Skip to main content
Log in

Employer branding and market segmentation

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Brand Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Over the last decade, firms large and small have begun overtly branding themselves as employers as well as purveyors of goods and services. Drawing on an investigation of employer brands in practice, we examine how market segmentation is being used implicitly by managers and how established techniques for market segmentation can be applied more extensively in the employer branding context. Further, we posit that using a range of segmentation approaches in concert can strengthen explicit links between employer branding and the broader strategic goals of an organization. In particular, the use of a combination of generic types of market segmentation should help the firm to be more efficient and effective in attracting, retaining and motivating both current and potential employees.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References and Notes

  • The strategic importance of segmentation is emphasized in marketing textbooks – see Dickson, P. (1997) Marketing Management, 2nd edn. Fort Worth: TX: Dryden Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aaker, D.A. (2007) Strategic Market Management, 8th edn. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • See specialist monographs – Wedel, M. and Kamakura, W.A. (2000) Market Segmentation: Conceptual and Methodological Foundations, 2nd edn. Boston, MA: Kluwer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dowling, G.R. (2004) The Art and Science of Marketing: Marketing for Marketing Managers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (Chapter 6).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Quote from Ambler, T. and Barrow, S. (1996) The employer brand. Journal of Brand Management 4 (3): 185–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Specific corporate examples are provided by Johansson, C. (2005) Employer Branding Global Best Practice. Sweden: Universum Communications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ewing, M.J., Pitt, L.F., de Bussy, N.M. and Berthon, P. (2002) Employment branding in the knowledge economy. International Journal of Advertising 21 (1): 3–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berthon, P., Ewing, M.J. and Hah, L.L. (2005) Captivating company: Dimensions of attractiveness in employer branding. International Journal of Advertising 24 (2): 151–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knox, S. and Freeman, C. (2006) Measuring and managing employer brand image in the service industry. Journal of Marketing Management 22 (7/8): 695–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lievens, F. and Highhouse, S. (2003) The relation of instrumental and symbolic attributes to a company's attractiveness as an employer. Personnel Psychology 56 (1): 75–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, G. (2008) Employer branding and its influence on managers. European Journal of Marketing 42 (5/6): 667–681.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers, E.G., Foulon, M., Handfield-Jones, H., Hankin, S.M. and Michaels, E.G. (1998) The war for talent. The McKinsey Quarterly 1 (3): 44–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • For a somewhat contrary view see Somaya, D. and Williamson, I.O. (2008) Rethinking the ‘war for talent’. MIT Sloan Management Review 49 (4): 29–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, G. and Beaumont, P.B. (2003) What's in a Name? Building the Relationship Between People Management and Branding. Wimbledon, UK: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Human resources management scholars have acknowledged the idea of segmenting current and potential employees based on, for example, the rarity or value-adding potential of employee skills and flexibility of employment arrangements. For a summary of the approaches documented in the human resources management literature see Martin, G. and Hetrick, S. (2006) Corporate Reputations, Branding and People Management: A Strategic Approach to HR. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dowling, G.R. (2004) The Art and Science of Marketing: Marketing for Marketing Managers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • The five generic types of segmentation were proposed and fully described by Bock, T. and Uncles, M.D. (2002) A taxonomy of differences between consumers for market segmentation. International Journal of Research in Marketing 19 (3): 215–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • In a formal sense, product feature segmentation dates back to at least Haley, R.I. (1968) Benefit segmentation: A decision oriented research tool. Journal of Marketing 30 (July): 30–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Consumer interaction segmentation builds on the seminal work of Rogers, E. (1962) Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stigler, G.J. (June, 1961) The economics of information. Journal of Political Economy 69: 213–225, among others, describes the effects of imperfect information that results in choice barrier segmentation.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bargaining power segmentation can be traced back to the work of Shaw, A.W. (1912) Some problems in market distribution. Quarterly Journal of Economics 26: 703–765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finally, a retrospective review of profitability segmentation was provided by Storbacka, K. (1997) Segmentation based on customer profitability: Retrospective analysis of retail bank customer bases. Journal of Marketing Management 13 (July): 479–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • On artificial choice barriers to entry, see Tamkin, ‘Survival Skills’. On bargaining power, see Coff, R.W. (1999) When competitive advantage doesn’t lead to performance: The resource-based view and stakeholder bargaining power. Organization Science 10 (2): 119–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • On artificial choice barriers to exit, see Nisar, T.M. (2006) Bonuses and investment in intangibles. Journal of Labor Research 27 (3): 381–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • In discussing the applicability of consumer market segmentation to the employer branding context the focus is on the Bock–Uncles taxonomy, but it should be kept in mind that other broadly based taxonomies of market segmentation may also offer insights for employer branding.

  • The procedures used here closely follow Spiggle, S. (1994) Analysis and interpretation of qualitative data in consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research 21 (3): 491–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Creswell, J.W. (1998) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design; Choosing Among the Five Traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • In consumer research this is captured by the Behavioral Sequence Model in which different role-players are seen as having an influence on behavior (initiator, influencer, decider, purchaser, user), Rossiter, J. and Bellman, S. (2005) Marketing Communications. Sydney, Australia: Pearson, (Chapter 5).

    Google Scholar 

  • Moroko, L. and Uncles, M.D. (2008) Characteristics of successful employer brands. Journal of Brand Management 16 (3): 160–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • This is most apparent in countries without conscription or national service – the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium. See Lievens, F. (2007) Employer branding in the Belgian army: The importance of instrumental and symbolic beliefs for potential applicants, actual applicants, and military employees. Human Resource Management 46 (1): 51–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamkin, P. (2005) Survival skills. People Management 11 (6): 42–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavelle, J. (2007) On workforce architecture, employment relationships and lifecycles: Expanding the purview of workforce planning & management. Public Personnel Management 36 (4): 371–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, G.L. and Brown, J. (2004) Workforce planning not a common practice, IPMA-HR study finds. Public Personnel Management 33 (4): 379–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cravens, D.W., Piercy, N.F. and Prentice, A. (2000) Developing market-driven product strategies. Journal of Product and Brand Management 9 (6): 369–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moroko, L. and Uncles, M.D. (2009) Business Insight (A Special Report). Employer Branding: Companies have long divided consumers into segments; They should do the same with potential and current-workers. Wall Street Journal 23 March: R7–R8.

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the participant firms for giving access to their employees and for being so receptive to the investigation. The thoughtful and useful comments from two anonymous reviewers helped us to improve the paper. A feature article on a similar theme was published by the authors in the Wall Street Journal, 23 March 2009, R7-R8.35

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lara Moroko.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Moroko, L., Uncles, M. Employer branding and market segmentation. J Brand Manag 17, 181–196 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2009.10

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2009.10

Keywords

Navigation