Scope of Internal Marketing in B2B Companies

Abstract Previous studies have focused on "internal marketing" from services marketing perspective. There is, therefore, a great dearth of in-depth research on its application to other business types. This research attempts to find the scope of internal marketing in B2B companies. The purpose of this research is to closely examine the elements, their linkage, tools and applications of Internal marketing when applied to B2B settings. Internal marketing, the application of marketing management to the corporate organization, was first suggested in the late 1970's. Its basic idea was to have satisfied customers, the firm must also have satisfied employees and this is best achieved by treating employees as customers i.e. applying principles to job design and employee motivation. Previous researches have found that Internal Marketing is a concept that is socially constructed and context-specific in nature. It cannot be understood without relating the concept to the company, organization or person who gives meaning to it. Hence, in this project the author presents a case study on Gardner energy management (a B2B company) which illustrates a wide scope of internal marketing. The findings of this research suggests seven major elements of internal marketing with respect to B2B companies, viz., (1) employee motivation (2) Distributors and agents motivation (3) employee job satisfaction, (4) Leadership, (5) Inter-functional coordination and integration, (6) Customer orientation, (7) Product and service quality, (8) Customer Satisfaction . The study contributes both in terms of theory and practice. At the theoretical level, it suggests the framework devised by Rafiq and Ahmed (2002) about the working of internal marketing, though some modifications have to be made to the framework. At the practice level, it suggests the ways in which companies should practice internal marketing techniques to achieve employee motivation and job satisfaction and retention