Internal Marketing

This book traces the development of internal marketing from initial conceptualisation through to the current issues. It identifies both significant underlying tensions between major theorists and areas in which new perspectives may enrich our understanding of this crucial subject.Internal marketing is the use of traditional strategies by organisations to market themselves to their employees. Presented in bite-sized sections, each of which dissects the most important themes and concepts underpinning the subject, this book explains how subsidiary areas of study have emerged and suggests how the introduction of concepts and perspectives from channel management literature can help analyse the dyadic encounters in which internal marketing takes place. Brown critically extends the scope of internal marketing theory yet further by presenting and analysing new interview transcripts to suggest that internal demarketing – an organisation making itself less attractive to its employees – may sometimes be undertaken intentionally.Internationally applicable and highly accessible, Internal Marketing is perfect for students, teachers, and researchers with an interest not only in internal marketing, but also in employer relations, internal branding, employer branding, and internal communications. It uses clear language and gradually introduces the reader to more sophisticated theoretical concepts step by step, with a uniquely focused, critical, and comprehensive thematic coverage of internal marketing and its extensive theoretical outputs.

David M. Brown is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Northumbria University, UK, where he leads the PhD programme for the Business School. His own PhD thesis examined different perspectives on internal marketing, and he has subsequently published research which expands the concept of internal demarketing. David is a professionally qualified teacher and marketer with 18 years of industrial experience, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.