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 sixpoint 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 among US professionals, and a strong relationship exists between HR involvement in internal branding and the incorporation of the brand into work activities. Practical implications -Employees seem to have a more positive attitude toward the brand and are more likely to incorporate this image into their work activities when there is some degree of HR involvement in the internal branding process. Originality/value -The successful promotion of the internal branding doctrine may be as dependent on HR initiatives as on those developed in the marketing department. By involving HR in internal branding projects, firms can better use internal communications to give employees a deeper understanding of the brand and the role that they play in enhancing the brand promise.

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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 has become more important, yet more difficult to achieve in today's 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 brand's 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.

PurposeThis paper seeks to propose and test the appropriateness of a brand community within an internal branding framework.Design/methodology/approachUsing the multidimensional constructs of brand community and the strengths of internal branding strategies, this study explores the theoretical underpinnings of combining the two constructs.FindingsIntraorganizational 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/implicationsThe 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 implicationsExternal branding initiatives and communications can be used internally, among employees, to build positive brand associations and brand affinity. Further, implementing an internal brand community can lead to increases in the emotional buy‐in of employees and ultimately could help companies increase the proportion of “champion” employees.Originality/valueThe study integrates the research streams of brand community and internal branding and studies the viability of conducting internal branding within a brand community framework.