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- Title
Branded Service Encounters: Strategically Aligning Employee Behavior with the Brand Positioning.
- Authors
Sirianni, Nancy J.; Bitner, Mary Jo; Brown, Stephen W.; Mandel, Naomi
- Abstract
This research examines how branded service encounters, in which frontline service employee behavior is aligned with a firm's brand positioning, may positively affect customer responses to brands. Across two brand personality contexts, Study 1 demonstrates that employee--brand alignment increases overall brand evaluations and customer-based brand equity, with more pronounced results for unfamiliar brands. Study 2 shows that conceptual fluency underlies the effect of employee-brand alignment on overall brand evaluations for unfamiliar brands. Study 3 reveals that employee authenticity enhances the effectiveness of employee-brand alignment. Finally, a critical incident study (Study 4) extends the generalizability of these findings to a wider variety of service contexts. This research is the first to demonstrate how firms can leverage employee behavior as a brand-building advantage, particularly for new or unfamiliar brands as they establish their positioning with customers.
- Subjects
BRANDING (Marketing); CUSTOMER services; EMPLOYEE attitudes; BRAND evaluation; GENERALIZABILITY theory; BRAND awareness; CONSUMER behavior; MANIPULATION checks (Research); ANALYSIS of variance
- Publication
Journal of Marketing, 2013, Vol 77, Issue 6, p108
- ISSN
0022-2429
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1509/jm.11.0485