Internal Branding: Connecting Links to Establish Employees’ Brand Behaviour in Hospitality Sector

Abstract

Brand creation is accepted as a competitive strategy providing the organization with an edge to win over others. The service brand mainly relies on the employees of the organization for sharing the brand’s reality with the customers. Assuming this interaction between the internal and external branding help in building a successful brand, this study explores the effect of internal branding practices. The article aims to establish the relationship among communication & training, congruence, leadership, brand internalization, brand attitudes and behaviours. A sample of 200 hotel employees was collected using questionnaire technique from Central India. Further using Smart PLS3, the hypotheses have been tested. The study revealed a significant effect of communication & training, congruence and leadership on brand loyalty through brand internalization. The findings also indicated the effect of brand loyalty on brand citizenship behaviour, wherein brand citizenship behaviour improves employees’ intention to stay. Thus, the organization should revaluate the internal branding practices to cultivate better work environment for engendering brand building outcomes and inculcating brand aligned attitudes and behaviours among the employees.