Internal marketing
| Internal marketing |
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Internal marketing resembles marketing information system with enterprise's clients: employees are divided into segments that have their own information needs, then a target group is chosen and a message is adjusted to its character. Other arguments and forms of message are used in case of explaining a necessity of employment restructuring.
This type of marketing enables to access employees with knowledge about organization - internal changes, planned or taken strategic decisions and outcomes of activities. The effect of conveying this knowledge is a higher level of workers' job satisfaction, a rise in their involvement and better organizational identification, whereas decision-making is based on the background of current company's situation.
Internal marketing consists in the assumption that in every organization there is an internal market in which a traditional role of customers is performed by workers. This market is submitted to a broad examination and marketing influence that serves as the realization of tactical and strategic goals, mainly aimed at:
- motivational processes
- stimulation of desirable managerial attitudes
- an advance of a system of internal and external communication
The sense of internal marketing application in organization results from the belief that knowledge, abilities and behavior of workers have the critical influence on the intelligent functioning of an organization.
Organisational culture managed according to the following rules puts particular emphasis on:
- importance of every worker's contribution in the process of added value creation
- synergistic effect of collaborative work
- developed system of worker's participation in decision-making process.
Widely employed technique in internal marketing is reengineering - owing to the fact that implementation of internal marketing in a conservative-structured organization should be a radical and dynamic process. Also, because of the fact that internal marketing should be always understood as the continuous process.
Principles of internal marketing
Main principles of internal marketing
- All workers in their actions are aware of company's goals, mission an marketing strategy
- A collaboration of every unit and every employer bases on consumer and purchaser rule
The optimal situation is the one in which services provided by employees and units reach a high level. Creating reputation of a company plays a key role - it is connected with functioning both inside and outside of a company. Tough tasks include reaching good reputation outside if employees don't have a good opinion about a company. Internal marketing is actions of enterprise that aim at creating a personnel team which realizes this type of marketing in practice, in an aware and reasoned way. Means of executing internal marketing:
Conditions that allow its realization:
- approving of a company and its goals by staff
- occurrence of open information channels inside a company
- formal and informal collaboration between work posts
- favorable working atmosphere
The role of staff in marketing departments
Employees - a showcase of a company Regardless of the type of activity that you run, from the viewpoint of advertisement and marketing, it is very important to have staff support all the time. It is significant due to at least two reasons:
- Staff is the showcase of a company. Efficient, kind and optimistic employees are probably one of the most crucial assets of a business.
- It is relevant for workers to have awareness of promotion campaign that was planned by a firm in which they work. It is important that they have a right to co-decide or at least to voice about matters concerning for example sales ads. Under the term, internal marketing are placed all your activities that aim at staff involvement. Personnel policy of a company is of great importance, it is inseparably related to marketing, irrespective of whether an employee serves in:
- production
- administration
- sales
- acquisition
- marketing
If you are not able to convince your workers to your ideas, presumably you will not be able to do it in case of people from outside of a company. If a client contacts your organization, the first impression is crucial. Belief in a strategy of an enterprise and well-being of workers will also be noticeable in contacts with a client. Marketing of a company is not only aimed at clients, it is also vital how you will be received by suppliers, bank workers, authorities. If they find you a person good to work with, it reflects well on you. Another target group of company's marketing are present and future employees. It is of major importance that a good opinion about working in your company is diffused in the environment. Due to this, you will be able to enlist interesting people that suit the particular image of the enterprise. Internal marketing is an interest of the whole company. This type of marketing reflects the soul of a firm. Tone given to the advertising letter, selection of papers, illustrations throughout which company advertises, the way it employs direct advertising, is actually very personal. Therefore, it is important for marketing to become an issue of the whole company. In case of a worker who does not like advertising folder of enterprise, he will not be a good ambassador for it. In the event of a bigger firm, there might be appointed a group of employees, their task will be to pronounce opinions of marketing maneuver plans before implementation. In a smaller company, everyone can participate in such a discussion.
Advantages of internal marketing
From a wider perspective, owing to internal marketing we have a chance to:
- decrease conflicts in company
- enhance staff creativity
- escalate engagement in the initiation of changes
- extend a sense of community
- vivify cooperation of managers with workers due to an endorsement of openness in interpersonal relations
- release positive behaviour
References
- Pervaiz K. Ahmed, Mohammed Rafiq, (2003) "Internal marketing issues and challenges", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 37 Issue: 9, p. 1177-1186.
- Mohammed Rafiq, Pervaiz K. Ahmed, (2000) "Advances in the internal marketing concept: definition, synthesis and extension", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 14 Issue: 6, p. 449-462.
- Walter E. Greene, Gary D. Walls, Larry J. Schrest, (1994) "Internal Marketing: The Key to External Marketing Success", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 8 Issue: 4, p. 5-13.
- Susan K. Foreman & Arthur H. Money (2010) "Internal marketing: Concepts, measurement and application", Journal of Marketing Management, Vol. 11, No. 8, p. 755-768.
