Concept of internal marketing

Concept of inbred tradeThe supposition of inside merchandise The concept of knowledgeable marketing is a pecker that companies use inside their workforce to communicate with their employees. Many company owners and authors of sexual marketing believe this concept is as important to a companys survival as international marketing (communicating to guests). When communicating to employees this involves the communications of corporate culture and goals, mission and vision statements, as well as personnel policies and procedures. http//www.bnet.com/2410-13237_23-168356.html Internal marketing was introduced in the mid 1970s. This was initiated so companies could use the concept as a way of achieving consistent armed table service quality. Internal marketing became known in the service marketing industry. The objective of this concept was to get a more mendd capital punishment from the employees who regularly dealt with customers. Although this concept began indoors the serv ice marketing it has now broadened beyond and is included in many other companies and organisations.Ahmed and Rafiq authors of the book Internal Marketing Tools and concepts for customer-focused management apprise that authors capture many translations of essential marketing and from studying the literature they have highlighted 5 main elements of the conceptEmployee pauperization and satisfactionCustomer orientation and customer satisfactionInter-functional co-ordination and integrationMarketing-like barbel to the aboveImplementation of specific corporate or functional strategiesEmployee pauperism is a signifi bunst element of the concept, for many authors scan this to be the essence of what home(a) marketing to be. An employees attitude towards their own work place is believed to directly influence the value of the customer service that is given to consumers. This was summarised by Kusluvan (2003) Internal marketing efforts ar assumed to emergence in employee satisfacti on, job involvement, work motivation, employee commitment, maximum employee effort on behalf of the organizations and customers, increased job performance, service-oriented behaviours and lower turn over which, in turn should improve service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty Kusluvan, S (2003) pg42. There are many other interpretations of inside marketing. Ahmed and Rafiq argue that the span of intellectual about internal marketing from other authors is huge but vague in its limitations. One of the earlier studies by the author Berry, L (1974) believed that telling internal marketing, which would contribute to effective marketing would require financially rewarding personnel, management commitment to gross sales training and self- excogitatement revision of personnel transfer policies and a redefinition of management in impairment of helping people to achieve through work (p.13). Berry along with Pasuraman (1991) later added other definition to the concept in their book Marketing function Competing Through Quality by stating Internal marketing is attracting, developing, motivating and retaining qualified employees through job-products that satisfy their needs. Internal marketing is the philosophy of treating employees as customers and it is the strategy of plastic job-products to fit human needs (pg 26). These authors believed that there was a set of principles to treating employees fairly and motivating them. They also highlighted the belief that employee satisfaction was an important element of internal marketing. The definition by these authors stress the immenseness that employee satisfaction is needed in order to develop, motivate and retain the best and near qualified employees. From these two definitions given by Barry you can understand that the concept of internal marketing is a broad notion. The American Marketing Association have given a more simple and advanced definition for the concept marketing to employees of an organizat ion to ensure that they are effectively carrying out desired programs and policies. This definition doesnt give fileers a b sound outth understanding of the concept. Unlike Berrys (1991) definition it doesnt justify how internal marketing can be achieved in the workplace and it also doesnt explain the ways in which employees are to be marketed to ensure the work carried out by them is effective and of a good standard. An important element of internal marketing as said earlier is motivation motivating the work force. Considered by many authors as the grandfather of all definitions on internal marketing Grnroos (1994) created a definition which saw the efforts of motivating employees as precise important. Grnroos had two previous definitions both created in 1981 which suggests that internal marketing is the selling of the firm to employees who are seen as the internal customers. Grnroos believed that the higher employee satisfaction that leave behind result go out make it possibl e to develop a more customer-focused and market-oriented firm (Cahill, 1996, p.4). Grnroos 1994 oblige looks into motivation and 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 (Grnroos, 1994, p. 13). This definition, as well as Johnson and Seymours (1985) definition which explains internal marketing should create an internal environment which supports customer consciousness and sales-mindedness. Both definitions highlight the fact that internal marketing is about the service and sales mindedness of the customers. There are other recent definitions of the concept of internal marketing by Ballantyne (2000) which suggests that internal marketing is a strategy for developing relationships between lag across internal organisational boundaries. This is d whiz so that staff autono my and know-how may combine in opening up knowledge generating processes that challenge any internal activities that need to be stird. The purpose of this activity is to enhance quality of external marketing relationships (pg 43). This definition emphasises the importance of the relationship between the staff and the organisation and how internal marketing is a strategy that will yield this relationship to become stronger. It also highlights the fact that building on the relationship can enhance the service quality and also their relationship with their external markets. To evaluate how affective internal marketing is with employees companies usually give staff seasonal or yearly surveys which they will use to measure the affects of their internal marketing efforts. There are many answers to what can actually make a successful company. Some may assert its the companys ability to adapt to the market or even a companys high level of customer retention and many believe successful c ompanies are created from deep down the organisation. Communicating internally but affectively to your internal market (employees) many authors believe is an important attribute for company success, An article written in 2007 about the importance of internal marketing suggested thatInternal communications is traditionally viewed as the sole province of the Human Resources department, and the article continued by stressing the importance that employees have over effective external marketing When employees understand and commit to the value proposition of the company and its brands, external marketing becomes more effective, because the employees become product champions. As the footfall of the economy is fast changing and the recent recession has affected many companys survival, internal marketing grows increasingly important. Due to the recession and the increasing pace of change in the workforce, there has been crudes of many companys creating alliances with hotshot another, me rging with one another and also downsizing as a whole. During these hard times employee motivation is extremely important, especially if every employee is understandably beginning to have concerns about their own companys survival or their current job position. Organisations must(prenominal) instil at bottom these employees some sort of strength and satisfaction that would mean that the employees would continue working and at a good level. Generally, a strategy that many companies use and one which coincides with Ballantynes (2000) definition is that companies empower staff to build stronger customer relationship. Internal marketing supports this strategy (or theory some might say) and suggests that through staff authority employees will drive for better understanding, they will have a deeper commitment to the relationship they hold with the organisation and as a result there will be greater involvement from the staff. While todays diverse work force becomes more complicated th ere are a few barriers which can peradventure affect how internal marketing is kept within an organisation. In the book Internal marketing directions for management, Varey R and Lewis B explain these barriers. The prime(prenominal) and probably the most important barrier would be the employees and an organisations resistance to change. Kotler (1990) believed that problems can occur from an organisations built-in resistance of management to change (Percy and Morgan 1990). Managers often do not consider new ideas brought about their company, and this is because a change in the work place can bring forth an overall fear of concern about their job and proximo positions. Other barriers to internal marketing are inter and intra functional conflict. Inter-functional conflicts often occur when a senior managers assumption of their organisational culture is ill-advised and as a consequence managers may become unaware of the issues and problems which affect prolific activities or co-operat ion and integration (pg 78). Intra-functional conflicts are basically when one internal function fails to recognise another internal function. Intra-functional conflicts on the other hand are where the goals and objectives of the organisation and its departments are divergent to the individual and personal goals of employees. It occurs because individuals have different goal, desires and ambitions, and will be sink in different social spheres of interaction that will impact upon their overall attitude and behaviour. (Pg 79) If ever these barriers work in cohesion indeed it can spell big trouble for any organisation. Although the three chosen are seem as the major barriers affecting the use of internal marketing within an organisation there are also a few other problems which can affect successful implementation of the concept. 1, managerial incompetence 2, poor understand of the internal marketing concept 3, rigid organisational structure and 4, top members of staff treating empl oyees like they are unimportant to the business. Anon (2007) Internal Marketing Kotler P, Bowen J and Makens J (2003) have stated 5 importances of internal marketingEmployees must have a customer service attitudeEmployees must understand your productEmployees must be enthused about your product and your companyThere must be good communication between employees and managementEmployees must be able to advert and solve customer problemsMarketing for Hospitality and Tourism 3e (2003) Generally employees of organisations, especially those who communicate directly with customers can have an influence on customer satisfaction. The authors suggest that these are 5 important features of internal marketing and in order for it to be affective organisations must aide in ensuring that employees behave in a desired manner expected of them from the organisation. Internal market in todays industry is needed because as Berry L Pasuraman A (1991) stated it serves as a managerial philosophy that a c ompany deploys on to employees that in turn would teach the employees how to maintain good high standard of affective customer service. in spite of appearance organisations employees are recognised as a major part of the capabilities that service organisations produce. The popular view is that employees constitute an internal market in which paid prod is exchanged for designated outputs. Fill C (2009) pg 895. Fill suggests if the objective of an organisations internal market is kept then employees will reap the benefits through paid labour. Kotler P, Bowen J and Makens J (2003) have proposed that these are the four objectives of internal marketingTo ensure that employees are motivated for customer-oriented and service-minded performance.To retain good employees.To increase customer satisfactionTo increase profitabilitySome may argue that the main objective of internal marketing is to retain suitable and efficient employee personnel. As a means of retaining these ideal employees, organisations develop motivated and customer-conscious staff which while working simultaneously and cohesively can work towards achieving absolute customer satisfaction. There is a philosophy in internal marketing that every action made within the organisation is oriented towards this sole purpose. As times and the economy change so would the process of internal marketing. The representative above studys four steps of internal marketing. Some authors believe this model to be too vague and feel that the complexity of the internal market or many organisations cannot be met by four simple steps. Grnroos (1996) believes The internal marketing process is not to be viewed as a process, which only moves in one direction from the top down. On the contrary, the process needs to be directed from and to every side of the organisation in order for it to be successful As it is important that an organisations internal marketing objectives are met by its employees, an organisation will produce an internal environment that staff will need to function in to a desired way recommended to them by their company. In the article Internal Marketing (2007) it is written that there are four important areas within an organisations internal environment which are essential for the organisations internal marketMotivationCo-ordinationInformationEducation Internal Marketing from engineer sood These four areas have come up many times in definitions by numerous authors and combined create the four objectives of internal marketing that organisational managers should be try to reach from their employees. If these are reached then as a result the employees work would drive the profitability of the organisation to a positive and effective level. To conclude in many definitions you will read internal marketing being referred to as a concept that use ups on attracting, developing, motivating and retaining qualified employee Berry Pasuraman (1991). In some other cases you will read that inte rnal marketing is a philosophy whereby employees are treated as customers or even in some cases where organisations will basically teach employees a specific way of working in the work place and handling customers. Internal marketing has come a long way since it was first proposed in the service marketing industry in the 1970s. The role of marketing in general has undergone many changes. Organisations have begun networking with one another and members of organisations have begun sharing responsibilities and working as teams. Although many if not all definitions of the verge internal marketing can still be relevant to today, the concept in itself over the ult 40 years has become one which is/will constantly change as long as the world of business changes. From a concept which first focused on supporting the consciousness and sales-mindedness of employees to one which broadens its scope and understands that the concept is much more profound and more complex to achieve good employee to customer service quality. Key words such as relationships, or motivate and philosophy are now being used in the more modern terms of the definition. J.N. Sheth suggests motivation is what moves people. It is the driving force for all human behaviour or more formally, it is the state of drive or arousal that impels behaviour toward a goal objective (Sheth et al 1999). Indeed, motivating employees has continually been used by authors since the concept of internal marketing was initiated , and although motivating employees to work harder and more efficiently is seen to be very important, organisations also need to understand and create a way of making employees enjoy the work that they are doing. Content workforces which take pleasure in their work are understood to be more productive and affective, which in turn creates a better service and customer experience.Organisations must instil within these employees some sort of strength and satisfaction that would encourage the employees to continue working and at a good level. As the new age dawns many organisations have even used employees to help sell their company e.g. Halifax. Halifax adverts and many other adverts similar to this have used employees as a way of advertising to external customers about big internal changes to policies and procedures that the company may be having. You see adverts everywhere with pictures of employees holding offers or incentives from their company or maybe even different adverts where employees are actually talking to the camera. This can be seen as a form or a strategy used for internal marketing. As a good employee is as important to a company as the employer, employees may feel the need to get more involved with company actions and strategies. In the article Internal Marketing (2007) it was stated that one of the problems which could affect the successful implementation of internal marketing is the ignoring of an employees importance to the company and treating them like any other tool of the business. Companies such as The Carphone Warehouse have their own internal marketing strategy whereby they are accompanied by new employees on a pass of training. On this expedition employees are taught how to deal with customers, they are given information about the company and objectives that the company and each individual employee are and should be trying to reach, they are taught many things about the products sold in the shops, how to deal with complaints and they are also taught ways in which they should act in the workplace (the rules and codes of conducts). Organisations which take on the strategy to market internally must have a clear and precise objective and mission. The objectives of the organisation must be very clear if it is to oppose with how managers internally market their company to employees. If objectives are clear there will be no confusion within the staff on how to do things and what to aim for. This will help the process of knowledge dev elopment of the employee by piecing together understanding and loyalty to individual development. As a personal definition of the term internal marketing one would define it as an internal culture created by the managers of an organisation. This culture allows employees to express their creativity and innovative selves to an extent where they still show responsibility and accountability. It is the selling of the ideals and objectives of the company to the employees so that they work harder towards the goal of ultimate success. Developing and motivating employees are strategies deployed to attain the best qualified staff which would allow organisations to reach set objectives. It is a concept which can be evaluated seasonally through surveys and observations of the employees. Internal marketing should be used to meet the expectations of customers, instead internal marketing should be used to exceed them.