Role of Internal Marketing - Research Paper Example

? SERVICE EXCELLENCE: ROLE OF INTERNAL MARKETING By number and of INTRODUCTION: Satisfying the customer’s needs and their demands is the most important factor for any organisation to be successful, and to deliver this, it requires the employees to be very well motivated and perfectly aligned and integrated with the company’s policies and procedures. To make sure this happens, there is a functional process that takes place within the organisations that supports, motivates and gives power to the employees at all management levels to provide customers a satisfying experience, and this process is known as Internal Marketing (Rafiq, M, & Ahmed, P 1993). Within the recent times, the concept of internal marketing has rapidly increased and has been integrated with the branding and management of employees. This endeavours to develop stronger relationships between the brand experience of employee and customer. This gives the organisations three benefits; motivated employees, satisfied customers and increased profitability. Thus, basically internal marketing can be termed as a philosophy adopted by the management to promote the policies of the firm as well as the firm itself to its employees believing them as their internal customers. It sheds light on the fact that it is important to involve the staff at all functional levels of an organisation, by engrossing them in the marketing programs that deliver the importance of understanding and managing their roles efficiently in the marketing process. Training and development if the employees, how to carry out internal communications effectively, how to integrate with fellow colleagues are all examples of programs that are part of internal marketing and are organized from time to time and designed in such a way that helps the employees to enhance their knowledge and understanding regarding the overall orientation of marketing within the organisation (Levin, R 2010). WHAT DOES INTERNAL MARKETING DO? Internal marketing is a continuous process of up skilling within the organisation. The main purpose of this process is to monitor employee behaviour and keep it aligned with the organisation’s norms and culture, as well as make sure that the employees are well aware of the core values of the organisation. Internal marketing is more of an inside-out approach and looks out for the betterment of employee’s attitude by motivating, reframing and empowering them, while giving customers a positive satisfactory experience (Rafiq & Ahmed, 1995). The businesses that are supported with the processes of internal marketing are very well balanced and also successful. They are able to create a culture that enables employees to be participative. Employees have a lot of creative ideas and if, it is an innovative idea and their creativity are given acknowledgement than they are highly motivated. By empowering the employees management can improve its organisations efficiency and effectiveness as they are allowed to take initiatives on their creative and innovative ideas, and are responsible and accountable of their decisions. Also, such businesses involve their existing employees in the process of recruiting new employees. This practice gives a feeling of superiority in the current employees and they feel that they are an important part of the organisation (Caruana & Calleya, 1998). Businesses that are practicing internal marketing diligently ensure that the employees are recognized and rewarded for what they achieve. Besides this, it is also an organisation’s responsibility to console and treat the employees fairly if they are facing some hard situations or going through a difficult time. Lastly, an organisation that is oriented with the internal marketing process has a very well developed structure that has a lot of learning, and there is a check and balance through total quality management. It encourages the employees to participate actively and help in achieving organisational goals creating a prospective success in the long run while promising an objective of giving the best treatment to customers in every way possible, which is the ultimate aim of any organisation seeking for profitability and retention of customer loyalty. Therefore, it can be said that the internal environment of an organisation’s has four important areas namely motivation, co-ordination, information and education that are essential for an internal marketing program. These all factors of the internal marketing alter the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of employees (Foreman & Monay, 1995). ADVANTAGES OF INTERNAL MARKETING: Internal marketing can be advantageous in numerous ways for an organisation. The employees are the internal market of an organisation, thus practicing internal marketing will enable the employees to perform in a much better way, resulting in an increased efficiency and productivity. The employees feel a sense of responsibility that empowerment gives them and a proper understanding of an overall organisation is also created. Celebrating the success of the business, internal marketing also supports the employees who offer terrific services to the customers leaving them fully satisfied. This is their valuable contribution to the business and its recognition encourages and motivates them. Internal marketing also helps the non marketing staff to think and work in the marketing like manner and perks up the development of employees and customer retention (Greene, Walls, & Schrest, 1994). Lastly, the culture, structure, vision, strategy, and the professional and social needs of employees are coordinated among different departments and there is proper cooperation and communication which integrates together, the reason being practicing internal marketing (Payne & Collins, 1991). THE SIDE EFFECTS: Regardless of many advantages of internal marketing, there are a few drawbacks as well. Sometimes there can be factors that are not properly understood and the entire concept of internal marketing could be altered because of it. There are also likely changes that disputes and conflicts may arise between the departments or individuals which can create barriers in implementing internal marketing (Ballantyne, 2003). Sometimes management are keen to keep information hidden from the employees, this can create distrust amongst them. Most of the time management is rigid and follows the bureaucratic leadership style rather than the democratic, this factor deters the concept of internal marketing. There are also chances that the subordinate staff is neglected and not listened to properly. And lastly, where change is inevitable and considered to be good, there might be resistance to it by many employees. These factors usually create a hurdle in the way of implementing internal marketing and must be carefully dealt with. IMPORTANCE OF INTERNAL MARKETING FOR BRANDS: With the arrival of globalization, the importance of internal marketing is getting stronger and stronger with the passage of time due to the global competition. Employees do not only possess more power over the success of the product but they are also gaining influence in the process of developing the image of the product or brand. Like the employees, customers now not only merely expect good product from the organisations, in fact they expect better customer service with which they can relate with the brand easily. So the internal marketing has its own importance in the process of building a strong and positive brand image. The Changing Idea of Marketing: The thinking of marketers is changing now. Their perspective is shifting with the passage of time towards internal marketing. Now the spectrum of marketing is required to be committed towards marketing internally. Unlike the traditional marketing policy of having separate branding department responsible for developing the brand image now the identity of the brand is not actually belonged to one department. The actual image of the brand is created by the people who face customers in terms of customer service, sales and the ones which work behind the scene to support the front staff and hence these employees are becoming the reality of a brand. Marketers now believe that it has become more important that the brand should reflect the culture of the organisation. And the researches show us that those brands which have a strong culture of their own have actually performed really well in the market. Investing the time and money in educating and empowering employees has become a part of the process of attracting and retaining customers. They need to understand and speak the language of the brand they are working for and each person should impersonalize the brand image. Happier Employees is First Step Towards Marketing: Happier employees make and keep happy customers. When employees are satisfied, they speak with pride about their company and tell other people about the good practices of their brand and they feel proud being part of the brand. While on the other hand if they are not satisfied, they will speak to thousands about the bad things related to their company and brand in short. So educating employees is essential. Provide them with the resources to understand about their job and the associated expectations clearly, so they will be satisfied and can enjoy their work. Transferring information and knowledge to the employees is important. In this way employees feel themselves a part of the brand. Employees as a Competitive Advantage: Employees are actually the uniqueness present in an organisation. They create difference in the services and performance of one organisation from the other. Competitors can produce similar products or even replicate the products or services, but what they cannot replicate are the employees who are an important constitute of the whole organisational personality and culture. This is why the real competitive edge for any company is its human resource (Lodish, 1982). Employees should know what the organisation stands for and what promises they are delivering to their customers. Only retaining the right talent is not important for the success of any brand. This talent should impersonate them as the brand. This is the only way in which the talent can be truly utilised as the competitive advantage over other companies. And one can enjoy innovations without any fear of copying and replication. THE CHANGING ECONOMIC SCENARIO AND INTERNAL MARKETING: When the economy is good, everything works fine. Revenues grow, customers increase as their buying power increase and the companies prosper. People often don’t need profiling and modelling while making small decisions because all things work in these times. Even with decreased marketing budgets, customers do continue coming due to economic prosperity and company can take risks of cutting expenses in the marketing and promotional expenses. Apart from that the employees earn good and remained satisfied (Casson, 1989). Further in good times they enjoy job security and communicate well. So in good times the internal marketing becomes natural part of the good companies. But recessions and economic fall downs do affect the companies. In such times, downsizing and cutting expenses become essential for the survival of the organisations. Budgets are required to be cut and staffs are fired to downsize. During recessions demand of different products also decrease sharply due to the decrease in the buying power of the company. The company needs to cut the external marketing expenses as they accumulate a large value of expenses. But cutting the expenses for external marketing is not an easy decision. When one is already experiencing decrease in sales due to less demand, further decrease in marketing activities will almost kill the sales (Casson, 1989). When the things get bad, companies need to think about doing things differently. They are required to return to their basics. One cannot spend any further new technologies or high value marketing and promotional programs. So in such crisis days internal marketing and organisational culture play an important role. This is one of the critical low-cost methods that involve open communication with your employees. This happens in the cases especially when the organisation experiences decrease in demand and lack of resources. In such times downsizing becomes unavoidable, but it need to be performed in a such a way that the decrease in morale of the existing employees can be avoided. In such times, top management should need to communicate clearly that downsizing is essential in order to cut down the overall budges, as the company is facing bad times. Yet it will decrease the morale of employees but this change will be very less as compared to the decrease in morale which is brought due to the lack of information of employees. Apart from that when the employees are told that the whole corporate is facing problems, there are chances that they start struggle hard to take their company out of such crisis and work hard to promote their brand in difficult times. So by transferring the knowledge to employees, organisations can bring the best out of them at difficult times as well. In this way they will better communicate their product in the market. This is the essence of internal marketing. But communicating all and keeping transparency can be dangerous for the organisations as well. As sometimes employees think that why should they stick with the failing organisation? And they start searching the opportunities available in the market. So while communicating the managers need to show the bright but realistic future, so that the employees not only remain there but also work hard to get the pride of the brand back. In economic crisis, managers need to take decisions regarding the people who can be allowed to leave and who are necessary to retain. Loosing loyal employees in today’s competitive market is highly risky, so one can maintain the possibility of hiring them back in the future, and help them searching new jobs while conducting the exit interview, it not only helps to avoid bad reputation but also helps in making the fired employees spreading good words for the brand. CONCLUSION: The modern management not only focuses on the satisfaction of the customers but also exert efforts to gain the satisfaction of the employees as well. It has been found from various researches that only satisfied employees can serve to satisfy customers. Quality in product and service Excellency cannot be achieved without the satisfaction of the employees. This can be achieved through internal marketing via distributing the knowledge about the brand and company throughout the company. Each employee is required to impersonate itself as a brand. Internal marketing is not a tool or certain method; it is actually a continuous process of educating the employees for real success in providing the excellent customer service. REFLECTIVE JOURNAL: This report has been helpful in analysing how important internal marketing is for a business. Internal marketing has become an important aspect for organisations today as the philosophy of internal market is to promote the policies and the organisation as well to its employees and considering employees as the internal customers. Internal marketing has been important in giving value to the employees and in taking their feedback to know on different problems, issues and aspects to improve the overall organisational processes. Employees are one of the most important assets of any organisation and internal marketing helps in improving the satisfaction level of employees by training them properly, by taking their feedback, by motivating them and by educating them thus it helps the organisation in its improving performance and productivity which in turns improves the profitability of the organisation. Internal marketing is of high significance because it helps in improving the productivity and ensure that the motivation of employees remain high. Also it is important in analysing whether the behaviour of employees is aligned with the organisational policies, norms and culture. By properly using internal marketing, an organisation is able to enhance the productivity and performance as employees are rewarded for their achievements, their creativity, and they are encouraged to participate in decision making. However, it is important to manage internal marketing efficiently as it has some drawbacks as well like demoralizing employees, raising conflicts and disputes etc. List of References Ballantyne, D 2003, ‘A relationship-mediated theory of internal marketing’, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 37, no. 9, pp. 1242 – 1260. Caruana, A, & Calleya, P 1998, ‘The effect of internal marketing on organisational commitment among retail bank managers’, International Journal of Bank Marketing, vol. 16, no. 3, pp.108 – 116. Casson, J 1989, ‘The contribution of the economic forecast to the business plan’, Business Economics. Available from: [Accessed 12 December 2011] Foreman, S, & Monay, A 1995, ‘Internal marketing: Concepts, measurement and application’, Journal of Marketing Management, vol. 11, no. 8, pp. 755-768. Greene, W, Walls, G, & Schrest, L 1994, ‘Internal Marketing: The Key to External Marketing Success’, Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 5 – 13. 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