Getting Employees to Advocate the Brand: Overlap and Collaboration Between Marketing and Human Resource Departments

Given the complexity of brands and how dynamic they are, they can be challenging to manage. Marketers spend so much energy and effort in figuring out how to impact, attract and retain customers that they often forget the people behind the brand, the employees. Brands are created from within by employees because employee attitudes and behavior affect consumer´s perception of the brand and thus dictate the brand´s performance. More attention has been paid to the impact human resource departments can have on influencing employee behaviour and align it with overall branding strategies. This thesis is based on interviews with five marketing managers and four human resource managers who work for organizations that operate in the Icelandic economy. The research is based on understanding how marketing departments and human resource departments can collaborate to create brand ambassadors. Nine semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted, and open-ended questions were asked. Six themes emerged from the interviews. All six themes inherited approaches marketing and human resource management departments can collectively take to turn employees into brand ambassadors. The interviews highlighted the importance of marketing and human resource management departments collaborating by implementing strategies that include employees in branding processes, establishing an effective internal communications platform and rewarding employee work contributions. This research proposes a model that conceptualizes how a relationship between marketing and human resource management departments can create brand ambassadors.

Author dc:creator

• Halldór Halldórsson 1989-

Contributors dc:contributor

• Háskóli Íslands

• Markaðsfræði og alþjóðaviðskipti
• Vörumerki
• Markaðssetning

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1946/32936

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:skemman.is:1946/32936