Internal Branding Process: Key Mechanisms,

Outcomes and Moderating Factors

Autobiographical Note
1st Author
Full name:

Khanyapuss Punjaisri

Affiliation:

Nottingham Trent University

E-mail address: k.punjaisri@hull.ac.uk

Contact details: Hull University Business School
University of Hull
Hull, HU6 7RX, UK

Khanyapuss Punjaisri is a lecturer in Marketing at the University of Hull in the UK. She
completed a PhD at the University of Strathclyde Business School on the area of services
marketing focusing on the hotel industry in Thailand. Her special research interest is in
branding, namely, corporate branding, internal branding, and service branding.

2nd Author
Full name:

Alan Wilson

Affiliation:

University of Strathclyde

E-mail address: alan.wilson@strath.ac.uk

Contact details: Department of Marketing
University of Strathclyde Business School
Stenhouse Building
173 Cathedral Street
Glasgow, G4 0RQ, UK

Alan Wilson is Professor and Head of the Marketing Department within the University of
Strathclyde Business School. He specialises in the marketing of services and has been invited
to deliver lectures and seminars on services marketing in a variety of countries throughout the
world, to both student and executive audiences. He is a co-author of the book: Services
Marketing: First European Edition (2008) with Valarie Zeithaml, Mary Jo Bitner and
Dwayne Gremler.

1. Introduction

Balmer (2009) indicates that corporate marketing allows the synthesis of a myriad of
corporate-wide concepts such as corporate identity, corporate image, corporate branding,
corporate reputation and corporate communications. These are encompassed within the
corporate marketing mix (Balmer and Greyser, 2006), which relates to the six elements or the
6Cs of corporate marketing: corporate identity (character), corporate communications
(communications), stakeholders (constituencies), covenant (corporate brand promise),
corporate image and reputation (conceptualisation) and organisational cultures (culture). This
paper focuses on the management of the corporate brand promise in service organisations, an
activity that needs to take account of each of the other elements of the corporate marketing
mix and in particular internal stakeholders.
In a service organisation, the delivery of the corporate brand or brand covenant (Balmer
and Gray, 2003) is frequently dependant on staff effectively delivering the core values of the
company to the customer. Indeed, de Chernatony (2002) postulates that service staff are the
embodiment of the corporate brand through the adoption of behaviours that support a
predetermined and common set of brand values. Internal branding activities are therefore
seen (Cleaver, 1999) as being as important as external branding activities in communicating
and delivering the brand promise to the customer. This communicated promise needs to
reflect the uniqueness of the corporate brand (Ingenhoff and Fuhrer, 2010) in order to ensure
a corporate brands virtue as a source of an organisations competitiveness (Balmer, 2001).
Despite the growing interest in internal branding, there has been very little research
undertaken on the subject from the employees perspective. The focus has tended to be on the
perspectives of management and brand consultants, looking at the issue from a top-down
viewpoint. Therefore, this study focuses on front-line employees and their perceptions of
internal branding influencers and the extent to which personal and work environment factors
moderate the success of internal branding in the reinforcement of brand-supporting attitudes
and behaviours among employees. The research, based on a multiple case study representing
the hotel industry in Thailand, involved the completion of 30 in-depth qualitative interviews
with customer-interface employees followed by a quantitative survey with 680 customerinterface employees located in 5 major hotels.

2. Corporate Branding, Internal Branding and the Employee

As corporations are trying to eliminate any corporate dissonance (Bernstein, 2009, p. 609),
the alignment between what is communicated with external and internal constituencies is
increasingly emphasised (Powell and Dodd, 2007). Indeed, the corporate marketing vortex
of Balmer (1998) suggests that a corporate brand is an explicit promise between an
organisation and its key stakeholder groups. Einwiller and Will (2002) define corporate
branding as the systematic planned management of behaviour, communication and
symbolism in order to attain a favourable and positive reputation with target audiences for an
organisation. The behaviour element relates to the behaviour of employees and they are seen
as having a major influence on how external stakeholders perceive the corporate brand and
make sense of its identity and image (Anixter, 2003; Hatch and Schultz, 2001; Mitchell,
2002). As such, close alignment of the employees with the organisations brand values may
provide an organisation with a sustainable competitive advantage (Pringle and Thompson,
2001). Stuart (2002) states that the more employees identify with the organisation ... the
more employees are likely to uphold that identity in their actions (p. 30). Internal branding
aims to achieve this alignment by promoting the brand inside an organisation through the
practice of internal marketing (Drake et al, 2005). It requires not only input from marketing
personnel but also from those in the Human Resource discipline. Although a universal
definition has not yet been proposed, various authors agree that internal branding is about
ensuring that the brand promise is transformed by employees into reality, reflecting the
espoused brand values that set customers expectations (e.g. Aurand et al, 2005; Boone,
2000; de Chernatony and Cottam, 2006; King and Grace, 2008; Mahnert and Torres, 2007).
As such, the definition adopted in this paper is that internal branding describes the activities
undertaken by an organisation to ensure that the brand promise reflecting the espoused brand
values that set customers expectations is enacted and delivered by employees.

3. Employees Brand Identification and Brand Commitment

Balmer (2001) argues for the need of total commitment across all employees of an
organisation if a corporate brand is to be truly differentiated and successful. When staff have
a clear understanding of brand values, they are more likely to be intellectually and
emotionally engaged with the brand (Thomson et al, 1999). As internal branding strives for a
shared understanding of brand values across the organisation, recent studies have found it has

a positive influence on employees brand commitment (Punjaisri and Wilson, 2007; Punjaisri
et al, 2008). That is, committed employees can better fulfil the brand promise because of their
emotional attachment to the brand (Thomson et al, 1999). Furthermore, the organisational
identification and the organisational commitment theories have purported that when staffs
values are aligned with the organisations, or the brands (in this study), their desire to
maintain membership or brand loyalty will be enhanced (e.g. Dutton et al, 1993; Van Dick,
2001). A recent study by Papasolomou and Vrontis (2006) has found that internal branding
influences employees brand loyalty and their willingness to remain with the brand
(Reichheld, 1996). It is further noted that authors view brand identification as a precursor to
commitment (Burmann and Zeplin, 2005) and to loyalty (Brown and Peterson, 1993;
Pritchard et al., 1999).
However, the effectiveness of internal branding on creating brand-supporting attitudes and
behaviours may be moderated by a range of factors relating to the individual (personal
factors) and the work environment. Factors such as age (Simons and Enz, 1995), length of
service (van Woerkom et al, 2003) organisational climate (Steers and Porter, 1983),
supervisory support (Susskind et al, 2007) and perceived autonomy (Tomer, 2001) have all
been explored in relation to motivation but have not been examined in relation to their impact
on internal branding and the resultant employee brand identification and employee brand
loyalty. Therefore this study set out to explore the views of service employees in a service
industry with respect to their identification, commitment and loyalty to the corporate brand as
a result of internal branding activities taking account of the employees personal and job
specific (situational) characteristics.

4. Methodology

A case study approach representing the hotel industry in Thailand was chosen using a mix of
qualitative and quantitative research. Although a case study approach is frequently criticised
for a lack of generalisability and rigour (Yin, 1994), it can generate a richness of information
that helps to generate and expand theories and concepts (Gummesson, 1991). Furthermore,
the mixed methodologies together with the critical review of literature allow data
triangulation which is known to neutralise the limitations and biases of any single method
(Creswell, 2003).

Qualitative Phase
The qualitative research used in-depth interviews with 30 customer-interface employees in
six major hotels in key tourist provinces in Thailand. Please refer to Appendix 1 for the
profile of participating customer-interface employees. This phase was to validate the
constructs found during the literature review as well as to define the parameters to be
measured during the quantitative phase. The findings from this research also assisted in the
design of the quantitative questionnaires.
The participating hotels were selected based on their quality standards rated by stars. Fourand five-star hotels were selected because they are more likely to make an effort to maintain
their promised brand experience and standards. Due to the focus of the research, employees
from three departments (Food and Beverage, Housekeeping, and Front Office) were
considered to be the key informants as they are in constant interaction with customers and
other stakeholders. Each interview lasted from one to one hour and a half and was taped and
transcribed to reduce the risk of observer bias (Voss et al, 2002). Content analysis was used
to analyse the data. Based on Miles and Hubermans (1988) framework, the transcripts were
studied several times to identify common themes, leading to the generation of notes in a
matrix format.

Quantitative Phase
Following this, the quantitative research phase was conducted to investigate the formal
relationships among constructs. At this phase, only five hotels granted access. However, the
qualitative findings suggested no significant differences between these five hotels and the
hotel that refused to take part.

Sample
The survey was conducted with customer-interface employees from the three departments
(food and beverage, housekeeping and front office) in the five hotels. The questionnaires
were distributed to each hotel individually and respondents were assured of their anonymity.
Of the 797 questionnaires sent out , 699 were returned, giving a response rate of 94 percent.
Nineteen questionnaires were discarded as a result of missing data, leaving 680 to be
included in further analysis. The measurement invariance was tested since there were five
samples from five hotels.

Following the procedure suggested by Steenkamp and

Baumgartner (1998: p. 83, Figure 1), it is noted that configural, metric, and scalar invariance
were given. Hence, the five data sets were successfully combined for further analysis.

Measures
The questionnaire used a 5-point Likert scale as it is one of the most common ways of
measuring attitudes (Wilson, 2006). Measures for the key constructs (i.e. identification,
commitment, loyalty, performance, work environment, internal branding) were adapted from
prior literature (e.g. Mael and Ashforth, 1992; Mohr et al, 1996: OReilly and Chatman,
1986; Punjaisri and Wilson, 2007). Please refer to Appendix 2 for the assessment of the
validity and reliability of the scales using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Further
analysis testing discriminant validity suggested some cross-loadings. Therefore, five items
(I1, I2, I7, L2, and BP2) were deleted. When removed, the result was satisfied (see Appendix
3 for the discriminant validity test and correlations of the constructs). Another two CFAs
were conducted as a second-order factor analysis for the work environment and internal
branding constructs. Both have the CFI value range from .941 to .952, in line with the
RMSEA value at .066, suggesting reasonable fit models.
The analysis of reliability of scale using Cronbachs coefficient alpha was performed using
SPSS. The result suggested adequate to very good scale reliability (Appendix 4).

5. Qualitative Research Findings

Internal Brandings Influences on Employees Delivery of Brand Promise

Analysis of interview transcripts stressed the importance of coordinating internal
communications

(marketing)

with

ongoing

training

programmes

(HR).

Internal

communications were considered as a key to give them an idea about the brand (R30)
whereas training coaches and educates how to enact the espoused brand values as proposed
by the brand promise (R1).
The attitudinal outcomes of internal branding, namely brand identification, brand
commitment, and brand loyalty raised during the literature review were found during the indepth interviews. All respondents expressed their sense of belonging to the brand as they all
used we to represent their brand and regarded themselves as the brand (e.g. We are in the
same family, we are brand P [R22]). 25 showed their sense of pride towards the brand (e.g. I
am proud to tell anyone that I work for brand S [R28]). Similarly, 20 informants revealed
their emotional attachment (e.g. I love working with brand O [R17]). Many put this down to
internal branding, we are kept reinforced about brand values (R27) and 17 of the
respondents claimed that they stayed with the hotel because of internal branding that enhance
their knowledge, skills, and capabilities: Its been enhancing my skills and overall

knowledge. I dont see why I should leave brand M (R14). Furthermore, informants attribute
their delivery of the brand promise to the practice of internal branding: Both training and
internal communications make me appreciate the brand and its values. I know how to deliver
... our brand promise and its importance (R13). Besides, they also contend that because they
interpreted their brands success as their own, they expressed their intention to deliver on the
brand promise as guided by the brand standards that were constantly reinforced through
internal communications and training: as we feel we are S, we will surely work and do things
for the success of it ... training and communications across the organisation help us provide
services that are in line with the brands values, expected by our management and customers
(R26).

Personal and Work Environment Factors as Perceived Challenges to the Promise

Delivery

The importance of the work environment was addressed during the interviews: The work
environment is good. I feel that I can and want to stay here (R2). Respondents referred to
such factors as relationships with colleagues and leaders, recognition schemes, and perceived
autonomy. When employees feel that they get support from their colleagues and management
through recognition schemes and certain degrees of perceived autonomy, they believe that
they can deliver the brand promise effectively and efficiently (R7). For example, we have
good leaders who understand, trust, and, when we excel, reward us. This makes us feel happy
and love to work here ... and motivated to achieve what we hold dear to our brand P
(R23). Hence, these factors were also found to enhance employees attitudinal responses
towards the brand, namely brand identification, commitment, and loyalty.
Personal factors, namely age, educational background, and length of service, were found to
have impact on employees brand-supporting attitudes and behaviour. In line with the study
of Simons and Enz (1995), employees of age over 30 years old tended to express their
intention to be more loyal than the younger counterparts. Similarly, the longer they worked
with the brand, the higher their expressed emotional attachment and intention to stay with the
brand. However, those who have higher education qualifications seemed less loyal: although
I love and am proud of working here, I cannot say how long I will stay (R3).

Figure 1 represents the framework that was derived from the full qualitative findings and the
literature.

Insert Figure 1 here

6. Quantitative Research Findings

A LISREL model using AMOS 7.0 was generated to formally investigate the potential
linkages between the constructs identified in Figure 1. Figure 2 reveals estimated coefficients
of the relationships among all constructs for the model. The goodness-of-fit statistics revealed
that the model fits the data reasonably well: The x2/df value of 2.5 indicates a satisfactory
level as it is below the recommended 3.0 (Bollen and Long, 1993). Other representative
indexes also suggest that the results of the structural model analysis are a good fit of the
proposed model to the data: GFI is .927, CFI is .941, RMSEA is .047. Although the CFI is
lower that the revised cut-off value of .95, the CFI value above .9 is considered as reasonably
well-fitting (Hair et al, 2006). In fact, the CFI value of this researchs model is close to .95;
Hu and Bentler (1995) have recently advised that a cut-off value close to .95 is acceptable.

INSERT FIGURE 2 HERE

The Direct and Indirect Influences of Internal Branding on Employees BrandSupporting Behaviour

The result of a LISREL analysis reveals that internal branding has a significant effect on
employees brand performance (0.37, p<.001). It also indicated a positive influence of
internal branding on employees brand identification (0.72, p<.001), brand commitment
(0.24, p<.001), and brand loyalty (0.32, p<.001). Although the effect of internal branding on
employees brand performance was less than on brand identification.
Following Baron and Kennys (1986) argument for testing steps of mediating effects, the
analysis depicted the mediating effect of employees brand identification and brand loyalty,
explaining that part of the internal brandings total effect on employees delivery of the brand
promise was through its influence on these two brand concepts. This suggested that both
brand identification and brand loyalty acted as partial mediators in this link whereas brand
commitment exerted no mediating effect because it did not have a significant relationship

with the extent to which employees perform the delivery of the brand promise. As the two
brand attitudes act as partial mediators in the link between internal branding and employees
brand performance, it is important to acknowledge the direct impact that internal branding
still exerts on employees brand performance. However, because part of its influence is
through brand identification and their intention to remain with the brand (brand loyalty), the
total effect of internal branding towards employees brand performance becomes greater
when these two attitudes are positive. In addition, the LISREL analysis revealed that
employees brand identification positively influenced employees brand commitment (0.55,
p<.001), which was a precursor of employees brand loyalty (0.32, p<.001).

Moderating Influences of Work Environment and Personal Factors

After confirming the influences of the relationships among different constructs, moderating
effects were tested. Based on the literature review and the qualitative findings, two sets of
moderators were found: 1) personal variables consisting of age, educational background, and
length of service (these were all assessed separately) and 2) situational factors comprising the
relationships with their leaders and their peers, their perceptions towards rewarding and
remuneration schemes, and perceived autonomy (these were all assessed as one parameter).
To investigate the moderating effects, this study followed the steps for moderator
examination as suggested by Dabholkar and Bagozzi (2002). The total sample was divided
into high and low groups according to the median of individual moderating factors (Yi and
Jeon, 2003).

The Work Environment

With regard to the findings presented in Table 1, it can be noted that all variables show all
effects they moderate the effect of internal branding on all measured constructs (brand
identification, brand commitment, brand loyalty, and brand performance). In particular, the
results suggested that the strength of internal brandings effects on all three attitudes of
employees toward a brand (high
satisfaction=.11

satisfaction=.39

for the effect on brand identification; high

on brand commitment; high satisfaction=.17 on brand loyalty) was heightened when

employees were satisfied with their work environment. This is in line with the qualitative
results. For example, remuneration/rewarding schemes influenced not only their decision to
apply for a job but also their intention to stay. Indeed, the results resonated with a number of

previous studies that consider a good work environment as an enhancer of the effect of the
training programmes by increasing employee identification (e.g. House, 1971; James et al,
1977; Tyagi, 1982), and commitment (de Chernatony, 2001; Tosti and Stotz, 2001).

Table 1 Results of Multigroup Analysis: Work Environment, Age, Education, and Length of
Service as Moderators

Paths
Internal Branding

Brand
Identification
Internal Branding Brand Commitment
Internal Branding Brand Loyalty
Internal Branding Brand Performance

Work Environment
High
Low
Satisfaction
Satisfaction

X2

X2(df=1)

.385a
.106b
.167a
.135b

1094.555
1058.265
1061.724
1046.614

90.337**
54.047**
57.506**
42.396**

X2

X2(df=1)

.306a
.095b
.156a
.191a

X2(df=4): 134.573**
Age
Internal Branding
Identification

Young

Old

.376a

.426a

1056.157

69.734**

1069.344
1060.914
1022.829

82.921**
74.491**
36.406**

Brand

Internal Branding Brand Commitment

Internal Branding Brand Loyalty
Internal Branding Brand Performance

.179
.213a
.181a

.023
.105c
.218a

X2(df=4): 139.332**
Education
Internal Branding

Brand
Identification
Internal Branding Brand Commitment
Internal Branding Brand Loyalty
Internal Branding Brand Performance

Low

High

X2

X2(df=1)

.434a
.081b
.158a
.286a

.366a
.129b
.207a
.000c

1105.784
1086.787
1086.548
1086.610

58.846**
39.849**
39.610**
39.672**

X2(df=4): 86.795**
Length of Service
Internal Branding
Identification

Short

Long

X2

X2(df=1)

.353a

.493a

1095.676

48.210**

.143a
.134a
.172a

.021c
.245a
.204a

1092.788
1090.919
1078.408

45.322**
43.453**
30.942**

Brand

Internal Branding Brand Commitment

Internal Branding Brand Loyalty
Internal Branding Brand Performance

X2(df=4): 84.894**
** Significant at .01 level
a
Significant at .01 level
b
Significant at .05 level

On the contrary, less satisfied employees attributed their brand performance more toward
internal branding than more satisfied employees (low satisfaction=.19). That is, employees who
were dissatisfied with their workplace needed to be influenced more by internal branding.

Age of Employees

The links between internal branding and employees brand identification and between
internal branding and employees brand performance were stronger with employees over the
age of 30 (old worker=.43 for identification; old worker=.22 for performance) in comparison with
employees of less than 30 years (young worker=.38; old worker=.18). However, the links between
internal branding and brand commitment and between internal branding and brand loyalty are
found to be stronger when employees are younger (young

worker=.18

and young

worker=.21

respectively). Both the literature (e.g. Simons and Enz, 1995) and the qualitative findings
suggested that older workers generally tended to have a higher commitment and loyalty
towards their brand; therefore, they may feel that their commitment and loyalty are less
strongly influenced by internal branding.

Education of Employees

Education was also found to moderate the effect of internal branding on employees brand
attitudes and brand performance. In particular, less educated employees attributed their brand
identification and performance more towards internal branding than their well-educated
counterparts (low

education=.43

and (low

education=.29

respectively). The qualitative findings

explained that well-educated employees perceived themselves as contributing to the success

of the brand; thus, they did not need to be so strongly influenced by internal branding.
Furthermore, less-educated employees may need internal branding to further reinforce the
behaviours that were appropriate for the delivery of the brand promise. The effect of internal
branding on employees brand commitment and brand loyalty was stronger for employees
who were well-educated (high education=.13 and high education=.21 respectively). The qualitative
findings found that employees having lower educational attainment were generally loyal no
matter what internal branding was undertaken, whereas employees with higher levels of
knowledge were ambitious for career advancement and internal branding was needed to
reinforce the value of being loyal to the their current hotel brand.

Length of Service

Finally, the length of service was found to moderate employees brand identification (long
service=.49),

loyalty (long

service=.25),

and performance (long

service=.20).

The longer an

employee had been with an organisation, the greater the impact internal branding had on their
on-brand behaviour.

7. Discussion and Implications

While most of the existing research has focused on managements and brand consultants
perspectives, this study has looked at the perspectives of customer-interface employees who
are considered as the key audience of internal branding activities. Focusing on these
employees, it has been possible to provide empirical evidence showing the link between
internal branding and employees brand-supporting behaviours, which was previously only
based on conceptual thinking. As this study measured employees brand identification,
commitment, and loyalty together, it also identifies the relationships among these concepts
and how they mediated the strength of internal brandings effect on employees brand
behaviours. Among the three brand concepts, an employees sense of belonging or oneness
is influenced most by internal branding. Internal branding also directly impacts on
employees brand performance and ability to deliver the brand promise. This concurs with
past studies (e.g. OReilly and Chatman, 1986) that demonstrated that employees who
identify with the brand will have an emotional attachment to the brand. Similarly, an
employees commitment is positively related to their brand loyalty measured in terms of their
intention to stay with brand.
Therefore internal branding is critical to the success of a service organisation and in particular
to the success of the corporate brand (Schultz and de Chernatony, 2002). Furthermore,
Balmer and Greyser (2006) consider corporate branding as tightly coupled to corporate
marketing (p. 7). Therefore, this study furthers that internal branding, which engenders
employees cognitive and emotional engagement with the brand, is key to the success of
coherent corporate-level marketing. However, management should also be aware that the
impact of internal branding will not be constant across all employees within an organisation.
This study has successfully managed to reveal the moderating effects of personal and
situational factors on internal branding. Although various articles in the internal branding
realm have depicted the benefits of internal branding, they have not explored the factors that

could hinder its success. In particular, attention should be paid toward how employees
perceive their work environment. The relationships that employees have with their peers and
leaders, the level of perceived autonomy, and their perceptions toward payment and
reward/recognition schemes could limit the effectiveness of internal branding. The impact of
internal branding on an employees attitudes and behaviour are heightened when employees
are satisfied with their workplace. Indeed, management can learn from this study that their
efforts towards internal branding are also perceived by their staff as being about the
relationship between management and their employees, the recognition schemes that they
implement, and finally, through the level of flexibility that they allow their staff to have
during the service delivery. As such, internal branding cannot be looked at in isolation and is
unlikely to be successful if the work environment is not conducive to the employees and the
brand values. That is, internal branding needs to work together with other corporate
marketing elements (i.e. corporate communications, culture, corporate identity, and corporate
image and reputation) as well as other disciplinary frameworks (i.e. management, and human
resources).
Personal variables such as age, educational background, and length of service with the brand
should also be taken into account. While older employees might require more significant
internal branding effort to enhance their identification with the brand, their brand-supporting
behaviour might need less support than is the case for their younger colleagues. Furthermore,
employees with lower educational qualifications may not see themselves as contributing to
the success of the brand. This may mean that strong internal branding efforts may be required
to communicate the interdependency between the brands success and the less educated
employees role in the delivery of the brand promise. When they consider themselves as
contributing to the success of the brand, their motivation to deliver the brand message is
likely to be enhanced. Finally, the longer an employee stays with the brand, the more the
organisation needs internal branding to reinforce employees brand identification, intention to
stay, and performance. This may stop employees becoming tired of the brand and questioning
its relevance to them. Effective internal branding is needed to enhance their pride in the brand
and their willingness to deliver on the brand promise.

8. Future Research Directions

Although this study has identified the importance of internal branding, it has only focused on
the hotel industry in Thailand which may not be representative of all service organisations,

suggesting that there is a need for researchers to extend this research into other service
industries and other national cultures to enrich internal branding knowledge in the wider
service sector. The hotel industry is also affected by employing temporary staff during peak
periods, as a result this cross-sectional study may have neglected the impact of these seasonal
shifts in staffing on the effectiveness of internal branding. A longitudinal study may offer
opportunities to improve understanding of the impact of temporary versus permanent
employees on the perceived value and influence of internal branding. Moreover, longitudinal
data would improve understanding of the ongoing and long-term influence of mechanisms on
the attitudes of employees and their behaviours in delivering the sustainable brand promises.

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Figure 1 The Proposed Framework Based on the Outcome of Qualitative Data Analysis

Work Environment (Relationships with

colleagues and leaders, remuneration schemes, and
perceived autonomy)

Internal Branding
Internal
Communication
Daily Briefings
Group Meetings
Notice Boards
Newsletters
Logbooks

Brand
Identification

Tools

Brand
Commitment

Expected

Brand
Performance

Training
Orientation
Programme
Development
Course

Brand
Loyalty

Outcomes

Programmes

Mechanisms

Personal Variables: Age, Educational background,

Length of Service

Figure 2 Relationships between Internal Branding, Employees Brand Attitudes (e.g. Brand
Identification, Brand Commitment, and Brand Loyalty), and Employees Brand Performance

Training

Group
Meeting

Orientation

Briefing

INT
BRANDING

.724
BRAND
IDENTIFICATION

.370a

.320a

.241a

.554a

BRAND
COMMITMENT

.193b

.315a

BRAND
LOYALTY

.114b

-.048
BRAND
PERFORMANCE

significant at .01
level
b
significant at .05
level

x2

=677.653

df
=262
GFI =.926

TLI

=.931

CFI
=.940
RMSEA =.048

Appendix 1 Profile of Informants from Six Hotels

Job Position
Housekeeping supervisor (R1)
Banquet Manager (R2)
Communication centre officer (R3)
Sales reception co-ordinator (R4)
Reservation supervisor (R5)
Housekeeping supervisor (R6)
F&B supervisor (R7)
F&B officer (R8)
F&B server (R9)
Guest history officer (R10)
Guest contact assistant manager at caf (R11)
Assistant F&B personnel (R12)
Guest contact supervisor at restaurant (R13)
Sales executive (R14)
Bell boy (R15)
Guest service officer (R16)
Room attendant (R17)
Waiter (R18)
Concierge officer (R19)
Porter (R20)
Room maid (R21)
Guest relations officer (R22)
F/O supervisor (R23)
Hostess (R24)
Server (R25)
Caf captain (R26)
Chinese restaurant captain (R27)
Busboy (R28)
Guest relations officer (R29)
Business centre officer (R30)

Hotel

Department
Housekeeping
F&B
F/O
F/O
F/O
Housekeeping
F&B
F&B
F&B
Residence
F&B
F&B
F&B
Services
Services
F/O
Housekeeping
F&B
F/O
F/O
Housekeeping
F/O
F/O
F&B
F&B
F&B
F&B
F&B
F/O
F/O

Sex
f
m
f
f
f
f
m
m
m
f
f
f
f
f
m
m
m
m
f
m
f
f
m
f
f
f
f
m
f
f

Appendix 2: Reliability and Validity Tests of Each Measurement Scale

Brand Identification
My sense of pride towards the hotel brand is reinforced by the
brand-related messages
I view the success of the brand as my own success
Hotel X is like a family to me
I feel belonging to this hotel X
When someone praises this brand, it feels like a personal
compliment
Brand Commitment
My commitment to deliver the brand increases along with my
knowledge of the brand
I am very committed to delivering the brand promise to our
hotel guests
I have a minimal commitment to this hotel
I don't feel emotionally attached to this hotel
Brand Loyalty
I will be happy to spend the rest of my career in this hotel chain
My intention to stay is driven by the fact that I am competent in
delivering the brand promise
Brand Performance
The quality level of my services meets the brand standards of
Hotel X
I can successfully fulfil responsibilities specified in my job
descriptions
I effectively fulfil the promise that the brand has with customers
I always handle customers' specific requests within a standard
set for the brand
SECOND ORDER FACTOR "INTERNAL BRANDING"
Training
Training gives me appropriate skills in relations to deliver the
brand promise based on the brand standards
I am usually drawn towards messages made of colourful and
attractive materials
My hotel informs employees in an excellent way about things
that are relevant to them
I feel encouraged to come up with the new and better
suggestions of how to do things
Orientation
Orientation programme triggers my inspiration to appropriately
fulfil the brand promise delivery
I like the orientation kit and/or brand manuals of my hotel brand
Group Meeting
During the group meeting, I am clearly informed of the brand
mission
I clearly understand my role in relation to the brand mission,
after attending the group meeting
Briefing
Briefings contain all essential information for me to provide
services according to the brand expectations
The brand mission and its promise are constantly reinforced
during the briefing

Critical
Ration

Average
Variance
Extracted (AVE)

0.871

0.576

0.803

0.506

0.695

0.535

0.820

0.535

0.803

0.505

0.671

0.505

0.769

0.625

0.666

0.503

Appendix 3
Correlations and Test of Discriminant Validity
TR

OR

GM

BR

BI

BP

BL

BC

Training

Orientation

0.682

Group Meeting

0.618

0.477

Briefing

0.614

0.59

0.465

Brand Identification

0.635

0.484

0.522

0.496

Brand Performance

0.406

0.441

0.44

0.389

0.492

Brand Loyalty

0.62

0.518

0.468

0.447

0.701

0.43

Brand Commitment

0.657

0.464

0.519

0.449

0.674

0.468

0.705

AVE*

0.505

0.505

0.625

0.503

0.576

0.535

0.535

0.506

*) None of the squared correlations between any pair of constructs is larger than the AVE

Appendix 4: Cronbach's Alpha for Each Scale

Alpha
Construct
Coefficients
Internal Branding
0.828
Brand Identification
0.868
Brand Commitment
0.776
Brand Loyalty
0.668
Brand Performance
0.816
Situational Factors (Work Environment) 0.811