 Internal brand co-creation: The experiential brand meaning cycle in higher educationDianne Dean, Ramon E. Arroyo-Gamez, Khanyapuss Punjaisri and Christopher Pich Journal of Business Research, 2016, vol. 69, issue 8, 3041-3048 Abstract: Higher education (HE) institutions need to adapt to the global environment but the complex nature of HE highlights the role of marketing and the internal market in realizing the brand identity, creating a challenge for developing a shared brand meaning. This research explores how employees co-create brand meaning through their brand experiences and social interactions with management, colleagues and customers. Using a phenomenological approach, the findings highlight that brand meaning commences from historical, superficial brand interactions. Employees then develop brand meaning further through a series of brand interactions and social interactions. Bridging the internal branding and the co-creation literature, this study conceptualizes the evolving, co-created nature of employees’ brand meaning in the experiential brand meaning cycle. This study extends Iglesias and Bonet’s (2012) work and illustrates the function of employees as readers and authors of brand meaning, emphasizing the crucial role of brand co-creation in guiding employees’ brand promise delivery. Keywords: Brand identity; Co-creation; Internal branding; Brand meaning; Higher education (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:8:p:3041-3048 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.019 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier |
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