Magister Commercii - MCom / The focus of branding is often externally focused, yet it is the employees through their direct interaction with the brand, that can make or break the brand promise. Despite the important role of employees in building the brand, they are often overlooked in brand building strategies. The purpose of the study was to test the effect of internal brand management on brand commitment and brand trust in a government organisation. Front-line employees of the South African Post Office, a state-owned organisation in South Africa was selected to collect the data using convenience sampling. Cronbach Alpha and content validity was used to test the reliability and validity of the measurement instrument. The data was not normally distributed and non-parametric tests were performed during data analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the basic characteristics of the respondents and the correlation coefficient (Rho) was used to test the relationships between variables. All three hypotheses were accepted. The results are consistent with previous research, however, new developments are emerging. For front-line employees to commit to the brand, they must trust the brand, which in turn is created through brand identity. Negative external communication influences the ability of front-line employees to deliver the expected brand promise. Importantly, the role of top management in fostering internal brand management cannot be overlooked.

The current research argues that brand commitment, a multidimensional construct consisting of brand attachment, long-term orientation, and intent to persist, is a better indicator of brand relationship strength than brand attachment alone. Brand commitment is a better indicator of brand relationship strength because it is able to predict brand relationship persistence, is influenced by important antecedents of brand relationship strength, and can explain the relationship between the antecedents of brand relationship strength and relationship persistence while brand attachment cannot. The current research employs survey methodology, SEM, and a between-subjects experimental design to test this argument. The results indicate that brand commitment predicts relationship persistence and reveal that long-term orientation and intent to persist are important predictors of relationship persistence. These findings contribute to the consumer-brand relationship literature by illustrating the importance of understanding all three of components of brand commitment.

Corporate brands in today’s business landscape are complex and multifaceted, with employees playing a critical role in the building of those brands. As employee brand commitment forms an important part of building a corporate brand, it would be beneficial to understand the drivers of employee brand commitment in order to better understand the corporate brand. One of the main aspects of employee brand commitment is the personality of the corporate employer brand. This research aims to determine the relationship between corporate brand personality and employee brand commitment. By utilising the Corporate Brand Personality Scale and employee brand commitment measures, a quantitative survey was administered to 250 members of an online research panel. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the most common elements of the Corporate Brand Personality Scale. Thereafter, regression analysis was performed to determine the role of brand personality in predicting an employee’s commitment to their corporate brand. The results of this study show that factors of corporate brand personality have a significant influence on employee brand commitment. Further discussion into factor analysis shows that progressive and steadfast personality traits have a significantly positive effect on employee brand commitment, whilst supercilious personality traits have a negative effect on employee brand commitment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Yes / This study investigates the psychological effects of social identity on both posters and lurkers in online brand communities (OBCs). The results reveal the intermediate mechanisms mediating and moderating members’ social identity effects on members’ brand commitment leading to positive word-of-mouth and their resistance to negative information about the brand. This article treats social identity as a multi-dimensional construct. Differences amongst posters and lurkers on the relationships between the cognitive, affective and evaluative components of social identity are investigated along with their positive effect on brand commitment and behavioral consequences. Using a sample of 752 OBC members, both posters and lurkers emerge as valuable members and equally likely to derive social identity from their membership of an OBC. However, there are counter intuitive results for relationships within the research model between active and passive members of OBCs. These results offer implications for theory and can help managers to be better interactive marketers.

A growing use of mergers and acquisitions as a growth strategy has led to what is often referred to as “brand accumulation”, describing a situation in which a parent firm finds itself having acquired firms to the extent that the number of brands under management exceeds the capability of the firm. This, coupled with a generational shift in the workforce that has increased the demands on brand equity amongst potential employees, has increased the need for successful firm rebrandings. Today, many rebranding efforts fail, and this paper attempts to highlight the most important factors affecting a rebranding initiative, in order to better understand why some of them fail and why some succeed. The study is based on a framework of success and failure factors, extracted from historical as well as contemporary research into the field of firm rebranding These factors are then evaluated through case studies. The research goes beyond looking at a rebrand as just the replacement of a firm logotype or graphical guidelines, and puts added focus on the larger brand visions that are often implemented as part of a rebranding. The case studies were performed at four firms from different industries who has gone through a rebranding with varying degrees of success. The interviewees had different roles at their respective firms. The entire paper is structured around the frame of reference constructed during the literature review, a summary of which can be found in section 2.3 on pages 27-29. These factors are the underlying basis for answering the research questions. / Ett ökat användande av mergers & acquisitions som tillväxtstrategi har lett till att företag riskerar att börja “samla på sig varumärken”, vilket beskriver en situation där antalet varumärken som bolaget behöver ta om hand överstiger dess kapacitet. Detta, i kombination med ett tydligt generationsskifte på arbetskraftsmarknaden har satt allt ökande krav på ett företags varumärkeskapital bland potentiella anställda. Detta har skapat ett ökat behöv för framgångsrika varumärkesförändringar. Idag misslyckas många varumärkesförändringar, och denna uppsats syftar till att belysa de viktigaste faktorerna under ett sådant arbete, för att bättre förstå varför vissa lyckas och andra misslyckas. Uppsatsen är baserad på ett ramverk av framgångs- och misslyckandefaktorer, som har extraherat ur såväl historisk som samtida forskning inom varumärkesförändringar. Dessa faktorer har sedan utvärderas genom fallstudier. Forskningen har fokuserats inte enbart på varumärkesförändringar i termer av logotypbyten och grafiska riktlinjer, utan värdesätter även varumärkesvisionerna som ofta introduceras jämte ett nytt varumärke. Fallstudierna utfördes på fyra bolag från olika industrier, som alla gått igenom någon form av varumärkesförändring, med olika grad av framgång. Intervjupersonerna har olika roller på sina respektive bolag. Uppsatsen är strukturerad kring den referensram som konstruerats under literaturstudien och finns sammanfattad i sektion 2.3 på sidorna 27-29. Dessa faktorer utgör underlaget för att sedan besvara de vetenskapliga frågorna som presenteras i kapitel 1.

The use of co-branding as a strategy has become increasingly important to managers due to saturation in mature markets and the search for growth in emerging nations (Chul, 2009; Helmig, Huber, & Leeflang, 2008; Uggla & Asberg, 2010). In this study, a co-branded joint venture strategy is seen as an enterprise or an organisation introducing a national brand into a foreign market using brands that are successful in that foreign market, thus creating a co-brand (Kuvykaite & Mascinskiene, 2010). Co-branded strategies do not necessarily last for an indefinite period of time and the companies involved may want to separate after some time, particularly when the multi-national firm wants to align subsidiaries under the same corporate identity and brands. This split leads to impacts on a number of different levels including internal stakeholders (e.g. employees), external stakeholders (suppliers, consumers etc.) and the reputation of the firms. It can be argued that employees are the most affected by co-branded ventures above all other stakeholders. Danone Southern Africa is a firm of French origin which entered the South African dairy market through a joint venture with Clover South Africa. The two companies formed the Joint venture, Danone-Clover in 1998 (Abratt & Motlana, 2002), to operate within the fresh dairy produce market (i.e. Yoghurt, Custard and Maas). Whilst the two organisations had formed a joint-venture, Clover South Africa continued to operate separately within the broader dairy and beverages market. Danone subsequently bought out Clover’s share in the joint-venture in 2010 (Danone, 2010), resulting in the two firms no longer having a joint venture operation and functioning as separate entities within the South African market. This study explored the effects of a co-branding joint-venture separation, on the brand commitment of employees of the separated organisation. The study explored the process of the separation from a case study perspective. One-to-one interviews were conducted, with the use of open-ended and semi-structured questions with the responses recorded. The population of the study were employees of Danone Southern Africa, based at the Roodepoort head office. There were two sets of respondents, the first being employees who were part of Danone-Clover and are now employees of Danone Southern Africa. The second were respondents that had only being under the employment of Danone Southern Africa, i.e. joining the organisation post the joint venture separation in 2010. The study made use of judgemental sampling where sample sizes are often determined on the basis of theoretical saturation, as a result 18 respondents were interviewed. The results of the study showed that a co-branding joint venture separation has a negative impact on brand commitment, in that brand commitment decreases after the dissolution of the joint venture. In this specific case study, Danone’s brand performance was not negatively impacted particularly in terms of market share, where Danone is the dominant player within its category. The corporate brand, however, was negatively impacted in terms of external brand recognition, as there is confusion between the Clover and Danone brands with consumers seeing Danone as part of Clover South Africa. The Danone brand, post dissolution, performed well in the marketplace due to the fact that there was high fit between the two organisations that had formed the joint venture, a restraint of trade agreement post the joint venture dissolution, Danone Southern Africa buying the dominant sub-brands from Clover, the inability of competitors to take advantage of the dissolution of the joint venture and manager performance in managing the brand post dissolution. Danone has however, been negatively impacted internally by the dissolution. The organisation has experienced high turnover across senior, middle and junior management, leading to a loss of institutional knowledge. The results also suggest that due to the high fit between the firms, brand promise and understanding of the brand were negated as issues, post dissolution, for Danone. The dominance of the sub-brands also made it somewhat easier for employees to continue to perform, as those brands were already well established within the organisation and the country. The Danone organisation also experienced a negative culture in the eyes of the internal stakeholder, which in part has been a large contributor to the higher turnover. The study also showed that employees who remained with the organisation post the co-branded joint venture separation had higher commitment than employees who joined post the joint venture separation. There were also informal processes for learning within the organisation post dissolution, it was recognised that a more formal and prioritised knowledge management process needed to be started by the organisation. This study has theoretical and managerial implications. Future research could include other geographic territories, industries and a consumer evaluation on the effects of the dissolution. Given that the two organisations will become competitors (from 2015 onwards), it offers an opportunity for a longitudinal study on the two organisations and how they interact (in the areas of brand standing, identity, employee perception, market share and brand interaction with consumers) over the coming years.

The service sector’s constant growth is followed by an increasing competition among service companies. Followed by this, the process of internal branding has become essential within the service brand building process, i.e. aligning the service company’s brand promise with employees’ behavior. Hence, customer- facing employees within the service organization have become a valuable and competitive asset as they manage to deliver the brand promise. A literature review showed that understanding the brand promise and brand commitment are two essential drivers of internal branding. An implicit and positive relationship between those two issues was presented. Absence of empirical studies regarding this relationship was revealed. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between employees’ understanding of the brand and their brand commitment. The purpose motivated a hypothesis; employees understanding of the brand promise are positively associated with their brand commitment. The results are based on a quantitative survey conducted among customer- facing employees within the Swedish bank industry. The analysis is both founded in the discussion of the conceptual literature and the similar completed empirical study that was found within the research area. The findings of this research supported this thesis’ hypothesis. The relationship between bank customer- facing employees’ understanding of the brand promise and their brand commitment is shown to be positive and fairly strong. Almost two fifths of brand commitment can be explained by the understanding issue. However, it shows a need for further research in identifying more factors influencing employees’ commitment towards the brand.

Studien undersökte hur medarbetare såg på företagets varumärke innan påbörjad anställning i förhållande till hur de såg på företagets varumärke i dagsläget. En andra aspekt som undersökningen berörde är vad som influerade företagets ”employer branding-arbete” utifrån ett antal ställda påståenden och hur dessa berör varandra. Studien gjordes på en avdelning inom Saab Group och bygger på ett bekvämlighetsurval (n=35). Insamlingen av data genomfördes genom en surveyundersökning med frågor relaterat till före och under anställning. Studien reliabilitetstestades genom uppdelning i kategorier före (α=0.896) och under anställning (α=0.916). Resultatet påvisade att det fanns vissa signifikanta skillnader vid uppdelning av respondenterna (t(22)=2.960, p=.007), där denna grupp har visat något försämrade attityder mot företaget. Resultatet visade dock också en positiv korrelation mellan grupperna före och under anställning (r=.394, p<.05). Slutsatsen visade att medarbetarna inom avdelningen överlag hade positiva attityder både före och under anställning, dock fanns det vissa skillnader mellan grupper, främst de som var relativt positiva innan anställning

Branding is a widely researched and discussed area, but the focus tends to be aimed towards business-to-consumer (B2C) companies rather than business-to-business settings (B2B). Brands per se used to be seen as the visuals belonging to an organization, but there has been a shift in meanings and it now includes perceptions and recognition of a brand - both internally and externally. Internal branding refers to company efforts to influence their employees to live the brand, which is explained as the organizational and managerial efforts to infuse enthusiasm into the employees in order for them to perform their best and to feel connected to the brand and the corporate values. This study focuses on internal branding, more specifically the managerial efforts taken to influence employees. In order to fulfill the purpose, we conducted a multi-case study with eight in-depth semi-structured interviews with two companies. The results show that if an organization and managers have the possibility to connect corporate brand identity and brand values with internal activities, the employees are more likely to show brand commitment, which in turn leads them into living the brand. However, incorporating such activities can be difficult due to various reasons, such as financial limitations, but it was found that managers who are involved and continuously engaging with their employees have a higher probability of making employees live the brand, than the managers who do not have an ongoing dialogue with staff members. Furthermore, it was apparent that internal communication should be a cornerstone of every business’ daily operations as it is a useful internal branding tool, seeing that it can have an impact on the way employees are understanding the brand.

This dissertation examines the antecedents and consequences of a fairly new construct in academic literature termed brand citizenship behavior. Constructs explored in the proposed model include brand identity, brand communication, internal marketing, brand pride, brand commitment, intention to stay and job satisfaction. A sample of 241 associates was surveyed at a large retail organization and key demographic variables were captured. Results indicate a causal relationship between internal marketing and brand citizenship behavior as well brand pride. While a causal link between brand citizenship behavior and brand commitment was not supported overall, permutations indicate causality among part time associates. Brand pride was found to mediate the relationship between brand citizenship behavior and brand commitment.