Correspondence: Joachim Kernstock, University of St. GallenInstitute for Marketing and Retailing Dufourstr. 40a, 9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland. Tel: + 41 71 224 71 60; Fax: + 41 71 224 28 57; E-mail: joachim.kernstock@unisg.ch

¹is doctoral candidate and research assistant in the competence centre for brand management at the Institute for Marketing and Retailing, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Formerly, he worked in various positions for a number of international retailers.

²is head of the centre of competence for brand management at the Institute for Marketing and Retailing and assistant professor at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Prior to that he gained his doctoral degree at Munich Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany, and worked in corporate marketing for an aviation company with worldwide operations.

Received 1 June 2007.

Abstract

The behaviour of employees is an important element in the expression of identity. That behaviour therefore relates to different identity-focused, corporate-level concepts such as corporate identity and brand management. Both concepts are interlinked and need a stronger alignment in consideration of corporate-level marketing. The emerging interest in corporate and service brand management is increasing the relevance of behaviour. However, brand hierarchies could hinder identity-congruent behaviour on the part of the employees if the multiple identities of corporations are not aligned. We discuss the behaviour of management, corporate-level marketing, middle management and employees in the context of brand management and brand hierarchies.