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

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.