Human resource management's role in internal branding: an opportunity for cross‐functional brand message synergy

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 six‐point 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 amon...