Internal branding : development of brand values and organizational commitment

Internal branding is considered to be a relatively new approach which assists companies to focus on the organizational vision and values, by collectively conveying and committing to one coherent brand message, so as to enhance the corporate brand identity to all stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the development of internal branding in organizations. Therefore the following four research questions were applied to this study: How can the alignment of brand values be described? How can the attaining of consistent brand values be described? How can organizational brand commitment be described? How can the sustaining of organizational brand commitment be described? A literature review was conducted based on the four research questions, which resulted in a conceptual framework that supported the data collection. A qualitative, multiple-case study methodology was applied for this investigation, with the primary data collected from two focused telephone interviews. The two interviews in this study were conducted with a member of the Human Resource Department at the Swedish company Peab AB and the Head of Communications of Svenska Handelsbanken AB. The findings indicate that the alignment of brand values is important to the development of internal branding, core brand values are the fundamental aspects in internal branding for attaining consistent brand values, effective internal communication of the core brand values is vital for employee belief and commitment and a strong organizational culture assists individual employees to remain loyal and committed to the brand.Validerat; 20101217 (root