Conclusion and implicationsBrand co

Conclusion and implications

Brand consistent employee behaviour is a critical success factor from a management point of view. Our central hypothesis, that continuous brand success can be improved if the brand promise that is communicated through a company’s mass media campaigns is lived up to by each of its employees, is empirically supported through a survey among 167 senior marketing managers from Switzerland and Germany. Further, the results of our study imply that the management of customer contact employees involves more than training employees to act “socially conform” but also to promote those complex employee behaviours that may generate a highly distinguishing brand performance (e.g. Olson et al., 2005; Berry, 2000). In brand driven industries employees need to be able to adapt and respond quickly to customer needs with respect to the brand values of their company (Hartline et al., 2000). They need to know the goals and the brand values of their company. Moreover, they need to be conscious that their day-to-day activities and behaviours in customer contact situations build the cornerstone of their companies’ external appearance. To overcome these challenges, structures, processes, and incentives are needed to enable brand-oriented employee behaviour (Olson et al., 2005; Slater and Olson, 2001; Hartline et al., 2000). In this context the results of our study indicate that a combination of formal and informal control systems as well as a high degree of employee empowerment affects employee performance in general as well as brand-oriented employee behaviour. Managers have to spend time explaining and discussing targets of behavioural branding, and they have to create an organisational environment that enables employees to find their individual ways of brand communication. Further, we have shown that functional employee performance by itself has no significant effect on brand performance from the management point of view. Finally and contrary to our expectations, mass media branding has no significant direct impact on behavioural branding quality. As we have shown this is due to the fact that employee performance completely mediates the effect of mass media communication on the quality of behavioural branding.

After conducting the study, we discussed our results with senior managers of nine leading companies in the field of brand management (BMW Group, REWE Group, Zurich Financial Services, Swisscom Mobile AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Holcim Group Support Ltd., UBS AG, ENBW AG, and Nestle´ AG) in order to develop managerial implications. Thereby, we elaborated management techniques that may improve behavioural branding quality as well as communication strategies in order to better translate the brand values into realisable behaviour. The results of this qualitative research provide examples of how informal control and employee empowerment can by employed to increase brand consistent employee behaviour.

To optimise the efficiency of managerial activities absolute top management commitment is needed. By representing the company top managers affect both the external and the internal audience. They have the function of brand ambassadors toward customers and external stakeholders, but also the function of role models toward their employees. Hence, acting brand inconsistently may affect employees’ brand perception negatively whereas a brand congruent behaviour may motivate employees to copy top management behaviour (e.g. Lockwood et al., 2004, 2002; Lockwood and Kunda, 1997). Ikea’s founder Ingmar Kamprad, for example, acts as a role model living up to Ikea’s brand values such as price consciousness and simpleness by using low cost airlines and driving a 15-year-old car. Hence, marketing professionals should think about approaches to bring their own senior managers in line with brand strategy. Similarly, advertisers should think about communicating brand promises that can be kept by top managers.

Additionally, it is recommended to bridge the gap between top management and front line personnel by requesting senior managers to join their employees regularly. This procedure is expected to emphasise the role model function of senior managers and to improve the team feeling across functional boarders. Coke’s managers, for instance, are bound to pass through all levels of the organisation when entering the company in order to get a holistic picture of the unique Coke spirit. Finally, a higher degree of cooperation between human resources management and marketing management is needed to ensure a consistent and integrated dissemination of corporate values resp. brand values throughout the firm.

Moreover, in order to make brand values understandable and behaviourally convertible it is recommended to translate brand values into brand stories. Breaking down rather abstract contents into concrete brand stories is a possible means to

motivate employees to reflect the brand message and to act brand consistently. For example, telling the story of an 3M scientist who invented the legendary “Post-it”, while singing in a choir wishing he had bookmarks that would not fall out of the hymnal, transports values like creativity and innovation in a way customers, managers and employees are likely to understand similarly (Shaw et al., 1998). With respect to the production of advertising campaigns it is finally recommended to pool advertising professionals as well as marketing and human resources managers precociously in order to create original as well as convertible advertising campaigns motivating employees to act brand consistently (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2005, 1991; Gilly and Wolfinbarger, 1998). In addition, it is conceivable to cast employees for the ads in order to increase the credibility of the spot and in order to guide employees through advertising role models to show them how to act brand consistently in real life situations.

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 1:

Kesimpulan dan implikasiBrand consistent employee behaviour is a critical success factor from a management point of view. Our central hypothesis, that continuous brand success can be improved if the brand promise that is communicated through a company’s mass media campaigns is lived up to by each of its employees, is empirically supported through a survey among 167 senior marketing managers from Switzerland and Germany. Further, the results of our study imply that the management of customer contact employees involves more than training employees to act “socially conform” but also to promote those complex employee behaviours that may generate a highly distinguishing brand performance (e.g. Olson et al., 2005; Berry, 2000). In brand driven industries employees need to be able to adapt and respond quickly to customer needs with respect to the brand values of their company (Hartline et al., 2000). They need to know the goals and the brand values of their company. Moreover, they need to be conscious that their day-to-day activities and behaviours in customer contact situations build the cornerstone of their companies’ external appearance. To overcome these challenges, structures, processes, and incentives are needed to enable brand-oriented employee behaviour (Olson et al., 2005; Slater and Olson, 2001; Hartline et al., 2000). In this context the results of our study indicate that a combination of formal and informal control systems as well as a high degree of employee empowerment affects employee performance in general as well as brand-oriented employee behaviour. Managers have to spend time explaining and discussing targets of behavioural branding, and they have to create an organisational environment that enables employees to find their individual ways of brand communication. Further, we have shown that functional employee performance by itself has no significant effect on brand performance from the management point of view. Finally and contrary to our expectations, mass media branding has no significant direct impact on behavioural branding quality. As we have shown this is due to the fact that employee performance completely mediates the effect of mass media communication on the quality of behavioural branding.After conducting the study, we discussed our results with senior managers of nine leading companies in the field of brand management (BMW Group, REWE Group, Zurich Financial Services, Swisscom Mobile AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Holcim Group Support Ltd., UBS AG, ENBW AG, and Nestle´ AG) in order to develop managerial implications. Thereby, we elaborated management techniques that may improve behavioural branding quality as well as communication strategies in order to better translate the brand values into realisable behaviour. The results of this qualitative research provide examples of how informal control and employee empowerment can by employed to increase brand consistent employee behaviour.To optimise the efficiency of managerial activities absolute top management commitment is needed. By representing the company top managers affect both the external and the internal audience. They have the function of brand ambassadors toward customers and external stakeholders, but also the function of role models toward their employees. Hence, acting brand inconsistently may affect employees’ brand perception negatively whereas a brand congruent behaviour may motivate employees to copy top management behaviour (e.g. Lockwood et al., 2004, 2002; Lockwood and Kunda, 1997). Ikea’s founder Ingmar Kamprad, for example, acts as a role model living up to Ikea’s brand values such as price consciousness and simpleness by using low cost airlines and driving a 15-year-old car. Hence, marketing professionals should think about approaches to bring their own senior managers in line with brand strategy. Similarly, advertisers should think about communicating brand promises that can be kept by top managers.Additionally, it is recommended to bridge the gap between top management and front line personnel by requesting senior managers to join their employees regularly. This procedure is expected to emphasise the role model function of senior managers and to improve the team feeling across functional boarders. Coke’s managers, for instance, are bound to pass through all levels of the organisation when entering the company in order to get a holistic picture of the unique Coke spirit. Finally, a higher degree of cooperation between human resources management and marketing management is needed to ensure a consistent and integrated dissemination of corporate values resp. brand values throughout the firm.Moreover, in order to make brand values understandable and behaviourally convertible it is recommended to translate brand values into brand stories. Breaking down rather abstract contents into concrete brand stories is a possible means tomotivate employees to reflect the brand message and to act brand consistently. For example, telling the story of an 3M scientist who invented the legendary “Post-it”, while singing in a choir wishing he had bookmarks that would not fall out of the hymnal, transports values like creativity and innovation in a way customers, managers and employees are likely to understand similarly (Shaw et al., 1998). With respect to the production of advertising campaigns it is finally recommended to pool advertising professionals as well as marketing and human resources managers precociously in order to create original as well as convertible advertising campaigns motivating employees to act brand consistently (Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2005, 1991; Gilly and Wolfinbarger, 1998). In addition, it is conceivable to cast employees for the ads in order to increase the credibility of the spot and in order to guide employees through advertising role models to show them how to act brand consistently in real life situations.

Hasil (Bahasa Indonesia) 2:

Kesimpulan dan implikasi Merek perilaku karyawan yang konsisten merupakan faktor penentu keberhasilan dari sudut pandang manajemen. Hipotesis sentral kita, bahwa keberhasilan merek terus menerus dapat ditingkatkan jika janji merek yang dikomunikasikan melalui kampanye media massa perusahaan yang hidup sampai dengan masing-masing karyawan, yang secara empiris didukung melalui survei di antara 167 manajer pemasaran senior dari Swiss dan Jerman. Selanjutnya, hasil penelitian kami menyiratkan bahwa pengelolaan karyawan kontak pelanggan melibatkan lebih dari pelatihan karyawan untuk bertindak "sesuai sosial", tetapi juga untuk mempromosikan perilaku-perilaku karyawan yang kompleks yang dapat menghasilkan kinerja merek yang sangat membedakan (misalnya Olson et al., 2005 ; Berry, 2000). Dalam industri merek didorong karyawan harus mampu beradaptasi dan merespon dengan cepat kebutuhan pelanggan sehubungan dengan nilai-nilai merek perusahaan mereka (Hartline et al., 2000). Mereka perlu mengetahui tujuan dan nilai-nilai merek perusahaan mereka. Selain itu, mereka harus sadar bahwa kegiatan mereka sehari-hari dan perilaku dalam situasi kontak pelanggan membangun landasan penampilan luar perusahaan mereka. Untuk mengatasi tantangan ini, struktur, proses, dan insentif yang diperlukan untuk memungkinkan perilaku pegawai merek-berorientasi (Olson et al, 2005;. Slater dan Olson, 2001;. Hartline et al, 2000). Dalam konteks ini hasil penelitian kami menunjukkan bahwa kombinasi dari sistem kontrol formal dan informal serta tingkat tinggi pemberdayaan karyawan mempengaruhi kinerja karyawan secara umum serta perilaku karyawan merek-oriented. Manajer harus menghabiskan waktu menjelaskan dan mendiskusikan target branding perilaku, dan mereka harus menciptakan lingkungan organisasi yang memungkinkan karyawan untuk menemukan cara mereka masing-masing komunikasi merek. Selanjutnya, kami telah menunjukkan bahwa kinerja karyawan fungsional dengan sendirinya tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap kinerja merek dari sudut pandang manajemen. Akhirnya dan bertentangan dengan harapan kita, media massa merek tidak memiliki dampak langsung yang signifikan terhadap kualitas merek perilaku. Seperti yang telah kita menunjukkan ini adalah karena fakta bahwa kinerja karyawan benar-benar memediasi pengaruh komunikasi media massa pada kualitas merek perilaku. Setelah melakukan penelitian, kita bahas hasil kami dengan manajer senior dari sembilan perusahaan terkemuka di bidang manajemen merek (BMW Group, REWE Group, Zurich Financial Services, Swisscom Ponsel AG, Deutsche Telekom AG, Holcim Group Support Ltd, UBS AG, ENBW AG, dan Nestle' AG) dalam rangka mengembangkan implikasi manajerial. Dengan demikian, kita diuraikan teknik manajemen yang dapat meningkatkan kualitas merek perilaku serta strategi komunikasi dalam rangka untuk lebih menerjemahkan nilai-nilai merek ke dalam perilaku realisasi. Hasil penelitian kualitatif ini memberikan contoh bagaimana kontrol informal dan pemberdayaan karyawan dengan dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan brand perilaku karyawan yang konsisten. Untuk mengoptimalkan efisiensi kegiatan manajerial komitmen manajemen puncak mutlak diperlukan. Dengan mewakili perusahaan manajer puncak mempengaruhi baik eksternal dan penonton internal. Mereka memiliki fungsi duta merek terhadap pelanggan dan stakeholder eksternal, tetapi juga fungsi panutan terhadap karyawan mereka. Oleh karena itu, bertindak merek konsisten dapat mempengaruhi persepsi merek karyawan negatif sedangkan merek perilaku kongruen dapat memotivasi karyawan untuk menyalin perilaku manajemen puncak (. Misalnya Lockwood et al, 2004, 2002; Lockwood dan Kunda, 1997). Pendiri Ikea Ingmar Kamprad, misalnya, bertindak sebagai panutan hidup sampai nilai-nilai merek Ikea seperti kesadaran harga dan simpleness dengan menggunakan maskapai penerbangan biaya rendah dan mengemudi mobil 15 tahun. Oleh karena itu, profesional pemasaran harus berpikir tentang pendekatan untuk membawa manajer senior mereka sendiri sejalan dengan strategi merek. Demikian pula, pengiklan harus berpikir tentang berkomunikasi janji merek yang dapat disimpan oleh manajer puncak. Selain itu, dianjurkan untuk menjembatani kesenjangan antara manajemen puncak dan personil lini depan dengan meminta manajer senior untuk bergabung karyawan mereka secara teratur. Prosedur ini diharapkan untuk menekankan fungsi model peran manajer senior dan meningkatkan perasaan tim di asrama fungsional. Manajer Coke, misalnya, terikat untuk melewati semua tingkat organisasi ketika memasuki perusahaan dalam rangka untuk mendapatkan gambaran holistik semangat Coke unik. Akhirnya, tingkat yang lebih tinggi dari kerjasama antara manajemen sumber daya manusia dan manajemen pemasaran yang diperlukan untuk memastikan penyebaran yang konsisten dan terpadu dari nilai-nilai perusahaan resp. nilai-nilai merek di seluruh perusahaan. Selain itu, dalam rangka untuk membuat nilai-nilai merek dimengerti dan behaviourally konversi dianjurkan untuk menerjemahkan nilai-nilai merek ke merek cerita. Mogok isi agak abstrak menjadi cerita merek beton adalah cara yang mungkin untuk memotivasi karyawan untuk mencerminkan pesan merek dan bertindak secara konsisten merek. Misalnya, menceritakan kisah seorang ilmuwan 3M yang menemukan legendaris "Post-it", sambil bernyanyi di paduan suara berharap punya bookmark yang tidak akan jatuh dari buku nyanyiannya, mengangkut nilai seperti kreativitas dan inovasi dengan cara pelanggan, manajer dan karyawan cenderung untuk memahami sama (Shaw et al., 1998). Sehubungan dengan produksi kampanye iklan itu akhirnya direkomendasikan untuk kolam renang profesional iklan serta manajer pemasaran dan sumber daya manusia precociously dalam rangka menciptakan asli serta kampanye iklan convertible memotivasi karyawan untuk bertindak merek secara konsisten (Wolfinbarger dan Gilly, 2005, 1991 ; Gilly dan Wolfinbarger, 1998). Selain itu, dapat dibayangkan untuk melemparkan karyawan untuk iklan dalam rangka meningkatkan kredibilitas tempat dan dalam rangka untuk memandu karyawan melalui model peran iklan untuk menunjukkan kepada mereka bagaimana bertindak merek secara konsisten dalam situasi kehidupan nyata.