The corporate social responsibility (CSR) employer brand process: integrative review and comprehensive model

ABSTRACT

Firms are increasingly drawing on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their employer branding to improve attractiveness and engage current and potential employees, and to ensure consistency in employee brand behaviours. However, there is a dearth of literature synthesising CSR and employer branding research to understand employee engagement with CSR-firms from a branding perspective. In this article, the authors carried out an integrative literature review of CSR and employer branding literatures. Informed by signaling theory, the authors develop a conceptual model of the CSR employer branding process as a cohesive view from the potential and current employee perspective. Our review highlights the need for firms to achieve CSR consistency in terms of (a) embeddedness of CSR values, and (b) levels of internal CSR. These two factors frame a typology that enable managers to better execute their CSR employer brand identity to achieve favourable results, such as a high-quality talent pool and positive affective, cognitive and behavioural employee outcomes.     

Positioning Southwest Airlines through employee branding

As the field of employee branding has begun to unfold, more and more executives have become interested in how this process can help them achieve a competitive advantage for their organizations. This article explains how employee branding works and how it can be utilized to position the organization in the minds of customers, employees, and other stakeholders. A contextual analysis of its use as a source of sustainable competitive advantage at Southwest Airlines is presented. Finally, key success factors are identified for those who wish to make employee branding a strategic focus within their organizations.     

Taiwanese Retailing: Market Analysis and Retail Branding Model Application

ABSTRACT

The Taiwanese retail market is in a highly competitive stage. In the past three decades, the Taiwan retail grocery market has experienced many developments and changes, and recently, has started to realize the importance of developing its own retail brand. Although the idea of retail branding is still new in Taiwan, the major hypermarket players have tried to build up their own brand image and create new own label products which differ from other competitors. This paper explores retail branding in the Taiwan hypermarket industry through macro/micro environment analysis and applying retail branding models to the Taiwanese retail market. The macro/micro environment analysis is undertaken by the two STEPs model and the retail branding model is created from Dawson's three levels model combined with previous studies and theories. The approach in this study involves literature reviews and secondary research in the field of the Taiwanese retail market. The outcome of this study is to highlight key issues that deserve further research.     

Towards a strategic place brand-management model

Abstract

Using earlier research into models of place branding-management processes, this paper develops a multi-level conceptual model of strategic place brand management designed to support managers in embracing a holistic approach to place brand management. The model identifies the following components for attention and activity: place brand evaluation; brand infrastructure relationships, including infrastructure (regeneration) and stakeholder engagement (management); place brand articulation; and brand communications. The model identifies the influences and action processes between these components, including brand identity and architecture, influencing brand experience. Existing place branding models take different perspectives on the branding process – respectively, relationship management, communications, and strategic planning; none of these models are comprehensive and neither are they widely adopted or tested. This paper proposes an integrative model that builds on and subsumes these earlier models and is also grounded in the wider research on branding and place branding concept and processes.     

Multi-stakeholder brand narratives: an analysis of the construction of artistic brands

Abstract

In the case of visual artists, the product they create is inextricably linked to their identities, personalities and career histories in terms of how the art is produced, presented, consumed and positioned and valued in the market. Although artists’ branding initiatives are considered relevant to branding and marketing theory, identifying how these are constructed and managed and identity negotiated through this process is an area that needs further development. This research therefore uses a multi-stakeholder approach to branding theory to examine contemporary artists’ careers to understand how value is added to their ‘product’. Qualitative analysis of artists’ biographies and career histories in the London art market illustrates how value is co-constructed through relationships in a temporal manner that must be strategically managed.     

Managing higher education brands with an emerging brand architecture: the role of shared values and competing brand identities

ABSTRACT

Corporate branding is a strategic issue for universities as the global higher education (HE) marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive and there is pressure to differentiate. Yet it is unclear how universities develop and manage brand strategies, and whether they draw upon any meaningful connections to the multiple stakeholders and sub-cultures engaged with a university’s brand. Using qualitative data gathered from an education faculty within an established UK university, this study found the faculty and university had competing brand identities and images. A strong faculty brand emerged co-created through the shared teacher related values of staff and external partners. This study contributes to the brand strategy literature by applying branding concepts to the under-researched HE context and proposing a new, more nuanced brand architecture model not yet reported in the branding literature which more accurately reflects the management of sub and corporate HE brands.     

Internal brand identification as metamorphic glue in the internal branding process within a retailer network

Abstract

The growth of collaborative independent retail networks (CIRN’s) has been a significant response by independents to the growing power of retailer multiples. These networks vary in nature and structure, but share a common objective of improved competitiveness through more effective buying, pooled marketing and/or national brand recognition. At a minimum, these networks have enabled independent retailers to achieve a relative degree of competitive parity with multiples, through participation in strategic brand building. Consequently, there is a need for a greater understanding of key issues relating to building independent store brands through collaborative networks. This research aims to better understand the internal branding process within CIRNs, a relatively unexplored area of both the corporate branding, retail and organisational studies literatures. It focuses on one antecedent of internal brand commitment, namely brand identity, interpreted as the metamorphic glue in the internal branding process, using a multiple case methodology. Findings indicated a perception of shared values, shared goals, common branding challenges and strategic fit with the network brand that was key to the level of internal brand identification, but it was the level of social identification among owner-managers that provided fertile ground for internal brand commitment to develop.     

A brand so bad it’s good: The paradoxical place marketing of Belfast

Abstract

According to O’Driscoll (2008), paradox characterises marketing in the ‘after modern’ epoch. This is certainly true of place marketing, which is often described as a paradox-rich domain (Dinnie, 2011). Drawing upon the results of a novel, culture-based research procedure, this paper describes the paradoxical outcomes of an urban branding exercise in Belfast, one of the world’s most infamous cities. Albeit dismissed by local worthies as a futile attempt to ‘put lipstick on a gorilla’, this paper argues that Belfast’s branding is not only far from futile but a perversely paradoxical form of marketing that’s so bad it’s good.     

Evaluating Facebook brand content popularity for service versus goods offerings

Marketers using social media are struggling with its successful implementation, specifically in engaging their audiences through creation of popular brand content. Yet, creating popular brand content can lead to positive financial and brand outcomes. This research examines Fortune 500 companies' brand content strategies that contribute to Facebook content popularity metrics (i.e., number of likes and comments) for service versus goods offerings. Building on psychological motivation theory and the noted differences in culture and capabilities between goods and service firms, the article analyzes the key differences in service and goods brand content strategies in terms of branding, message appeals, and vividness. The findings from a multivariate multilevel Poisson model show that the use of corporate brand names is more popular for service messages whereas the use of product brand names, images, and videos is more popular for goods messages. Furthermore, service messages generate a higher number of comments than goods messages.     

Managing employee attention and internal branding

We extend the marketing literature on internal branding by developing a theoretical framework to explain the processes whereby brand orientation affects in- and extra-role employee brand-building behavior from the theoretical perspective of the attention-based view. The results of a survey of 314 UK-based nonprofit organizations show that brand orientation leads to the development of internal branding mechanisms, which in turn fosters in-role employee brand-building behaviors. We also find that internal branding mechanisms mediate the effects of brand orientation on extra-role employee brand-building behavior, as there exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between internal branding mechanisms and extra-role employee brand-building behaviors. Furthermore, our result shows that the inverted U-shaped relationship between internal branding mechanisms and extra-role employee brand-building behaviors flips to a concave upward curve when strong interfunctional communications exist.     

Branding in the age of social media firestorms: how to create brand value by fighting back online

ABSTRACT

Leading research on social media firestorms typically advises managers to quickly quell the backlash by appeasing brand critics. Drawing on crisis communications and branding research, we offer a radically different perspective and argue that brands can benefit from fighting back online. Through a netnography of a moral-based firestorm, we contribute to the marketing and crisis communications literatures by identifying the escalation strategy as a way to build brand value; explaining how brands can activate supporters; and providing guidance on how to assess these morally steeped events. We advance branding research by identifying how managers can provoke consumer-generated brand stories; and uncovering the hidden benefits of negative consumer voices. Finally, we outline a new perspective on how brands are dialogically constructed through a process we call ‘flyting’.     

Employee Flow as an Integrated and Qualitative System: Impact on Business-to-Business Service Quality

Purpose: This article develops and tests the effect of a complete model of employee flow on business-to-business (B2B) customer service outcomes.

Methodology: Employee flow in organizations refers to all inflows, outflows, and internal movements of staff, and is a crucial human resources area. However, research rarely deals with employee flow as a whole. Instead, studies generally limit themselves to individual employee flow aspects, such as employee turnover, and limit outcomes to internal organizational issues. This study employs hierarchical regression and structural equation to model the effect of an integrated and qualitative measure on B2B service quality through the INDSERV scale.

Findings: Employee flow, especially net outflows, affects service quality perceptions through various mediated relationships. Employee flow affects outcome quality through potential and soft process quality and impacts hard process quality through potential quality. Relationship frequency, supply chain integration of the customer, and environmental characteristics are significant moderators.

Research implications: The introduction of complete employee flow as a predictor variable is a research advance and can be extended to many research settings. Confirmation that INDSERV scales have an internal progression is new and informs future model building.

Practical implications: Managers, especially in bigger and service-oriented companies, might employ integrated employee flow indices as a practical management metric. The tendency of B2B processes to separate client and customer staff (e.g., through technological bridges and call centers) is discouraged by the finding that employee flow affects outcomes partly through soft process, relational quality. Managers should attend to frequency and customer integration.

Contribution: The use of integrated and qualitative employee flow models in modeling service outcomes, especially in B2B settings, is an original contribution, as is the hitherto untested progression within the subconstructs of the INDSERV B2B service quality scale.     

Determinants of Success of Employer Branding in a Start‐up Firm in Nigeria

This article aims at providing an understanding of factors that determine the success and failure of employer branding. An African steel‐producing start‐up company developed an employer brand image, which enabled it to effectively attract and hire talent from the labor market and inspired high engagement and productivity. A few years later, the firm lost its attractive brand image and its employer brand loyalty also declined. The study is a longitudinal investigation, and data were collected from policies and through structured interviews with the employees, ex‐employees of the organization, and prospective employees. Findings show amazing success of the employer brand in the first six years in talent attraction, hiring, engagement, and retention. Thereafter, the brand lost its potency, and its dysfunctionality significantly impacted on the future of the firm—employee dissatisfaction, decline in productivity, and increase in turnover. The reasons include a toxic organizational environment, overbranding, failure to keep promises, disconnect between employer branding and human resource strategy, shift of emphasis by senior management from people to production, and lack of a dynamic and differentiated employee value proposition. The study offers practical lessons to managers. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The four Rs of place branding

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of ownership in relation to place branding and to establish a basis upon which the representation of a place as a brand can be developed. We suggest that a bottom-up approach based on the paradigm of co-creation should be taken to developing a place brand and that brand ownership is determined by the extent to which the representation of the place reflects the experience of the community. Such an approach, we believe, is essential to achieve authenticity (brand essence), commitment from stakeholders, and brand sustainability. Grounded in ethnographic research, this paper presents a model that structures the features of community ownership from a bottom-up perspective and proposes four fundamental elements of place branding that encapsulate the experience of the place: rights, roles, relationships, and responsibilities.     

A practitioner-led strategic place brand-management model

Abstract

As a relatively new field, research into place branding is predominately case-study based, focusing specifically on single place entities. This paper reports on an exploratory study that uses semi-structured interviews with place-branding practitioners working in various geographical locations (towns, cities, regions). The study tests the relevance of the components of strategic place brand management and elucidates their meaning and explores the relationships between these components. The research confirms the relevance of the components but suggests that relationships between components may be context dependent. The study makes both theoretical and managerial contributions by offering a refined, holistic, and new practitioner-led strategic place brand-management model along with structural meanings for each component that describe to those embarking on the process the key processes, activities, and success factors that are integral for an effective place-branding approach.     

Attention-Grabbing Power of Branded vs. Unbranded Packaging

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of branding on consumer attention and the role that gender and product expertise play in shaping consumer preference. An eye-tracking experiment revealed that branded containers and plants attracted consumers’ initial attention and held their attention longer than unbranded containers and plants. Female consumers tend to use brand as a central cue in information processing, while males use brand as a peripheral cue. The presence of branding also influences perceived product attractiveness. This study reinforces the information-seeking theory by providing empirical support for the selectivity model.     

Beyond Advertising and Publicity: Hybrid Messages and Public Policy Issues

Abstract

This research explores a growing genre of marketing communication, labeled hybrid messages, which creatively combine key advantages (and avoid key disadvantages) inherent in advertising and publicity messages. Several types of hybrid messages are discussed, including those with long established histories (product placements, program-length commercials, program tie-ins), and those with a relatively recent origin (masked-art, masked-news, and masked-spokesperson messages). To obtain integrative insights on hybrid messages, this study: (a) reviews their historical/current regulatory status, (b) discusses their pros and cons, theoretical rationales and practical implications, and (c) delineates an extensive agenda for future research. Several important public policy questions raised by hybrid messages are addressed.     

Public sector corporate branding and customer orientation

The objectives of branding and marketing in the public sector can differ in nature from those in the private sector, to include an improved responsiveness to public needs, rather than an increase in customer numbers. In addition, the customer orientation (a disposition that will influence brand perception) of public services is often questioned. Drawing from prior work in the private sector on the relationships expected between employee and organization customer orientation (hereafter referred to as CO), corporate brand personality, and both employee and customer satisfaction, the authors propose a number of models. These models are tested using structural equation modeling on data from a study of the employees (n = 302) and customers (n = 200) of a public hospital. Corporate brand personality mediates the positive links between employee customer orientation (hereafter referred to as ECO) and satisfaction; ECO influences brand personality, which in turn influences satisfaction. However, while both the needs and enjoyment dimensions of ECO improve customer satisfaction, the former has an unexpected, negative effect on employees. Organization customer orientation (hereafter referred to as OCO) influences customer, but not employee, satisfaction. The paper discusses the implications for managing and researching corporate branding in the public sector.     

The regulatory challenge to branding: An interpretation of UK competition authority investigations 1950–2007

Abstract

Branding is a necessary and important business tool. This study, however, examines whether branding can constitute an anticompetitive act. While most markets and firms do not undertake anticompetitive actions, being identified as such can result in a wide range of negative outcomes. To explore this low-frequency yet high-risk outcome, this study assesses how branding has been perceived to be anticompetitive by the UK competition authorities. This assessment is undertaken by examination of all UK competition law regulatory decisions undertaken over the period 1950–2007 by the UK competition authorities. From this assessment, it is observed that branding can facilitate excessive pricing, requires vertical restraints, and can lead to consumer confusion; all potentially anticompetitive acts. The competition regulatory decisions focused on branding issues are demonstrably different from regulatory decisions without branding concerns and involve larger, often manufacturing, firms, which operate in more concentrated markets. It is concluded that comprehension of competition law needs to be disseminated more widely amongst marketing communities and greater reference to business and marketing theory should be made by competition law agencies to assist the comprehension of marketing techniques such as branding.