Timothy W. Aurand

Human resource management's role in internal branding: an opportunity for cross‐functional brand message synergy

Purpose – Many articles and books have been written about building, measuring and managing brand equity – primarily from the perspective of the marketing function. However, the management of the “internal touchpoints” necessary to deliver on the brand promise has received less attention. The paper aims to study these.Design/methodology/approach – A two‐wave e‐mail survey was administered to business seminar participants. Multi‐item measures and a six‐point Likert scale were developed and analyzed to better understand the perceived involvement of human resource (HR) in internal branding efforts and the relationship between HR involvement and the incorporation of the brand message into work activities and attitude toward the brand.Findings – In spite of well‐documented internal branding initiatives, there appears to be room for improvement among HR departments in terms of successfully delivering the corporate branding message. However, there does appear to be a strong personal attitude toward the brand amon...

Building a University Brand from Within: University Administrators' Perspectives of Internal Branding

The branding process has evolved into a role that suggests a promise to meet consumer expectations. This promise has typically been developed based on external promotional strategies such as advertising and sales promotion. More recently, the brand messages conveyed to employees of an organization have been recognized as an important aspect of an organizations positioning. The objective of this study is to investigate the internal promotion of the brand within an industry that only recently began to embrace integrated marketing efforts: higher education. Administrators in higher education who regularly have an opportunity to convey the university brand promise to outside constituencies are surveyed. Respondents from private institutions reported greater brand clarity than respondents at public institutions.

Building a University Brand from Within: A Comparison of Coaches' Perspectives of Internal Branding

ABSTRACT Branding efforts have typically focused on external promotional strategies to develop brand image. Recently, the brand messages conveyed to employees of an organization have been recognized as being equally as important as the brand messages sent to external stakeholders. This study investigates the internal communication of the university brand with college coaches as the internal recipients, as well as external senders. In order to assess institutional internal branding efforts, college coaches who regularly have an opportunity to convey the university brand promise to outside constituencies are surveyed. Differences are examined among the institutions to evaluate the internal branding techniques implemented at private and public universities and at institutions housing major and mid-major athletic programs.

Building brand loyalty through individual stock ownership

Building brand loyalty has become more important, yet more difficult to achieve in todays marketplace. This research investigates a possible avenue for building brand loyalty that is not directly related to the marketing of the product – attracting individual investors in the brands corporate parent. A survey of over 500 individual investors revealed that individual investors do tend to buy brands from companies in which they hold stock, and investors may buy stock in a company because they have experience with the brand. In contrast with brand loyalty, where consumers will not buy competitive offerings, individual investors indicated they would buy competitive offerings, suggesting that stock ownership is more likely to lead to repeat purchase behavior, but not brand loyalty.

Building brand community membership within organizations: a viable internal branding alternative?

Purpose – This paper seeks to propose and test the appropriateness of a brand community within an internal branding framework.Design/methodology/approach – 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.Findings – 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.Research limitations/implications – 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.Practical implications – External branding initiatives and communications can be used internally,...

Marketing the University to Student-Athletes: Understanding University Selection Criteria

ABSTRACT As competition for top athletes intensifies, and as challenges associated with recruitment increase, universities must develop and employ recruiting strategies based upon attributes that student-athletes identify as important to their decision-making process. The study investigates college choice decision attributes of student-athletes, identifies key choice criteria, and examines gender and ethnicity issues related to student-athlete college choice. Three of the four decision attributes identified as being most important focused on academic characteristics of the university. Male student-athletes placed a higher value on athletic characteristics of the university as compared to female student-athletes, and females placed a higher value on academic characteristics as compared to male student-athletes.

Cross‐Functional Business Programs: Critical Design and Development Considerations

Well‐documented corporate demands for crossfunctionally competent employees have instigated a wide variety of efforts by the educational community to integrate business curricula. Many colleges and universities struggle to functionally integrate business programs that historically have been delivered by well‐defined, and often well‐siloed, disciplines. Drawing from the numerous published and unpublished case studies of cross‐functional integration attempts, this study develops a framework of critical issues to consider when developing an integrated program. The framework develops five major categories of issues (strategic, leadership, administrative, faculty, and student) to help universities identify typical program decisions and potential roadblocks that may inhibit the development of a successful program.

The Delivery of an Undergraduate, Cross-Functional Business Principles Program: One University's Continuing Journey

Managerial attention continues to focus on the critical and continuing need for business organizations to develop effective cross-functional teams and cross-functional skills among individual employees. Based upon significant input from both the business and academic communities, a large, mid-western university has developed, introduced, and modified a cross-functionally-integrated undergraduate business principles program. The revolutionary program has evolved into an exercise in continuous improvement stemming from student, faculty, and administrative input. This study provides a description of the programs chronology and reports an analysis of student perceptions identified in a series of student assessments. Valuable insights and implications are provided to those at other institutions who are either contemplating or are in development of a functionally-integrated undergraduate business core curriculum.

Meeting AACSB Assessment Requirements through Peer Evaluations and Rankings in a Capstone Marketing Class

Due to an increased emphasis on the AACSB Assurance of Learning Standards, faculty members are exploring new methods by which to instill assessment in meaningful and creative ways into the marketing curriculum. The use of student peer evaluations in a capstone marketing class offers an opportunity to actively involve students in not only the production of a detailed marketing plan, but the critique of numerous plans as well. By adopting a more student engaged approach to student evaluations, a key AACSB standard can be addressed and students can be better prepared for a business environment in which peer evaluations are becoming much more common.

Consumer Grudgeholding: Does Age Make a Difference?

Bad service experiences potentially leading to long‐standing grudges can be quite costly for an organization. In many cases, corporate actions and policies cause grudges as consumers grow more and more frustrated about their interactions with large, impersonal companies. The primary objectives of this study were to examine through empirical research the causes of consumer grudgeholding, the behaviors undertaken by grudgeholders in response to their outcome, the impact of grudges against businesses, and whether differences exist depending on the grudgeholder’s age. The findings suggest that older consumers are more likely to discuss their concerns with store, company or organization employees, and in addition, they can be expected to tell more people outside of the firm than younger consumers. While neither younger nor older consumers appear highly inclined to purchase products or services from the firm following a bad experience, older respondents displayed a stronger aversion to the company, store or firm in question.