Employer branding

About: Employer branding is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1555 publications have been published within this topic receiving 54897 citations.

‘Local People’ a critical dimension for place brands

Abstract: Branding has become one of the most powerful tools in marketing strategy and its application has reach undreamed of areas. There has been a general agreement among academics and practitioners that places can be branded in the same way as consumer goods and services. Place branding is, however, a relatively new concept and there is a lack of empirical academic research on the topic. It can be assumed that place brands will have some unique characteristics that are quite different from products or services. This exploratory research reveals that local people are relevant and important for a destination brand-building process. Consumers use this factor to evaluate differences in destinations and to support their decisions about tourism consumption. It can be concluded that much of a place's image is likely to be created by stereotyping the ‘typical’ local people.

An integrated model of customer-brand engagement: Drivers and consequences

Abstract: Customer-brand engagement is emerging as an influential area of modern marketing. Yet, the domain is at an early stage of development, reliant on conceptual reasoning. The purpose of this article is to provide clarity in the domain and to develop an integrated customer-brand engagement model. Customer-brand engagement is conceptualised and empirically supported as a psychological state, distinct to behavioural manifestations, which are considered a consequence of customer-brand engagement. The proposed model conceptualises two contributors to customer-brand engagement, namely a firm-led platform for driving engagement and customer-centred influences. A quantitative approach using structural equation modelling supports the hypotheses. The empirical assessment is measured across both product and service brands, with model support in both contexts. The empirical contribution of the firm-led platform for engagement provides insight for practitioners as to how they may actionably influence customer-brand engagement, whereas the demonstrated consequences highlight the real benefits for organisations in doing so. The model measures the impact of customer-brand engagement upon brand value and brand loyalty, demonstrating the customer’s role in value creation. The research appears to be the first to empirically measure both firm-led and customer-centred antecedents to customer-brand engagement in a comprehensive model, offering a significant contribution to the domain.

Social media in branding: Fulfilling a need

Abstract: The author, who has worked on the Internet since 1990, and used social networks such as Facebook and Twitter soon after their inception, looks at how these new media can impact on branding.

Putting city branding into practice

Abstract: City branding has joined the vocabulary of a growing number of politicians and city officials across Europe. While most academic research in this field has focused on the concept of city branding itself, the subject of this article is the implementation of city branding. In this conceptual paper it is argued that the governance setting in which city branding takes place, as well as the impact of specific choices made in the branding process, greatly affect the implementation of city branding. This research identifies eight factors: the first four are governance factors concerning the fit of city branding with the city's wider policy framework; the last four factors are intrinsically linked to the concept and application of branding itself. The first four factors identified are especially important for bolstering the significance of city branding in relation to the city′s traditional policies: they could help marketing professionals avoid mistakes previously made with the introduction of city marketing. At the same time, the strategic branding choices of city marketers could have a direct impact on the political decision-making process as well. Hence, city branding requires the combination of marketing excellence with the sensitivity of operating in a political environment.

Conceptualising employer branding in sustainable organisations

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualise employer branding in sustainable organizations at the intersection of branding, strategic human resource management (HRM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approach – Based on an outline of current conceptualisations of employer branding, the paper discusses the strategic potentials of merging corporate branding processes, strategic HRM and CSR into a theoretical framework for reconceptualising employer branding as co‐created processes and sustainable employer‐employee relationships.Findings – When organizations adapt strategies for sustainable development (including CSR), it affects how to approach stakeholder relations and organizational processes, including the employee‐employer relationship and employer branding processes. However, current employer branding conceptualisations do not comply with such changed corporate conditions. The suggested framework reconceptualises employer branding as an integrated part of a CSR ...