Introduction

Since the attitude of employees to brand has a significant impact on brand performance is determined by examining study conducted in this regard, that the papers have very little impact on the sense of belonging internal branding, loyalty and commitment of employees to brand at the same time  have studied. Recently branding through various communicative activities, as a means to an organization’s success in providing promises of the brand, to respond to customers’ expectations set of brand, have been proposed [1]. Branding is at two levels internal and external. Foreign branding related to external customers and represents attempt to create an enduring image of the business, among the audience out of the organization. While the internal branding emphasis on improving the perception and behavior of employees as within the organization customers, from the brand of the organization. Hence service branding is more influenced by the activities and behavior of employees of an organization [2]. In an organization, strengthen the brand in the eyes of foreign customers required to strengthen brand position within the organization and in the sight of employees. Cutler says that as long as the brand of organization not is established for the employee and external customers will not be possible to strengthen the brand perspective [3]. Panjaysry and colleagues (2009) found that internal branding coordinates marketing with the management of human resources and significant effect on attitudinal and behavioral aspects as far as the employees at the brand promise [4]. So the attitude of employees to brand has a significant impact on brand performance is determined by examining study conducted in this area very few articles, the impact of internal branding on the sense of belonging commitment and loyalty of employees at the same time to the brand have studied and existing studies have examined separately to the parts of it. Panjaysry and colleagues [4] in 2009 to examine this issue in 4 and 5 stars hotels have addressed. Shopping centers, including organizations that are trying to attract customers and keep existing customers so managers should to pursuing create  a better relationship with our customers and meet customer needs, and action to brand promises against customers, and this issue will not be possible unless the betterment of employee attitudes of brand that are associated with customers of shopping centers. By examining that in previous studies, was conducted within the country, a study that to deal the impact of employees attitude to brand performance against address customers was not found For this reason with inspiration from study of Panjaysry and colleagues, aim of this study is to understand the internal branding process from the perspective of employees, that examines the relationship between internal branding and brand’s employee performance in relation to providing promise of brand. To achieve the goals of research of the 323 employees in shopping centers that are associated with customers surveys have been conducted.

Theoretical Foundations and issue background

internal branding effect on the attitude and behavior of employees

Some researchers [5, 6] In order to provide customers with brand’s promises, to play a central role in branding Services of employees have emphasized. In service marketing triangle by a number of researchers [7.9] has been promoted also has been emphasized the importance of providing brand promise to customers. Three important elements of include the company, provider and clients.

Their participation in any activity, has committed to provide promises to customers. Providing customer promises, is responsible for brand’s employees, which has been provided to determine whether or not the brand promise. To ensure being successful of employees in providing brand’s promises to customers, organization is essential to any type of activity including employment, education, motivating, reward and providing equipment and technology to help employees in enhancing their ability to providing promise of the brand to involved [10]. Internal branding to promote brand within the organization, means the same employees, have been mentioned [11]. However, due to the lack of internal branding concepts, there are fewer studies that experimentally internal branding effect on the attitude of the employees (brand identification, brand commitment, brand loyalty) of brand has examined. Bergstrom, Blumenthal and Kradrz in their study concluded that internal branding can be create of brand sense of belonging to the in employees  that somehow it is considered indicative oneness of the employees and its cause associated with employees has stated [12]. Panjaysry et al in their study to the effect of internal branding have emphasized on the employees’ sense of belonging. Geng and Gris in their study [13] brand activities of human resources centered and communications that are raised in their paper as a component of dissemination of knowledge; introduce of important levers commitment to the brand. So there is a significant relationship between internal marketing and organizational commitment. Internal marketing can also increase employees’ loyalty and in creating commitment of employees also play an important role [14]. Borman et al in their study [15], to existence of effect of internal communication that is one of the tools of internal branding have noted on commitment of employees to brand. Asnif and Segal [16] suggest that successful internal branding; create employees’ commitment and loyalty. So:

H1: internal branding has a positive impact on sense of belonging employees to brand.

H2: internal branding has a positive impact on commitment of employees to brand.

H3: internal branding has a positive impact on loyalty of employees to brand.

H4: internal branding has a positive impact on the performance of employees to brand.

The role of belonging to brand, brand commitment and brand loyalty in the process of internal branding

In studies have been conducted in the field of internal branding [17-19]. To have concluded that internal branding its tools (training and internal communications) leads to increasing the belonging to brand, brand commitment and brand loyalty among employees. It is essential to note that only Panjaysry and Wilson [18] In their study the distinction between these three attitudes have created while in other studies have not been examined these three issues at the same time. For example, some researchers’ sense of belonging and loyalty as employee commitment are considered [20-22] while some researchers are considered them as separate structures [23-25]. A group of researchers [26, 27] The theory of Porter et al. [22] that expresses a sense of belonging, too much effort and tend to staying from  the components of the commitment are have criticized. These researchers believe that these components should be considered separately. In the study of miles (1988) that a sense of belonging and commitment has been measured conclude that these two concepts are separate. According to ideas of this research group, feeling a sense of belonging referring to unify with a group, that employees themselves as giving character to  that group to know [28, 29]. For example, employees who consider they to belong to the organization, its successes and failures know of themselves [30]. Gavtam in his study [31], classified organization belonging sense to this case: the sense of belonging affiliation and pride of membership of the organization loyalty to the organization and support of organizational goals, perceived homogeneity between the employees and the organization in terms of values and common goals. Panjaysry and colleagues [18] in defining brand belonging sense have said in such way: employees’ belonging sense and perceived high dependence on brand’s fate and success. sense of belonging to brand, as an introduction to employee engagement, as the psychological dependence of employees to organization is considered  and influenced by the their desire for too much effort in order to achieve brand objectives is defined [15]. So can be said that:

H5: sense of belonging to brand has a positive relationship with employee commitment to the brand.

The term “commitment” widely has been used in the context of internal branding [32]. Brand commitment represents involvement amount and intervention of employees in brand goals and their interest in continuing to work in the organization. Commitment to the brand can be known “the brand’s sense of belonging and a sense of his responsibility towards the goals of brand”; also commitment means putting people’s willingness to provide energy and his allegiance to the social system is defined [33]. Commitment to the brand, in fact is a reflection of the amount of emotional attachment of person to the brand and its identification with its objectives. Components of commitment can be expressed in three cases: Firstly person to accept the values and organization goals, Secondly be willing to do the necessary effort in order to achieve organizational goals and thirdly, an intense desire to be a member of the organization [22]. In fact, commitment to brand is strong desire of organization’s employees towards maintain that brand [34]. One of the important elements in the creation of employee relations, employee loyalty, because loyal employees, the main components of a successful business [35]. Most studies [26, 36], know the loyalty of employees for the duration of served on the organization. Reichheld also [37] knows the loyalty tend to stay and cooperation of workers in the present organization. The other hand brand loyalty of employees to respond effectively to customer needs is very important. Pritchard et al. [38] knows commitment as a tool for employee loyalty. So that:

H6: employee commitment has a positive relationship with the loyalty of employees to the brand.

The purpose of internal branding creating change the behavior of employees to provide the brand promises. [1, 11, 39]Although the number of researchers support from this theme, but there are less empirical evidence to demonstrate the relationship between internal branding and employee performance of brand in providing brand promises. In general, most of the articles published in the field of internal branding, in internal communications and human resources believe that, when employees are committed to an organization try to provide the brand’s promise, they will provide the customers’ expectations for brand [2]. However, the assumption that employees’ attitudes of brand influenced by their behavior in presenting promises of the brand still is approved so:

H7: the attitude of brand employees’ is mediator between internal branding and employee performance of the brand in presenting the brand’s promises.

According to literature of the subject in relation to branding and its relationship with the employee’s performance with regard to the sense of belonging, commitment and loyalty of employees to brand that was described above, Figure (1) to assess the research hypotheses is presented.

Figure 1: research conceptual model Click here to View figure

Methodology

Research plan

The aim of the present study is applied because its result can be helpful in brand management of shopping centers and a strategy to its improved. According to the type of conceptual model and data collection method, this study is descriptive and correlation analysis.

Validity and reliability

To examine the content validity of the research questionnaire, after translating questions of the questionnaire, several university professors, and experts and managers working in shopping centers, the questionnaires were evaluated and modified so that the questionnaire has satisfactory reliability. Cranach’s alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the reliability of the research variables. Since the value of this coefficient is above 0.70 for all variables, so it follows that the questionnaire has appropriate reliability. Table (1) shows Cranach’s alpha values for each of the variables.

Table 1: Cranach’s alpha coefficient for the research variables

Population and Sample

The study population included all employees of shopping centers in Tehran, who have direct contact with the customer. Cluster sampling was done and the required data were collected. To collect the data, with the whole five-item Likert questionnaire from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” was used. 323 questionnaires were distributed among the employees and ultimately the number of 273 questionnaires were returned (return rate of 84%).

Data Analysis

Analysis of demographic sample

In this study for273 people completed questionnaires. 65.2% (178 people) of participants were male and 34.8% (95 people) were male. The mean age (standard deviation) total number of subjects were 30.18 (3.14) years and for men and women order to 30.37 (3.02) years and 29.91 (3.30) years. Table (2) shows other demographic characteristics of the study population.

Table 2: Demographic profile of participants in the study

According to above table most respondents had Bachelor’s degree (29.6 percent) and the majority of employees had work experience less than 7 years old (44.3 percent).

testing the model and hypotheses

correlation between the variables

Table (3) shows the correlation between variables and mean and standard deviation each of the variables.

Table 3: mean, standard deviation and coefficient of correlation between variables

According to Table (3) correlation test between variables of research shows that between internal branding and attitude of employees (sense of belonging to brand, brand commitment and brand loyalty) positive correlation is statistically at 5 percent level. Also the same positive correlation between the components of employees attitude to brand with performance of brand, internal branding with brand performance is established, This means that if the internal branding process (training, reward, communication) to be done correctly among the employees of shopping centers can improve employee attitudes to brand as a result of the brand performance will go up. Most of the correlation related to commitment to the brand of employees with brand performance and its lowest for correlation is between variables of sense of belonging to brand and brand commitment.

hypotheses testing and conceptual model

To test hypotheses the AMOS software version of 19 was used. Table (4) shows the results of evaluation of the adequacy of the model.

Table 4: Indicators of assessment of the adequacy of the research conceptual model

Figure 2: The standardized path coefficient of model (INTB = internal branding, BID = brand identification, BCO = brand commitment, BLO = brand loyalty, BPE = brand performance) Click here to View figure

Table 5: path coefficient of the conceptual model

To test the main effects of internal branding for the research variables, structural equation analysis has been used. The goodness of fit statistics, Table 4 shows the appropriateness of the research model for data, ratio of chi-square statistic has a value of 2.75 to the degree of freedom that the critical value of 3 is less and has acceptable amount. Other indicators presented in Table 4 show that the structural model appropriate fitting to the data provide that: So that the amount of GFI, equal to 0.945 and the amount of insole, equal to 0.93, RMSEA value is equal to 0.042. According to Table 5, internal branding and has a significant positive impact on sense of belonging to brand (p <0.05, 0.54), employee commitment (p <0.05, 0.36) and loyalty of the brand employees (p <0.05, 0.62) which leads to accept the hypotheses of H1, H2, H3. So if necessary training to employees sufficient shopping centers or if employees Justification Meetings  held by the managers, will be aware brand’s promise better that cause they not valued for brand and commitment and loyalty necessary to the brand establish on their own. According the results, relationship of sense of belonging to brand on Employee Performance (p <0.05, 0.24), employee commitment, to brand on Employee Performance (p <0.05, 0.54) and loyalty employees to the brand on employees brand performance (p <0.05, 0.34), positively and meaningful have been reported, that hypotheses of H4, H5, H6 and H7 is approved. This means that with sense of belonging and commitment and loyalty in their employees to meet brand promises will be successful.

Conclusion and Suggestion

Internal branding as a powerful tool and influential on How to brand presenting promises by changing behavior and attitudes of them by employees, have been introduced. This study, the positive impact of internal communications on sense of belonging employees to the brand, employee’s commitment to brand and their loyalty to the brand has confirmed.

In particular, was found that the sense of belonging to the brand employees is more influenced by internal branding. also, the results of previous studies that each particular branch of branding effectiveness of internal on the sense of belonging and commitment and loyalty of  employees to the brand have studied is confirmed. Also this internal branding study the impact on the behavior of employees in how to brand presenting promises has confirmed. In line with previous studies in various fields (such as marketing and organizational behavior) relationship between the attitudes of employees and internal branding is approved. Allen and Meyer suggest that the positive effect of sense of belonging to brand on employees on the commitment of employees to the brand is as an introduction to their loyalty to brand [40]. This means that if in shopping centers employees by using the educational tools (Justification Meetings, group meetings, training programs, How to communicate effectively with customers) aware of brand promises of the shopping center, creating a sense of belonging in the employees towards the brand. As a result, their employees are committed responsible for presenting promises of brand and this underlying creates loyalty of Employees to the brand of shopping center.When the loyalty and commitment and sense of belonging to the brand among the employees caused  be better increasing employee performance to brand so that, those in behaviors and attitudes with customer put in priority the brand interests. such employees are used wholeheartedly their power in order to better presenting brand promises  because they know that the success of the brand and the shopping center are known as their success and even to the success of brand and shopping center are acted any works outside the scope of their work. In addition, this study shows that managers can expect be further the employee commitment, with increasing their sense of belonging to brand. Similarly with increasing commitment of employees to ensure that their loyalty to brand is strong. All this positive attitudes can be seen in the success of internal branding in brand of shopping center. Sense of belonging and loyalty has mediating effect on the relationship between branding and performance of the employees. It encourages managers to attitude of employees as an effective factor in their performance, to be considered by internal branding. When the internal branding, sense of belonging and commitment to the branding employees that are affected, Brand performance can be better than when the internal branding do not has an effect on the motivation of employees. However, managers can by using the branding caused be changed the behavior of employees, in order to presenting brand promises by them.

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