Correspondence: Richard W. Mosley, People in Business, 12 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JD, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7632 5914; Fax +44 (0) 20 7240 1977; E-mail: Richard@pib.co.uk

¹is Managing Director of the management consultancy, People in Business (PiB). He has been involved in brand strategy development and implementation for nearly 20 years, and is a frequent international speaker on the subject of employer brand management and employee engagement. He is co-author, with PiB chairman Simon Barrow, of 'The Employer Brand: Bringing the Best of Brand Management to People at Work' (Wiley, 2005), and recently received an award from the Asia-Pacific HR Congress (2007) in recognition for his leading role in Global HR Innovation.

Received 7 August 2007; Revised 7 August 2007; Published online 9 October 2007.

Abstract

It has been little more than a decade since this journal published the first recorded paper on the employer brand concept, first originated by Simon Barrow and first researched in partnership with Tim Ambler of the London Business School. In light of the subsequent evolution in employer brand management practice, the aim of this paper is to present a re-appraisal of the concept in terms of its potential contribution to brand-led culture change and customer experience management. The ultimate aim of brand management has always been to deliver a consistent and distinctive customer experience, but this task has been particularly difficult for service brands due to the greater complexity involved in managing service brand experience. Despite the evidence that personal interactions are generally more important in driving customer service satisfaction, there has been a tendency for service companies to focus more of their attention on the functional/operational factors involved in service delivery. Successful service companies stress the role of organisational culture in promoting on-brand customer service behaviours, but the mechanisms for shaping an on-brand culture (such as internal marketing and internal branding) have typically relied too heavily on communications-led approaches to sustain a lasting effect. The discipline of employer brand management takes a more holistic approach to shaping the culture of the organisation, by seeking to ensure that every people management touch-point is aligned with the brand ethos of the organisation. In providing a robust mechanism for aligning employees' brand experience with the desired customer brand experience, and a common platform for marketing and HR, employer brand management represents a significant evolution in the quest for corporate brand integrity.