A Study On The Critical Elements And Process Mechanism Of Service Brand Internalization

With the rapid development of global service economy, service brand has moved from the era of awakening into the era of brand competition, which service enterprise's concern on brand achieved an unprecedented height, such as compelling brand identity, Brilliant TV advertising, forcefull service promise, and innovative sales promotion.While brand marketing is developing, there are increasing consumer complaints from the gap between brand promise and actual experience. This may be because that consumers'mature bring high expects, but the most important reson is that brand satisfaction needs service brand internalization. With this background, more and more researchers turn to study the service brand from a balanced perspective, and an important question is mentioned:"how can the brand promise change into real action of business and employees", which is a in-depth research subject which need to be explored.This study, from the organization and employee level, attempts to clarify the critical elements of service brand internalization. and to analyse the internal branding process. In the study design, both of qualitative and quantitative research were important. There were two case studies, one was the analysis of insurance companies from China and Taiwan, in which we got preliminary ideas about the meaning, elements and process of service brand internalization, and the other one was multi-case comparison from different service industries including banks, hotels, telecommunications and housing agencies, in which we got the conceptual model by examining and correcting the results of study 1. Based on a pre-survey, a questionnaire was designed and sent to service enteriprises, such as banks, insurances, telecommunications, and consultings. SEM analysis was used to analyze 468 valid feedbacks.The main research results are as follows:1. The results showed that service brand internalization was a binary sutructure rather than a single structure. At the organization level, service brand internalization was a kind of business behavior, and at the employee level, it reflected employees' behavior. Furthermore, these two levels can not be separated, when there were enough surpport from the organization level, employees would understand the brand meaning and improve their own work.2. The dimensions of service brand internalization were set up based on the organiazation level and employee level. The organization level was comprised of five elements, including coherence of corporate culture, role of leadership, enterprise brand training, enterprise brand stimulation and internal communication; and the elements of employee level involved employee engagement awareness and behavior which have a close relationship each other.3. Integrating the main theories of sociology and marketing, this study set up three internalization mechanisms, including learning, transaction and relationship mechanisms. The results showed that the all elements of organization level had positive impact on employee engagement awareness and behavior through self-regulation, perceived risk and employee satisfaction.4. Industry and individual characteristics have been identified as two moderating variables. There was a significant difference about a series of core variables among banks, telecommunications and insurance industries, and the evaluation of the managers and staffs on core variables was also significantly different. Moreover, this model had a common application to different industries and individuals.This study gave a series of exploration and contributed innovation as follows. First of all, comparing with the previous single research perspective, brand internalization, in this study, was firstly integrated based on organization and employee levels. Secondly, the measurement scale of service brand internalization was developed in line with Chinese backgraoud, which provided a measurement tool for business. Thirdly, the social cognitive and social exchange theories were introducted to explain the service brand internalization process, furthermore, three kinds of internalizaition mechanisms were confirmed by the study. Finally, the moderating effects of industry and individual characteristics have been tested, which made up for lack of previous research on the moderating variables.This research achievements not only contribute to service brand theory's in-depth development and localization, but also provide a series of effective brand management tools and systematic approach for service enterprises.