Using Internal Marketing to Ignite Employee Performance - Term Paper Example

 Importance of Employee and Internal Marketing Introduction Marketing is a vital process of every organization and organizations that deal in services and products stress a lot on marketing. Organizations develop marketing plans, marketing strategies in order to work effectively and efficiently. When effective marketing strategies are devised then and organization can experience growth in both the short and the long run. In this paper we will discuss the importance of employee and internal marketing on the success and failure of product strategy and certain concepts like new product development, product adoption, products life cycle and branding strategies are discussed in relation to the actual topic. Importance of employee and internal marketing Many organizations consider their employees as an asset and they work for the welfare of these employees to reap long term benefits from them. In order to motivate the staff and to change their perceptions and behaviors about organizational goals the phenomenon of internal marketing is used. It is quite similar to the persuasive process that an organization uses to market its product and services externally. This phenomenon revolves around the concept that an organization must treat its employees in the same way as its customers and the element of synchronization must be present in the internal and external brands of the organization. Internal marketing is basically considered as an ongoing process that is present within an organization and the organization motivates and satisfies its employees to achieve the desired results and manages the customers effectively and efficiently (Ahmed & Rafiq, 2002). The importance of employees within the organization is quite huge and the core concepts of internal marketing are: alignment of organizational mission and vision with the behavior of employees, motivation of employees and their empowerment on continuous basis, maintain a proactive and a positive approach with the employees, marinating an inside-our management approach and etc. Internal marketing is quite different from internal communications and it is widely used in processes when a new strategy or change program is to be implemented. Internal marketing helps the organization in achieving competitive advantage and in the long run it actually strengthens up the customer loyalty. The human resource department in an organization benefits a lot from this and the elements of organizational payoffs, absenteeism and etc are reduced. In constantly changing environments employees can easily loosen up the ties between their employer and for this reason internal marketing is used to bring both the parties together and share their goals and values. There are different business development tasks and external marketing remains the most important one (Dunmore, 2003). Similarly, when employees of the organization understand the importance of this phenomenon then value proposition of brands and companies become quite an easy task. In this way external marketing benefits from this phenomenon and employees become product champions. The product strategy is the most important process of an organization because it involves the engineering of the product, distribution, financial targets and etc. The sales of the organization are dependent on product strategy and that is the reason why organizations stress a lot product strategy. Internal marketing plays an important role in the product strategy and it helps the organization in framing up effective strategies for the organization. The element of internal marketing uplifts the understanding, commitment and involvement between employees and employers. The scope of internal marketing actually involves the communication of corporate goals and culture, mission and vision statements, policies and procedures (Drake, Gulman, & Roberts, 2005). The elements of new product introductions and new acquisitions are also included in the initiatives of internal marketing. Discussing product related issues with the employees is quite important and organizations must motivate the employees in order to successfully develop a product strategy. Employees must know that what is the price of the product and what are the targets so that they would achieve them because the product strategy is developed with their approval. Employees must know the essential constituents of the product or service so that they can easily target their customers effectively and efficiently. The design of the product, the promotional strategy, marketing plan, financial objectives and all the related aspects must be discussed with the employees and then an internal marketing program must be developed to motivate the employees in order to achieve the desired outcomes. In today’s world internal marketing is becoming very important because the business environment keeps on changing. Internal marketing helps the organizations in the process of knowledge development and they can easily implement newer and modernized approaches. Proper branding strategies and new product development strategies can be implemented through effective internal marketing. The process of internal marketing is quite simple that is first an organization delivers an idea or a concept to the employees and the organization convinces the employees by motivating them with different internal and external rewards and then employees on the other hand sells the product or service to the most important stakeholder i.e. the customers. Therefore, the process of selling the products is linked with the employees and employees in the initial stages must be motivated to sell the products. In the initially stages the element of internal marketing was directly related with the service management approach which actually involves recruitment, motivation and training, communication and retention of appropriate service oriented employees (Mudie, 2000). Organizations are changing into large enterprises and they are becoming a marketplace and employees are considered to be their internal customers. They first have to approach their employees rather than their customers. The founder of Toyota emphasizes that the next process is your customers. In an organization the ability of employees to satisfy the needs of others in an organization is considered as a precursor to external customer satisfaction (Simberova, 2007). Organizations that possess a forward looking approach view their employees as their internal customers and they take all the decisions that are related to their external customers with the mutual collaboration of employees. In organizations external customers usually do not represent a single homogenous market. When a new product is launched or branding strategies are implemented in the form of co branding, family branding and etc then external customers actually form different groups with different level of awareness. The internal customers that are the employees are usually divided into three groups. These three groups are 1) supporters 2) neutrals 3) opponents. In the scenario of new product development or product life cycle stage each group requires different internal marketing mix in order to ensure that desired objectives are attained (Winston & Cahill, 1996). If we consider the scenario of new product development then supporters can be classified as that group that supports the development of new product. In the same way neutrals are those employees that opt for an indifferent approach and they usually say that they cannot predict whether the new product development would be viable option or not. Similarly, as implied by the name opponents are those employees that actually negate the element of new product development. Implementing the internal marketing plan is quite critical and implementing changes can be quite a crucial aspect. That is the reason why employees with neutral attributes must be motivated through an incentive program and the opponents can be targeted through more persuasive form of communication design which is used to change the attitudes. Good chemistry in the organization than it can make all hefty amount of difference and cooperative working methodology can lead to both short term and long term benefits. If an organization wants to launch a new product, change its pricing or promotional strategies; change its logo than an organization should start this with a strong internal marketing campaign. Through internal marketing campaigns the employees can easily be motivated and the overall transition can succeed. The internal marketing programs might be pumped up with promotional products for the employees. Before launching their internal marketing programs organizations initially develop advertising plans to bolster the support from their own employees and clientele. This strategy involves three important purposes and these three purposes are discussed below: Internal marketing campaigns teach the employees of the organization about the techniques of change management or development of new product before the organization releases it to market. By knowing the product strategy, product life cycle and other related aspects employee get familiarized with the product so they can easily sell it and apply different promotional techniques. Unity and cooperation prevails in the organization. If employees (internal customers) are excited in the initial stages then they can get all the potential and current clients excited and they are ready to buy. A positive perception is created in the overall organization and employees are motivated intrinsically and extrinsically in the internal marketing programs are designed effectively. A strong internal marketing campaign and proper promotion of products internally can benefit the organization and through this strategy the employees and the customers both are motivated. When new products are tested then employees must be informed about that by giving free samples and preparing them for an upcoming event can change the entire thinking pattern of the organization. For example if an organization is introducing a wine and it is arranging a wine tasting charity event and the organization wants high attendance of employees in that event then it can construct an internal marketing program in such a way that it in that event the organization offers a glass with the name of the employee and the event engraved on the glass (Bejou & Hartline, 2004). Similarly, employees are motivated with small gifts and take a ways like a new product launch or the implementation of promotional schemes offers a box of chocolate or bath kits to the employees. Therefore, whether an organization is opting for a new product development program, changing the promotional strategies of the brand or the constituents of the brand it must make sure that it must include promotional products in the internal marketing plan because it motivates the employees and drives the employees to enlarge the customer base of the organization. The corporate examples of internal marketing are wide and varied and different organization has invested massively on internal marketing. Organizations that implement internet marketing programs are Disney World, Nordstrom, British Airways, and P & G etc. In today’s world every successful organization is motivating its employees to reap maximum benefits from them (Gounaris, 2006). As far as the implementation part is concerned the managing director of internal marketing specialists, Serac communications explains that acquiring in-depth knowledge about the employees through interviews, surveys and questionnaires can be a viable strategy. An organization must implement this process in other parts of the country if it’s a multinational. The concept of relationship marketing is also important when companies are offering both services and products however such companies are seen in marketing sense as services companies. And it is therefore crucial that internal marketing is given proper recognition for providing highest quality of services to customers. However, it is also being observed that companies usually implement centralized marketing plans but that does not mean that variations are not incorporated (Grönroos, 1998) Employees must be involved in the strategic decision making process and one of the most apt example of this involvement is of IBM. Employees are motivated with the Jam sessions at IBM and they believe that these Jam sessions are quite beneficial for both the employees and the organization in both short and the long run. Similarly employees that are not involved in product strategy are usually de motivated and they do not attract the customers. Customer base of the organization suffers because of this and organization might suffer hefty losses because they have not implemented the internal marketing plans. Another example of internal marketing is of Steve jobs at Apple computers and Edwin Land at Polaroid (Varey, 2000). Both these entrepreneurs have transformed the structure of their organization and they have implemented internal marketing in their organization. The companies have recognized two different kinds of markets and customers: internal and external (Piercy, 1992). In order to achieve customers’ satisfaction it is important to understand their expectations. If customers are not happy with a product or service this is surely going to impact employees within organizations (Percy, 1994). This leads us to the concept of internal marketing which is quite important for all organizations and the reason for this is quite simple that external customers are influenced by the internal promises. It is therefore important for managers to use customer satisfaction measurements and relate them to the level of commitment by employees. The customers are influenced by all those that deliver the service fast, error free and maintain a friendly attitude. That is the reason why organizations implement internal marketing programs new product development stages and in the product strategy. The internal marketing is therefore related with the relationship between the company and its employees. It has been argued that companies are able to achieve competitive advantage if they focus on meeting the needs of their employees as employees are responsible for delivering the right product or service to customers that could in fact lead to greater returns to the company (Lings, 2004). However, there are certain obstacles in achieving the desired goals which include dimensions of internal politics, corporate culture, lengthy & complex factor structure, perceived market drivers, available resources &capability, and market complacency (Piercy, 1994). Conclusion Thus, in a nutshell we can say that managing the employees is quite an uphill task. But if employees are managed properly than they can be beneficial for the organization. Employees are quite essential for every organization and in the stages of product development and product strategy employee participation is very necessary. References Ahmed, P., & Rafiq, M. (2002). Internal Marketing. Chartered Institute of Marketing . Bejou, D., & Hartline, M. (2004). Internal Relationship Management: Linking Human Resources To Marketing Performance . Journal of relationship marketing . Drake, S., Gulman, M., & Roberts, S. (2005). Light Their Fire: Using Internal Marketing to Ignite Employee Performance and Wow Your Customers. Kaplan Business . Dunmore, M. (2003). Inside-Out Marketing: How to Create an Internal Marketing Strategy . Kogan Page Business Books . Grönroos, C. (1998). Marketing services: the case of a missing product. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. Vol. 13 No. 4/5. pp. 322-338 MCB University Press. Gounaris, S. (2006). Measuring internal market orientation in services: some empirical evidence. Lings, I. N. (2004). Internal market orientation construct and consequences. Journal of Business Research. Vol 57 (2004). Pp. 405– 413. Elsevier Inc. Mudie, P. (2000). Internal marketing. Routledge. Piercy, N. F. (1994). Customer satisfaction and the internal market. 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