication managers and employees. The first one based on interviews with 32 managers, and the second one based on a case study of a single company.

The results show that enablement-oriented strategies are more effective than communication-oriented strategies in sustaining employee brand builder roles. Weak employee commitment, unsatisfactory external communication, and low levels of motivation are strong contextual factors inhibiting employee attitudes to brand ambassadorship, one of the most relevant employee brand consistent behaviors in competitive contexts. The main practical implication is that companies should engage employees as brand ambassadors, not by means of prescriptions of in-role behavior, but enablement strategies leading to authentic and voluntary behaviors; besides, that companies should put a significant effort in “preparing the soil,” i.e. investing in enhancing employee commitment, level of motivation, and understanding/alignment with the external communication.

The main practical implication is that companies should engage employees as brand ambassadors not by means of in-role behavior prescriptions rather by means of enablement strategies leading to authentic and voluntary behaviors. Besides, managers should invest significant efforts in enhancing employee motivation, commitment, and understanding/alignment to external communication as they represent key factors in sustaining brand ambassadorship behaviors.

The values of the study lies in having highlighted the crucial role of enablement-oriented strategies, and the relevance of specific contextual variables affecting the attitude of employee toward brand consistent behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to show how international companies (can) use real estate as a means to reinforce corporate identity and to express brand values in order to evoke a positive image in today's competitive world.

A review of literature, seven case studies including analysis of company documents and in-depth interviews with marketing experts and real estate advisors, and a cross-case analysis showing the translation of brand core values in real estate strategies of these multinationals.

The findings show that brand values are incorporated in the location strategy, building strategy, workplace strategy and at portfolio management level by all companies, but in different ways and with different focus points. Most commonly used brand values are “Green” values, i.e. sustainability, reliability, transparency, innovation and people oriented. Branding policies take into account both internal stakeholders such as the employees and external stakeholders such as customers and investors.

The number of interviews is rather small and limited to Dutch staff members of multinationals. Reliability of the findings was enforced by triangulation through connecting the interview findings to literature and strategic documents. Additional empirical research is needed to further explore which strategic choices can be made and in particular what are the actual costs and benefits of “branding by real estate”.

The different ways to translate corporate brand values in real estate and the conceptual framework that has been developed to describe the step-by-step approach – from defining a vision to translating corporate culture and corporate identity into a well-considered real estate strategy – can be used by policy makers and real estate managers in real estate decision-making on strategic, tactical and operational level.

The paper links findings from corporate real estate management with insights from marketing theory and adding value by real estate.

This study aims to examine the relationship between brand orientation and financial performance in business-to-business (B2B) small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It examines the impact of brand-oriented strategy on financial performance through four branding constructs, namely, internal branding, brand communication, brand awareness and brand credibility.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from 250 Finnish B2B SMEs. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the validity of the constructs, whereas structural equation modeling was used to test proposed hypotheses of the study.

The results suggest that brand orientation improves the effectiveness of brand communication and internal branding in building brand awareness and credibility. Brand awareness emphasizes an external route through brand communication, whereas brand credibility emphasizes an internal route through internal branding. Brand awareness has a positive impact on brand credibility, and brand credibility has a positive impact on financial performance, highlighting the importance of both brand performance components for financial performance.

This study addresses the research gap in the B2B branding literature regarding the role of branding in enhancing financial performance. The results suggest that brand-oriented strategy can contribute to financial performance through brand awareness and brand credibility in the context of B2B SMEs.