Internal marketing is an on-going process that occurs strictly within a company or organisation whereby the functional process is to align, motivate and empower employees at all management levels to consistently deliver a satisfying customer experience.
It acts as marketing strategy where the employees themselves are customers and they are termed as internal customers. It is used as a philosophy for managing the firm’s human resources based on a marketing perspective to build internal competencies for external success.
The concept of internal marketing has been developed from the conventional marketing theory. The internal marketing can be understood in the context of services marketing where the marketer needs high levels of customer service because of the reliance on the company personnel who interact with customers.
Learn about: 1. Introduction to Internal Marketing 2. Concept of Internal Marketing 3. Features 4. Important Areas 5. Implementation 6. Internal, External and Interactive Marketing 7. Major Steps 8. Roles
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9. Importance 10. Steps Involved 11. Benefits 12. Problems Affecting the Implementation of Internal Marketing.
Internal Marketing: Introduction, Concept, Features, Roles, Types, Steps, Benefits, Problems and Importance
Internal Marketing – Introduction
Internal marketing (IM) is a process that occurs within a company or organisation whereby the functional process aligns, motivates and empowers employees at all management levels to deliver a satisfying customer experience.
It has been integrated with employer branding, and employer brand management and it builds strong links between the employee brand experience and customer brand experience. According to Burkitt and Zealley, “the challenge for internal marketing is not only to get the right messages across, but to embed them in such a way that they both change and reinforce employee behaviour”.
From the basic understanding of marketing, comes internal marketing. The term internal marketing is defined as viewing employees as internal customers, viewing jobs as internal products that satisfy the needs and wants of these internal customers while addressing the objectives of the firm.
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Internal marketing is an on-going process that occurs strictly within a company or organisation whereby the functional process is to align, motivate and empower employees at all management levels to consistently deliver a satisfying customer experience.
It acts as marketing strategy where the employees themselves are customers and they are termed as internal customers. It is used as a philosophy for managing the firm’s human resources based on a marketing perspective to build internal competencies for external success.
Internal marketing is critically important in a service industry.
Employees are able and willing to deliver high-quality service and this is made sure by the marketers who develop techniques and procedures to do so. The internal marketing concept evolved as marketers formalised procedures for marketing to employees. Employees at all levels experience the business and understand its various activities and campaigns in an environment that supports customer consciousness.
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Internal marketing is the marketing aimed internally at the firm’s employees. The objective of internal marketing is to enable employees to deliver satisfying products to the guest.
As Christian Gronroos notes, “The internal marketing concept states that the internal market of employees is best motivated for service-mindedness and customer-oriented performance by an active, marketing-like approach, where a variety of activities are used internally in an active, marketing-like and coordinated way.” Internal marketing uses a marketing perspective to manage the firm’s employees.”
Internal marketing can be defined as follows:
Treating with equal importance the needs of the internal market – the employees – and the external, market through proactive programmes and planning to bring about desired organisational objectives by delivering both employee and customer satisfaction.
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The concept of internal marketing has been developed from the conventional marketing theory. The internal marketing can be understood in the context of services marketing where the marketer needs high levels of customer service because of the reliance on the company personnel who interact with customers.
Thus the employees of a company represent the fifth ‘P’ in the services marketing mix. To illustrate the same let us take an example.
When a customer enters a hotel, there are many a tangibles which could make his stay comfortable like a good ambience, AC, a good bed, LCD TV etc. but here what matters most is the way the receptionist welcomes him, how good is the room service ,when, he needs food, what sort of travel assistance is he given etc.
It can be said that a motivated staff would try and work harder for the external experience given to the customers. This could improve the firm’s image, sales and market share in the long term.
Internal Marketing – Concepts
Internal Marketing (IM) is an on-going process that occurs strictly within a company or organization whereby the functional process aligns, motivates and empowers employees at all management levels to consistently deliver a satisfying customer experience.
(i) IM functioning as a continual internal ‘up-skilling’ process.
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(ii) Alignment of the organization’s purpose with employee behaviour.
(iii) Employees internalizing the core values of the organization.
(iv) Motivation, reframing and empowerment of employee attitude.
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(v) Inside-out management approach.
(vi) Retaining a positive customer experience throughout the business objectives.
Internal Marketing – Features
The following are the features of an internal marketing-oriented business:
(i) Creating Enabling Culture – This is done when employees are empowered by management through allowing creativity, innovation, allowing initiatives and accountability and responsibility of their decisions.
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(ii) Practising Participative Hiring – That is involving current employees in the process of hiring new employees.
(iii) Ensuring Equitable Recognition and Reward – Business must exercise employee recognition with reward to what employee has achieved.
(iv) Demonstrating Fairness during Hard-Times – Fair treatment of employees when faced with hard-times and difficult moments like death of the near family members. This can be achieved by setting aside emergency funds.
(v) Good Organisation Structure – That allows learning, total quality management and re-engineering.
Internal Marketing – Important Areas
There are a number of areas where internal marketing can play a key role:
a. Management of change, where internal marketing may be used to place, and gain acceptance of new systems such as the introduction of information technology and new working practices, and other changes.
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b. Building corporate image, where internal marketing’s role is to create awareness and appreciation of the company’s aims and strengths – as all employees are potential company ambassadors.
c. Strategic internal marketing which aims at reducing inter-departmental and inter- functional conflict and developing the co-operation and commitment needed to make external marketing strategies work.
How is internal marketing to be implemented? It is essential to explore what are seen to be the fundamental criteria for a successful internal marketing programme, and to identify the components of programme formulation.
The four most important areas within the organisation’s internal environment which are essential to an internal marketing programme can be described as:
(i) Motivation
(ii) Co-ordination
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(iii) Information
(iv) Education
This set of ideas clearly interlinks with the perspectives of internal marketing, but what steps can be taken to ensure these areas are reinforced? To formulate any programme an analysis of the critical components must be undertaken.
This may involve information gathering to assess:
a. Employee knowledge
b. Attitudes
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c. Behaviour.
Once this has been done, management action needs to cover:
a. Selection
b. Training
c. Motivation
d. Direction.
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In this way, managers can help employees to make a more effective contribution to the organisation’s marketing objectives, providing overall guidance and support for the internal marketing programme. Communication should reach all employees and include all messages about information and action in order to achieve increased motivation and effectiveness.
It is important that management embrace the underlying philosophy of internal marketing if they are to develop and direct successful programmes. Managers should lead by example, and set high standards of customer relations and job effectiveness by their own good practice, not by simply dictating rules or making unreasonable demands on employees.
It has been stated earlier that internal marketing is closely related to the area of human resource management within the organisation. However, whereas a traditional view of human resource management may be seen as ‘getting things done through people’, internal marketing moves towards an alternative idea developing human potential so that organisational goals can be achieved through the satisfaction of individual goals.
Employee commitment and loyalty cannot necessarily be bought on an economic basis alone. Equally important is a clear and visible long-run programme which really does put the customer first, whether in the internal or external marketplace. Consistency on the part of management, both in action and word, in all dealings with internal and external customers is the foundation for marketing success.
As internal marketing has been developed directly from conventional marketing theory, and the marketing concept, it is argued that internal marketing planning is therefore made simple. There should be no difficulty in taking conventional marketing planning tools and developing internal marketing programmes along the same lines.
Adopting this method would mean that for every marketing mix decision, for example, which the company took for its external marketing strategy, there would be a corresponding internal marketing mix decision. This would, in turn, affect the outcome of the external marketing strategy which may lead to new marketing mix decisions being implemented both internally and externally.
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The main criticism of this approach might be that it seems to assume that, for any organisation, the internal and external markets (or customers) will behave in a similar fashion and can therefore be treated in an almost identical manner.
But this is not likely to be the case, for the following reasons:
i. Changing external markets
ii. Internal market characteristics
i. Changing External Markets:
Many firms operate in more than one market, and these markets can be very different indeed. Even segments within the same market can have individual and distinctive characteristics. This means that most firms will have external marketing plans, which are continuously being monitored and ‘fine-tuned’ to changing market conditions, while the internal market may be changing either more slowly or at greater speed.
ii. Internal Market Characteristics:
Organisational behaviour theory and research may suggest that internal markets in firms of similar size and structure, regardless of what product or service they provide, may be more closely aligned in terms of their behaviour and needs, than the internal markets of all firms operating in one particular external-marketplace, which may be widely differing in all aspects.
The answer could be to focus on the overall external strategy (sustained growth, total quality, market development, etc.), and then find a way of developing the internal market so that it will provide optimum levels of support and commitment to the success of the strategy.
In order to do this well, the internal market should be researched and approached as a special and unique entity, and internal marketing programmes will reflect this without necessarily matching closely the external plans and activities.
Internal Marketing – Implementation of Internal Marketing
Professor Kotler defines Internal Marketing, “as the task of hiring, training and motivating able employees who want to serve customers well”. He also identifies a marketing triangle — “Company, Customers & Employees”. A business would have external marketing programmes for customers, who are its external market, internal programmes for employees who are its internal market and have interactive programmes between the internal market and external market. The purpose is to achieve corporate fulfillment.
Beautifully structured Vision & Mission statements will be pieces of art and become another piece of organisational decor in a business where internal market is unable to recall them. The Vision & Mission of the business must be etched into the minds of the internal market. Only then would they be able to perform and achieve the desired Vision & drive forth its Mission. This is achieved through Internal Marketing. Not beautifully framed elaborate exhaustive statements that aren’t recallable by the internal market could achieve it.
Sustaining the internal market during good times and bad times, in turmoil as well as calm and win commitment to perform effectively for the success of the business must be fundamental. Success of the business is eventually measured on achieving its corporate goals and objectives as well as the top and bottom line.
These are achieved by the human resources of the organisation not the product portfolio or the raw material with which they are produced nor the fixed assets and other forms of capital that aids production. They are all passive factors. The element that requires inspiration and motivation to make these passive factors productive is the human element—the internal market.
The other most important aspect is consumption. If a bar of Soap produced by a business is not accepted and not used by the internal market the business has failed in marketing that to the internal market. This needs serious concern. The internal market must be its first customers; only then they can interact with external markets. But how many businesses give samples of its value propositions to all the members of its internal market? No, they are not obliged to buy unless they themselves see a superior value proposition in them.
Implementing Internal Marketing:
The organisation can adopt a similar approach as it would in the case of external marketing:
i. Marketing Probe
ii. Marketing Priorities
iii. Strategic Marketing
iv. Tactical Marketing
v. Marketing Administration.
i. Marketing Probe:
This is the first step of internal marketing, gathering information about the internal market — the employees and analysing opportunities available to the company. A good example was of a business that wanted to introduce 5 S. They didn’t attempt to drive it down their throats but they first found all the information they wanted about the internal market and thereafter they analysed the opportunities they could explore to introduce 5 S.
ii. Marketing Priorities:
Armed with the right information and analysis the business can move on to the next step of identifying key issues and make certain assumptions. Based on the assumptions the business can set itself goals and objectives. For example, a key issue may be the employees not responding to new systems and hence the assumption is resistance to change. Therefore its goal and objective would be to influence acceptance of change as beneficial to them foremost and then to the business. They must be constantly reminded that if the business does well they will benefit.
iii. Strategic Marketing:
The business can determine a strategic direction and then decide on an achievable strategy. If the assumption is resistance to change as the example then the business needs to have a long-term strategy to encourage acceptance of change amongst its internal market. It is not easy. At this stage it may be necessary to identify the core reasons and people resisting change and position change as an important element towards achieving success.
Not simply the company’s success but their own personal success and development. The company which introduced 5 S amidst resistance took a strategic decision to have 5 S seminars for their internal market annually.
An approach similar to the traditional approach of segmenting and targeting, such as – segmenting the internal market, targeting different segments, differentiating value propositions and positioning the differentiated value propositions will be an appropriate strategic direction to adopt.
iv. Tactical Marketing:
To implement the strategic direction a business must initiate market friendly tactics. For example, the company which decided on annual training on 5 S designed a market friendly product. They decided to implement a rewarding system attractive enough to break the barriers of resistance like an attractive pricing strategy of a product or service. They made it convenient for their market by planning to place the training programme at the company’s time at a star class location.
They also decided to communicate to each and every individual and created interest and demand for such programmes. The four Ps Product, Price, Place and Promote are useful tactics to deliver positioning.
v. Marketing Administration:
This is the stage of putting all the activities that have been addressed into a paper and having a proper plan. This is the not enough the plan needs to be implemented with proper controls. The company which introduced 5 S referred to earlier did just that and it became a great success story.
Everything in this world changes. Nothing in this world is permanent except for change. We must know to manage change. There is no better way or vehicle to achieve change than internal marketing. Many shortcomings of a business can be avoided by internal marketing; it can be used as a powerful tool to motivate, to achieve complete commitment, to initiate discipline and to delight external customers by the internal customers through interactive marketing with external customers.
Internal Marketing – External, Internal and Interactive Marketing
It is assumed that there are three parts of the entire marketing process:
i. External Marketing,
ii. Internal Marketing, and
iii. Interactive Marketing.
Each of it plays a crucial role in marketing. Each has its set of objectives and benefits.
i. External Marketing – This includes the promises made to the prospects and customers by the company. These are made by the help of advertisements, publicity etc.
ii. Internal Marketing – The marketing between the company and its employees is called internal marketing. It includes all the training, motivation, incentives given to employees to build strong employee loyalty towards the company.
iii. Interactive Marketing – The way of collecting the valued information from the customers through one to one conversation (customer to employee interaction) and then incorporating their thoughts in the marketing campaign.
Any organization which wishes to achieve its objectives, must accomplish all three steps. For example – If a company’s external marketing promises to deliver best ever massage at a reasonable price, but somehow the employees are not in good mood, so they do not do a good job (as promised) and finally they don’t collect the consumer feedback. This would spell disaster for the organization.
Internal marketing is the process of motivating and empowering the employees of a company to work as a team for the overall well-being of the customers and thereby the company itself. This is actually the core to success of a company. A harmonized effort within the company is an utmost necessity to provide customers with services at a desired level.
If company doesn’t deliver the service they promise in their marketing campaign, the company will fail for sure. And it only can keep that promise when all of its employees at all levels realize what actually they are going to deliver.
According to the legendary writers Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong,
“Internal marketing is orienting a motivating customer, contact employees and supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction.”
Internal Marketing – Major Steps
1. Aligning the organizational objective with the employee attitude is the most important step in the internal marketing process. The management always should keep our employees informed about their goal.
They should clearly convey the message to the employees that “this is the purpose for which we are in the market”. Then management should take necessary steps so that the employees can harmonize their attitude or behaviour.
2. Introducing the core values of the organization is another step. Each and every employee must comprehend the core value of the organization.
3. Coordinating the tasks of every employee is another important step in the entire process. Introduction of the total quality management (TQM) is a great way to achieve this coordination. If the employees don’t know what to do; when to do; how to do; for whom to do, then it is very difficult to achieve the organizational objectives. And this lack of coordination parallels to the lack of internal marketing. So coordination must be established.
4. Creating congenial atmosphere is also equally important. The management should create such a corporate culture in which every employee can share their views with others, even with the higher authority or top level management.
5. Authorizing and empowering the employees facilitate internal marketing. When the employees feel that they are authorized and empowered to take a decision, they can show their intrinsic creativity which ultimately help satisfy the customers. This authorization and empowerment also entail the accountability of the employees.
6. Rewarding the best employee performance is another way to do internal marketing. This also initiates a positive competition among the employees.
7. Nurturing the fair-play policy can ensure active involvement of the employees in the organizational activities which ultimately makes sure the implementation of internal marketing.
Internal Marketing – Roles
Internal Marketing helps ensure that employees are effectively carrying out the organization’s programs and policies. An informed staff means one that’s more engaged and invested in the organization’s outcomes.
Internal marketing creates an environment that enables organizations to focus on whatever needs changing internally so they can enhance their external marketplace performance. Happy people internally mean happy customers externally.
Internal marketing helps organizations deliver better customer service by aligning, coordinating, and motivating employees.
Internal Marketing – Importance
Why is internal marketing so important? Because it is “win-win” marketing that benefits both the practice and the client.
Consider the following:
(i) It is Cost-Effective:
The internal group is the most highly concentrated, highly identified, and highly motivated of target populations. Every member of this group has already identified an audiologic need and identified your practice as the means to satisfy that need. Some marketing experts estimate that it costs eight times as much to market successfully to a member of the mass group than it does to market to a member of your present client population.
(ii) It is Inexpensive:
Most of the marketing activities described involve minimal cost or no cost at all. These activities can become part of your routine office procedures with little effort and expense. It is long-term. Internal marketing seeks to increase client referrals, increase client activity, and ensure that your clients return to you, rather than to another practitioner. In today’s world of intensive marketing, many other hearing health care providers will be trying to reach these people.
It would be naive to believe that because clients came to you once, they will return regularly. It provides client benefits. Many of the marketing activities benefit the client by providing additional help. For example, a newsletter helps people with hearing impairments better cope with their hearing problems; annual recalls are a part of good hearing health care.
What are some effective ways to market to the internal group? More fundamentally, what services should be offered and promoted?
Although the most obvious need may be hearing aid fittings, fittings are only one of the many services and products provided. Indeed, for most clients, the hearing aid fitting only occurs every 3-5 years. Other needs that occur much more frequently include periodic hearing evaluations, hearing aid checks, real ear measurements, aural rehabilitation, replacement batteries, assistive listening devices, hearing aid cleaning, and hearing aid repairs.
Internal Marketing – 5 Steps involved in the Internal Marketing Process
Internal marketing is a process that involves the following steps:
1. Establishment of a service culture.
2. Development of a marketing approach to human resource management.
3. Dissemination of marketing information to employees.
4. Implementation of a reward and recognition system.
5. Non-routine transactions
Step # 1. Establishment of a Service Culture:
A service marketing programme is doomed to failure if its organisational culture does not support serving the customer.
Middle management is a big hurdle to most internal marketing programmes. Managers are always on the lookout for costs and increased profits. Their reward systems are usually based on achieving certain cost levels.
Turning the Organisational Structure Upside Down:
The conventional organisational structure is a triangular structure. For example, in a hotel the CEO (chief executive officer) and COO (chief operating officer) are at the peak of the triangle. The general manager is on the next level, followed by department heads, supervisors, line employees, and the customers.
Ken Blanchard, author of ‘One Minute Manager’, mentions that in this type of structure everyone works for the boss. The problem with this type of organisation is that everyone is concerned with satisfying people above them in the organisation, and very little attention is paid to the customer.
The organisational chart is turned upside down, when a company has a service culture. Here, the corporate management is at the bottom of the structure and the customers are at the top. Everyone is working to serve the customer.
Corporate management is helping their general managers to serve the customer, general managers are supporting their departments in serving the customer, department heads are developing systems that will allow their supervisors to better serve the customer and supervisors are helping line employees serve the customer.
Step # 2. Development of a Marketing Approach to Human Resources Management:
The development of a marketing approach to human resources management is as follows:
(a) Creating Jobs that Attract Good People:
Managers must use the principles of marketing to attract and retain employees. They must research and develop an understanding of their employees’ needs, just as they examine the needs of customers. Not all employees are the same. Some employees seek money to supplement their incomes; others are looking for work that will be their sole source of income.
For employees, the marketing mix is the job, pay, benefits, location, transportation, parking, hours and intangible rewards, such as prestige and perceived advancement opportunities. Just as customers look for different attributes when they purchase a product, employees look for different benefits.
Some may be attracted by flexible working hours, others are attracted by good health insurance benefits, and still others may be tempted by child-care facilities. Advertising should be developed with prospective employees in mind, building a positive image of the firm for present and future employees and customers.
(b) Continuous Training:
Two principal characteristics have been identified in companies that lead their industries in customer service. They emphasize cross- training and they insist that everybody share certain training experiences. The development of a good training programme can start organisations on an upward spiral. Properly trained employees can deliver quality service, which helps the image of the firm, attracting more guests and employees to the organisation.
(c) Employee Involvement in Uniform Selection:
The selection of uniforms is often left to designers and managers with little input from the service worker. Uniforms are important because employee dress contributes greatly to the guest’s encounter with customer contact employees. Uniforms also become part of the atmosphere of a hospitality operation or travel operation; they have the ability to create aesthetic, stylish, and colourful impressions of the property.
They distinguish employees from the general public, making employees accessible and easily identified. Clothing has been found to be a contributing factor in role-playing, acting as a vivid cue that can encourage employees to engage in the behaviours associated with the role of the employee. Putting on the costume can mean putting on a role and shedding other roles.
(d) Teamwork:
Employees who are not customer oriented often try to pass the responsibility for serving employees to others. They are not team players. If one employee makes an error, other employees try to cover it before the guest notices. In these organisations, guests do not have to understand the hotel’s organisation and business to ensure that their needs are met.
The front desk handles most requests, relaying the guest’s desire to the appropriate department. In restaurants that have used internal marketing to create a service culture, staff members cover for each other. Employees who see that a guest needs something will serve the guest, even though it may not be their table.
(e) Initial Training:
To be effective, employees must receive information regularly about their company. The company’s history, current businesses, and its mission statement and vision are important for employees to know. They must be encouraged to feel proud of their new employer.
(f) Hiring Process:
Find employees who are good at creating a service experience is a vital goal and major hiring criterion of service organisations.
Selecting people for customer service roles is similar to casting people for roles in a movie. First, both require artful performances aligned with the audience expectations. Creating an interpersonal experience that customers remember as satisfactory, pleasant or dazzling is like an actor’s mission of having audiences so caught up in the play or movie that they start believing the performer is the person portrayed. Second, both requirements need a casting choice based on personality.
An effective internal marketing programme demands close cooperation between marketing and human resources management. Hiring and training, traditionally the responsibility of human resources management, are key areas in any internal marketing programme.
A marketing-like approach to human resources management starts with hiring the right employees. Selection methods that identify customer- oriented candidates are used as part of the hiring process.
(g) Managing Emotional Labour:
The term emotional labour arises from the discrepancy between the way frontline staff feel inside and the emotions they are expected to portray in front of customers. Frontline staff are expected to be cheerful, genial, compassionate, sincere, or even self-effacing; emotions that can be conveyed through facial expressions, gestures and words. In the event that they do not reel such emotions, am required to quell their true feelings in order to conform to customer expectations.
Step # 3. Dissemination of Marketing:
Through customer-contact employees is the most effective way of communicating with customers. Employees often have opportunities to solve guest problem before these problems become irritants. To do this, they need information. Unfortunately, many companies leave customer-contact employees out of the communication cycle.
The director of marketing may tell managers and supervisors about upcoming events, ad campaigns, and new promotions, but some managers may feel employees do not need to know this information.
Employees are looking up to the management for hints about the expected behaviour. Example if the CEO keeps the door open for a lady, other male employees can also follow that trend. A manager who talks about the importance of employees working together as a team can reinforce the desire for teamwork through personal actions. Taking an interest in employees, work, lending a hand, knowing employees by name, and eating in the employee cafeteria are actions that will give credibility to the manager’s words.
Step # 4. Implementation of a Reward and Recognition System:
Feedback must be given to employees so that they know how they are doing and how they can improve. An internal marketing programme includes service standards and methods of measuring how well the organisation is meeting these standards. The results of any service measurement should be communicated to employees.
Most reward systems in the hospitality and travel industry are based on meeting cost objectives such as achieving certain labour cost or food cost. They are also based on achieving sales objectives. Reward systems and bonuses based on customer satisfaction scores are one method of rewarding employees based on serving the customer.
Training programme and manuals can prepare employees to handle normal or routine transactions with customers. Internal marketing programmes will help than to deal with guests in a positive and friendly manner. But not all transactions are routine. A non-routine transaction is a guess transaction that is unique and usually experienced for the first time by the employees.
One benefit of an internal marketing programme is that it provides employees with the right attitude, knowledge, communication skills, and authority to deal with non-routine transactions. The ability to handle non-routine transactions separates excellent hospitality companies from mediocre ones. The number of possible non-routine transactions is so great that they cannot be covered in a training manual.
Management should exhibit confidence in their ability to hire and train employees by trusting the employee’s ability to make decisions.
Step # 5. Non-routine Transactions:
(a) A good internal marketing programme should result in employees who can handle non-routine transactions.
(b) One benefit of an internal marketing programme is that it provides employees with the right attitude, communication skills, and authority to deal with non-routine transactions,
(c) A non-routine transaction is a guest transaction that is unique and usually experienced for the first time by the employees.
(d) Management must be willing to give employees the authority to make decisions that will solve guest’s problems.
Internal Marketing – 8 Benefits
For organizations – Organizations benefit from higher employee satisfaction and retention. Recruitment and training have costs, so when employees stay longer and are more satisfied with their jobs, that helps organizations save money.
Other benefits include – a customer-oriented workforce, enhanced external business relationships, a better flow of information internally, empowered employees, increased compliance with standards and protocols, and improved brand reputation, and ultimately profits.
For employees – Employees feel more motivated and experience higher job satisfaction. They are empowered to make decisions within certain guidelines and begin to feel more respected and valued for their contributions.
This feeling leads to a greater sense of belonging to the “team” as well as responsibility and accountability to employers. Staff conflict wanes and people have better dispositions at work.
(i) Internal marketing encourages the internal market (Employees) to perform better.
(ii) Internal marketing empowers employees and gives them accountability and responsibility.
(iii) Internal marketing creates common understanding of the business organisation.
(iv) Internal marketing encourages employees to offer superb service to clients by appreciating their valuable contribution to the success of the business.
(v) Internal marketing helps non marketing staffs to learn and be able to perform their tasks in a marketing-like manner.
(vi) Internal marketing improves customer’s retention and individual employee development.
(vii) Internal marketing integrates business culture, structure, human resources management, vision and strategy with the employees’ professional and social needs.
(viii) Internal marketing creates good coordination and cooperation among departments of the business.
Internal Marketing – Problems Affecting the Implementation of Internal Marketing
The following are the problems affecting the effective implementation of internal marketing:
(i) Managerial incompetence in interpersonal, technical and conceptual skills is some of the stumbling blocks against successful internal marketing.
(ii) Poor understanding of internal marketing concept.
(iii) Individual conflict and conflict between departments makes the implementation of internal marketing difficult.
(iv) Rigid organisational structure coupled by bureaucratic leadership hinder success of internal marketing.
(v) Ignoring and not listening to subordinate staffs.
(vi) The tendency of ignoring employee’s importance and treating them like any other tools of the business.
(vii) Unnecessary protection of information against employees.
(viii) Resistance to change.