Internal branding: conceptualization from a literature review and opportunities for future research
- Original Article
- Published: 23 November 2020
- Volume 28 , pages 133–151, ( 2021 )
Cite this article
- David Barros-Arrieta ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3034-2007 1 &
- Ernesto García-Cali ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0968-7104 2
3187 Accesses
40 Citations
3 Altmetric
Explore all metrics
Recently, internal branding has gained relevance in the marketing literature because researchers recognize that corporate brand management not only implicates external actions but also an internal approach that involves employees. Despite the growing interest, there is no consensus among authors about antecedents, dimensions, and outcomes of internal branding. In this sense, this paper aims to explore the conceptualization of internal branding and to offer opportunities for future research. The study is a systematic literature review that uses a specific database. The contributions of each article were extracted, organized, and processed following systematic procedures. This review defines internal branding as a cross-functional process that involves both marketing and human resource departments. It focuses on managing the brand internally through brand-centered human resource management, internal brand communications, and brand leadership, with the aim of achieving brand outcomes among employees (brand understanding, brand identification, brand commitment, brand loyalty, brand citizenship behaviors) so they can build brand equity in front of external stakeholders. Although a lack of consensus had been established, the literature evidenced similarities that gave rise to the conceptualization proposed in this study. Nevertheless, the discussion about internal branding is still open because there are several issues to investigate in this field.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this article
Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)
Instant access to the full article PDF.
Rent this article via DeepDyve
Institutional subscriptions
Similar content being viewed by others
Online influencer marketing
Research in marketing strategy
Customer experience: fundamental premises and implications for research
Anees-ur-Rehman, M., H. Wong, P. Sultan, and B. Merrilees. 2018. How brand-oriented strategy affects the financial performance of B2B SMEs. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 33 (3): 303–315.
Google Scholar
Anisimova, T., and F. Mavondo. 2010. The performance implications of company-salesperson corporate brand misalignment. European Journal of Marketing 44 (6): 771–795.
Anselmsson, J., N. Bondesson, and F. Melin. 2016. Customer-based brand equity and human resource management image: Do retail customers really care about HRM and the employer brand? European Journal of Marketing 50 (7/8): 1185–1208.
App, S., and M. Büttgen. 2016. Lasting footprints of the employer brand: Can sustainable HRM lead to brand commitment? Employee Relations 38 (5): 703–723.
Appel-Meulenbroek, R., D. Havermans, I. Janssen, and A. Van Kempen. 2010. Corporate branding: An exploration of the influence of CRE. Journal of Corporate Real Estate 12 (1): 47–59.
Aydon, J. 2009. “Both sides now”: Aligning external and internal branding for a socially responsible era. Marketing Intelligence & Planning 27 (5): 681–697.
Bailey, A.A., F. Albassami, and S. Al-Meshal. 2016. The roles of employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment in the internal marketing-employee bank identification relationship. International Journal of Bank Marketing 34 (6): 821–840.
Biedenbach, G., and S. Manzhynski. 2016. Internal branding and sustainability: Investigating perceptions of employees. Journal of Product & Brand Management 25 (3): 296–306.
Bodkin, C., C. Peters, and J. Thomas. 2016. The impact of employee work perceptions on purchase intentions from a company store. Journal of Product & Brand Management 25 (5): 479–489.
Boukis, A. 2019. Internal market orientation as a value creation mechanism. Journal of Services Marketing 33 (2): 233–244.
Boukis, A., and S. Gounaris. 2014. Linking IMO with employees’ fit with their environment and reciprocal behaviours towards the firm. Journal of Services Marketing 28 (1): 10–21.
Boukis, A., S. Gounaris, and I. Lings. 2017. Internal market orientation determinants of employee brand enactment. Journal of Services Marketing 31 (7): 690–703.
Boukis, A., K. Kaminakis, A. Siampos, and I. Kostopoulos. 2015. Linking internal marketing with customer outcomes. Marketing Intelligence & Planning 33 (3): 394–413.
Bravo, R., I. Buil, L. De Chernatony, and E. Martínez. 2017. Managing brand identity: Effects on the employees. International Journal of Bank Marketing 35 (1): 2–23.
Chang, A., H. Chiang, and T. Han. 2012. A multilevel investigation of relationships among brand-centered HRM, brand psychological ownership, brand citizenship behaviors, and customer satisfaction. European Journal of Marketing 46 (5): 626–662.
Chang, K., B. Nguyen, K.-T. Cheng, C.-C. Kuo, and I. Lee. 2016. HR practice, organisational commitment & citizenship behaviour: A study of primary school teachers in Taiwan. Employee Relations 38 (6): 907–926.
Cheung, C., H. Kong, and H. Song. 2014. How to influence hospitality employee perceptions on hotel brand performance? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 26 (8): 1162–1178.
Chiang, H.H., T.S. Han, and D. McConville. 2018. The attitudinal and behavioral impact of brand-centered human resource management: Employee and customer effects. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 30 (2): 939–960.
Coleman, D.A., L. De Chernatony, and G. Christodoulides. 2015. B2B service brand identity and brand performance: An empirical investigation in the UK’s B2B IT services sector. European Journal of Marketing 49 (7/8): 1139–1162.
Dechawatanapaisal, D. 2018. Employee retention: The effects of internal branding and brand attitudes in sales organizations. Personnel Review 47 (3): 675–693.
Devasagayam, P., C. Buff, T. Aurand, and K. Judson. 2010. Building brand community membership within organizations: A viable internal branding alternative? Journal of Product & Brand Management 19 (3): 210–217.
Du Preez, R., and M. Bendixen. 2015. The impact of internal brand management on employee job satisfaction, brand commitment and intention to stay. International Journal of Bank Marketing 33 (1): 78–91.
Du Preez, R., and M. Bendixen. 2019. Outsourcing contact centers: Internal branding challenges and consequences. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 34 (5): 921–930.
Du Preez, R., M. Bendixen, and R. Abratt. 2017. The behavioral consequences of internal brand management among frontline employees. Journal of Product & Brand Management 26 (3): 251–261.
Erkmen, E., and M. Hancer. 2015. “Do your internal branding efforts measure up?” Consumers’ response to brand supporting behaviors of hospitality employees. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 27 (5): 878–895.
Foster, C., K. Punjaisri, and R. Cheng. 2010. Exploring the relationship between corporate, internal and employer branding. Journal of Product & Brand Management 19 (6): 401–409.
Gammoh, B.S., M.L. Mallin, E.B. Pullins, and C.M. Johnson. 2018. The role of salesperson brand selling confidence in enhancing important sales management outcomes: A social identity approach. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 33 (3): 277–290.
Ghose, K. 2009. Internal brand equity defines customer experience. Direct Marketing: An International Journal 3 (3): 177–185.
Gregory, A., and A. Denniss. 2018. An introduction to writing narrative and systematic reviews-tasks, tips and traps for aspiring authors. Heart, Lung and Circulation 27 (7): 893–898.
Hasni, M., J. Salo, H. Naeem, and K. Abbasi. 2018. Impact of internal branding on customer-based brand equity with mediating effect of organizational loyalty: An empirical evidence from retail sector. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management 46 (11/12): 1056–1076.
Helm, S., U. Renk, and A. Mishra. 2016. Exploring the impact of employees’ self-concept, brand identification and brand pride on brand citizenship behaviors. European Journal of Marketing 50 (1/2): 58–77.
Hofer, K.M., and R. Grohs. 2018. Sponsorship as an internal branding tool and its effects on employees’ identification with the brand. Journal of Brand Management 25: 266–275.
Hoppe, D. 2017. Multiple commitments and behaviors: A mixed concept approach. Journal of Product & Brand Management 26 (2): 190–203.
Hoppe, D. 2018. Linking employer branding and internal branding: Establishing perceived employer brand image as an antecedent of favourable employee brand attitudes and behaviours. Journal of Product & Brand Management 27 (4): 452–467.
Huang, Y.T., and S. Rundle-Thiele. 2015. A holistic management tool for measuring internal marketing activities. Journal of Services Marketing 29 (6/7): 571–584.
Hytti, U., P. Kuoppakangas, K. Suomi, C. Chapleo, and M. Giovanardi. 2015. Challenges in delivering brand promise—Focusing on municipal healthcare organisations. International Journal of Public Sector Management 28 (3): 254–272.
Iglesias, O., and F.Z. Saleem. 2015. How to support consumer-brand relationships: The role of corporate culture and human resource policies and practices. Marketing Intelligence & Planning 33 (2): 216–234.
Iyer, P., A. Davari, and A. Paswan. 2018. Determinants of brand performance: The role of internal branding. Journal of Brand Management 25: 202–216.
Kang, D. 2016. Turning inside out: Perceived internal branding in customer-firm relationship building. Journal of Services Marketing 30 (4): 462–475.
Karanges, E., K.A. Johnston, I. Lings, and A.T. Beatson. 2018. Brand signalling: An antecedent of employee brand understanding. Journal of Brand Management 25: 235–249.
Karatepe, O.M. 2015. Do personal resources mediate the effect of perceived organizational support on emotional exhaustion and job outcomes? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 27 (1): 4–26.
Kimpakorn, N., and G. Tocquer. 2010. Service brand equity and employee brand commitment. Journal of Services Marketing 24 (5): 378–388.
King, C. 2010. “One size doesn’t fit all” Tourism and hospitality employees’ response to internal brand management. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 22 (4): 517–534.
King, C., and D. Grace. 2010. Building and measuring employee-based brand equity. European Journal of Marketing 44 (7/8): 938–971.
King, C., and D. Grace. 2012. Examining the antecedents of positive employee brand-related attitudes and behaviours. European Journal of Marketing 46 (3/4): 469–488.
Lee, Y.H., C. Hsiao, H.Y. Chan, and I.C. Lee. 2019. Explorations of employee-based brand equity in the banking industry from a perceived-leadership perspective. International Journal of Bank Marketing 38 (2): 425–455.
Liu, X., B. Mi, F. Li, and D. Zou. 2019. Ritualized retail events and brand-centric employee culture. Qualitative Market Research 22 (3): 250–269.
Mainardes, E.W., L.S. Rodrigues, and A. Teixeira. 2019. Effects of internal marketing on job satisfaction in the banking sector. International Journal of Bank Marketing 37 (5): 1313–1333.
Murillo, E., and C. King. 2019a. Examining the drivers of employee brand understanding: A longitudinal study. Journal of Product & Brand Management 28 (7): 893–907.
Murillo, E., and C. King. 2019b. Why do employees respond to hospitality talent management: An examination of a Latin American restaurant chain. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 31 (10): 4021–4042.
Ngo, L.V., N.P. Nguyen, K.T. Huynh, G. Gregory, and P.H. Cuong. 2019. Converting internal brand knowledge into employee performance. Journal of Product & Brand Management 29 (3): 273–287.
Park, S., K. Johnson, and S. Chaudhuri. 2019. Promoting work engagement in the hotel sector: Review and análisis. Management Research Review 42 (8): 971–990.
Piehler, R. 2018. Employees’ brand understanding, brand commitment, and brand citizenship behaviour: A closer look at the relationships among construct dimensions. Journal of Brand Management 25: 217–234.
Piehler, R., D. Grace, and C. Burmann. 2018. Internal brand management: Introduction to the special issue and directions for future research. Journal of Brand Management 25: 197–201.
Piehler, R., C. King, C. Burmann, and L. Xiong. 2016. The importance of employee brand understanding, brand identification, and brand commitment in realizing brand citizenship behaviour. European Journal of Marketing 50 (9/10): 1575–1601.
Pinar, M., T. Girard, P. Trapp, and Z. Eser. 2016. Services branding triangle: Examining the triadic service brand promises for creating a strong brand in banking industry. International Journal of Bank Marketing 34 (4): 529–549.
Poulis, A., and Z. Wisker. 2016. Modeling employee-based brand equity (EBBE) and perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) on a firm’s performance. Journal of Product & Brand Management 25 (5): 490–503.
Punjaisri, K., and A. Wilson. 2011. Internal branding process: Key mechanisms, outcomes and moderating factors. European Journal of Marketing 45 (9/10): 1521–1537.
Punjaisri, K., A. Wilson, and H. Evanschitzky. 2009a. Internal branding to influence employees’ brand promise delivery: A case study in Thailand. Journal of Service Management 20 (5): 561–579.
Punjaisri, K., H. Evanschitzky, and A. Wilson. 2009b. Internal branding: An enabler of employees’ brand-supporting behaviours. Journal of Service Management 20 (2): 209–226.
Quaratino, L., and A. Mazzei. 2018. Managerial strategies to promote employee brand consistent behavior: The new frontier for brand building strategies. EuroMed Journal of Business 13 (2): 185–200.
Ragheb, S., A. Ahmed, and H. Hussein. 2018. Internal corporate branding impact on employees’ brand supporting behaviour. Journal of Product & Brand Management 27 (1): 79–95.
Ruediger, H., D. Vrontis, M. Czinkota, and A. Hadiono. 2012. Corporate branding and transformational leadership in turbulent times. Journal of Product & Brand Management 21 (3): 192–204.
Saini, G., and I. Jawahar. 2019. The influence of employer rankings, employment experience, and employee characteristics on employer branding as an employer of choice. Career Development International 24 (7): 636–657.
Saleem, F., and O. Iglesias. 2016. Mapping the domain of the fragmented field of internal branding. Journal of Product & Brand Management 25 (1): 43–57.
Sandbacka, J., S. Nätti, and J. Tähtinen. 2013. Branding activities of a micro industrial services company. Journal of Services Marketing 27 (2): 166–177.
Sang, J., and J. Swinney. 2012. Aligning business owners for a successful downtown brand. Journal of Place Management and Development 5 (2): 102–118.
Schlager, T., M. Bodderas, P. Maas, and J. Luc Cachelin. 2011. The influence of the employer brand on employee attitudes relevant for service branding: An empirical investigation. Journal of Services Marketing 25 (7): 497–508.
Schmidt, H.J., and C. Baumgarth. 2018. Strengthening internal brand equity with brand ambassador programs: Development and testing of a success factor model. Journal of Brand Management 25: 250–265.
Schulz, S.A., T. Martin, and H.M. Meyer. 2017. Factors influencing organization commitment: Internal marketing orientation, external marketing orientation, and subjective well-being. Journal of Management Development 36 (10): 1294–1303.
Sevel, L., R. Abratt, and N. Kleyn. 2018. Managing across a corporate and product brand portfolio: Evidence from a large South African service organization. Journal of Product & Brand Management 27 (1): 18–28.
Sharma, N., and T. Kamalanabhan. 2012. Internal corporate communication and its impact on internal branding: Perception of Indian public sector employees. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 17 (3): 300–322.
Sheikh, A., and M. Lim. 2015. The making of brand attachment and brand meanings: The case of a UK engineering services firm. Marketing Intelligence & Planning 33 (6): 887–907.
Skaalsvik, H., and B. Olsen. 2014. Service branding: Suggesting an interactive model of service brand development. Kybernetes 43 (8): 1209–1223.
Suleiman, M., and D.A. Mohammad. 2011. The impact of internal marketing on commercial banks’ market orientation. International Journal of Bank Marketing 29 (4): 308–332.
Uen, J., T. Wu, H. Teng, and Y. Liu. 2012. Transformational leadership and branding behavior in Taiwanese hotels. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 24 (1): 26–43.
Vella, P.J., J. Gountas, and R. Walker. 2009. Employee perspectives of service quality in the supermarket sector. Journal of Services Marketing 23 (6): 407–421.
Wagner, O., and M. Peters. 2009. Can association methods reveal the effects of internal branding on tourism destination stakeholders? Journal of Place Management and Development 2 (1): 52–69.
Watson, A.W., B. Taheri, S. Glasgow, and K.D. O’Gorman. 2018. Branded restaurants employees’ personal motivation, flow and commitment: The role of age, gender and length of service. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 30 (3): 1845–1862.
Whisman, R. 2009. Internal branding: A university’s most valuable intangible asset. Journal of Product & Brand Management 18 (5): 367–370.
Xie, L., Y. Li, S. Chen, and T. Huan. 2016. Triad theory of hotel managerial leadership, employee brand-building behavior, and guest images of luxury-hotel brands. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 28 (9): 1826–1847.
Yousaf, S., and H. Li. 2015. Social identity, collective self esteem and country reputation: The case of Pakistan. Journal of Product & Brand Management 24 (4): 399–411.
Zhang, J., Y. Jiang, R. Shabbir, and M. Zhu. 2016. How brand orientation impacts B2B service brand equity? An empirical study among Chinese firms. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 31 (1): 83–98.
Download references
Author information
Authors and affiliations.
Department of Business Sciences, Universidad de la Costa, 080002, Barranquilla, Colombia
David Barros-Arrieta
Barranquilla, Colombia
Ernesto García-Cali
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Corresponding author
Correspondence to David Barros-Arrieta .
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest.
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's note.
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Supplementary material 1 (XLSX 506 kb)
Rights and permissions.
Reprints and permissions
About this article
Barros-Arrieta, D., García-Cali, E. Internal branding: conceptualization from a literature review and opportunities for future research. J Brand Manag 28 , 133–151 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-020-00219-1
Download citation
Revised : 31 January 2020
Accepted : 04 November 2020
Published : 23 November 2020
Issue Date : March 2021
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-020-00219-1
Share this article
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
- Internal branding
- Brand management
- Corporate brand
- Brand equity
- Literature review
- Find a journal
- Publish with us
- Track your research
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Brand awareness is the probability that consumers recognize the existence and availability of a. company's product or services, creating this awareness by a company are one of the key steps to ...
Brand awareness, as one of the fundamental dimensions of brand equity, isoften considered to be a prerequisite of consumers' buying decision, as itrepresents the main factor for including a ...
PDF | This review paper examines the influential role of branding in shaping consumer purchase decisions. ... brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand personality, and their impact on consumer ...
This paper presents a review about the impact of brand equity and brand awareness on the purchasing intentions of the consumers. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate the relation between the awareness of a brand and the intention of consumer of buying that brand. This has been done by going through different literature and articles by ...
Literature review Brand awareness Brand awareness can be presented and described as the consumer's ability to recognize or recall a brand name from a logo in different situations [1]. In the early research of Hoyer and Brown, published in 1990, it was noted that,
To answer the research question, a literature review concerning variables that affect consumers' decisions is first conducted. The affecting variables selected for this study (customer experience, brand awareness, and perceived value) are then elaborated on, followed by the current findings on the effect of product type. After this,
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ... The chapter also reviews literature on the impact of brand awareness on customer satisfaction and quality of service on customer satisfaction. 2.1 Branding The definition and meaning of brand Brands has been used for centuries to distinguish the products or services of different companies from each other. ...
These behaviours are widely under-stood as acts of CE by researchers. This literature review focuses on empirical studies of con-sumers' engagement with brands and brand communities on social media on the cognitive, emotional and behavioural levels, and the antecedents and consequences of such engagement.
The second section provides a review of the literature on prior empirical studies. In the third and fourth sections, the research objectives and rationality of the ... The brand resonance stage comprises brand awareness, brand performance, brand image, brand feelings, brand judgement, brand loyalty, brand attachment, brand community and brand ...
The main objective of this research is to assess the impact of consumer behavior via media on brand awareness by evaluating four factors, brand loyalty, brand image, customer behavior and media. It was revealed from the study that media which is traditional media and new media (social media) positively influence the brand awareness.
The review concludes via forecasting destiny trends, including the integration of emerging technology together with synthetic intelligence and augmented fact. Through a synthesis of existing literature, this paper presents a complete expertise of the effect of virtual advertising on emblem awareness, providing realistic insights
Even though marketing researchers have been studying the topic for more than 25 years, our extensive literature review shows that a widely accepted definition and scale is still lacking. Many extant definitions and scales only address specific aspects of brand authenticity, thus only providing partial coverage.
things, brand awareness of consumer knowledge of the product to be bought, the quality of the ... LITERATURE REVIEW Consumer Loyalty Customer loyalty is the main goal of customer relationship management and describes the loyalty that is formed between customers and companies, people, products or brands. ...
Combining survey data with real-market data, this research investigates brand awareness, which relates to consumer behaviors and welfare, from three perspectives. First, it examines the relation between brand awareness and market outcome. Second, it explores the...
Building brand awareness in competitive markets can play an active role in the modern marketing environment. It is now widely acknowledged by companies that strong brand awareness will create a ...
Given the popularity of using social media brand communities to engage consumers and the diversity and fragmentation of the current research regarding this topic, a literature review combining the two concepts (brand communities in social media and consumer engagement) is needed to systematise and consolidate the existing knowledge.
the effect of destination brand awareness on des-tination brand quality. Literature review Social media sharings and destination brand awareness Content generated through social media is becoming increasingly important and can have a crucial impact on consumer destination brand awareness (Aluri et al., 2015; Aydın, 2016; Kim
CONCLUSION AND RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS This paper presents a comprehensive review and a system of classification for 409 brand related articles that were published between 2010 and 2015 in three international academic journals. The paper is a helpful summary of the literature, and will be useful for further researches.
It also seeks to identify opportu-nities for future research in this field. First, this literature review presents the conceptualization of internal branding through its antecedents, dimensions, and outcomes. Also, the study proposes a conceptual model that summarizes the conceptualization of internal branding.
This document provides an overview of crafting a literature review focused on brand awareness. It notes that writing a literature review requires more than just summarizing existing literature - it requires critical analysis, synthesis of diverse perspectives, and identifying gaps. One challenge is navigating the vast amount of available information on brand awareness. Maintaining a logical ...
Aaker, the professor that focuses on marketing and branding strategy classify the dimensions into brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand association and precieved quality (Baalbaki & Guzman, 2016).
Also, brand commitment mediates the relationship between brand awareness and brand loyalty. This result. supports the study of Saeed et al. (2014) which revealed that commitment acted as a ...
The purpose of this study is to review the brand literature between 2010-2015 including three journals which have the name of 'brand' in their title.