Glossary

Internal Branding is a corporate strategy measure to enable and motivate employees to not only keep the brand promise but to "live" it. To do this, companies involve employees in the process of brand development, inform them about the brand, and inspire them to feel enthusiastic about the brand in order to ultimately influence their behavior to support the brand. Internal branding is particularly important because brands grow from the inside out and in fact contribute to increased sales. The "internal brand" and the "external brand" must relate to one another.

A brand is successfully rooted in the company when all employees understand it and act accordingly. The result is a sharpened image of the brand.

The brand strategy must be a priority for every single staff member and be lived by all employees. This kind of internal branding requires systematic planning, so that employees can be involved in the process early on. Representatives from different business units should be involved as early as possible – not when the brand strategy is implemented, as is often the case in practice. The sooner employees are integrated, the greater their understanding and acceptance of the brand strategy and their willingness to "live" the brand in their operative business. Apart from that, they contribute valuable input to the success of the brand strategy, provided they recognize its meaning and benefits.

Internal branding is the embodiment of the brand strategy for the target group employee – the manifestation of the brand identity in personnel selection and development.

It follows that the goal of internal branding is not to force some desired job-specific behavior but to guide employees toward brand-specific behavior. Ideally, the customer will experience an employee who has internalized the – outwardly communicated – brand promise and who communicates the brand and acts accordingly.