Sunday, January 20, 2013

Internal Marketing: The Way of Delivering Better Service


Internal marketing is the process of motivating and empowering the employees of a company to work as a team for the overall wellbeing of the customers and thereby the company itself. This is actually the core to success of a company. A harmonized effort within the company is an utmost necessity to provide customers with services at a desired level. If we don’t deliver the service we promise in our marketing campaign, we will fail for sure. And we only can keep that promise when all of our employees at all levels realize what actually we are going to deliver.


According to the legendary writers Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, “Internal marketing is orienting a motivating customer contact employees and supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction.” More about Marketing: Marketing: An Introduction (11th Edition)  
Burkitt and Zealley said, “The challenge for internal marketing is not only to get the right messages across, but to embed them in such a way that they both change and reinforce employee behavior.”
How can we do internal marketing?
  1. Aligning the organizational objective with the employee attitude is the most important step in the internal marketing process. We always should keep our employees informed about our goal. We should clearly convey the message to the employees that “this is the purpose for which we are in the market”. Then we should take necessary steps so that the employees can harmonize their attitude or behavior. 
  2. Introducing the core values of the organization is another step. Each and every employee must comprehend the core value of the organization. 
  3. Coordinating the tasks of every employee is another important step in the entire process. Introduction of the total quality management (TQM) is a great way to achieve this coordination. If the employees don’t know what to do; when to do; how to do; for whom to do, then it is very difficult to achieve the organizational objectives. And this lack of coordination parallels to the lack of internal marketing. So coordination must be established.
  4. Creating congenial atmosphere is also equally important. We should create such a corporate culture in which every employee can share their views with others, even with the higher authority.
  5. Authorizing and empowering the employees facilitate internal marketing. When the employees feel that they are authorized and empowered to take a decision, they can show their intrinsic creativity which ultimately help satisfy the customers. This authorization and empowerment also entail the accountability of the employees.
  6. Rewarding the best employee performance is another way to do internal marketing. This also initiates a positive competition among the employees.
  7. Nurturing the fair-play policy can ensure active involvement of the employees in the organizational activities which ultimately makes sure the implementation of internal marketing.
If we assume that there are three parts of the entire marketing process, then they might be of: External Marketing, Internal Marketing, and Interactive Marketing. Succinctly the definitions are:
  • External Marketing: Our promises to the prospects and customers.
  • Internal Marketing: Has been defined in this article. Excuse me, the scholars has defined, not I.
  • Interactive Marketing: “The way of collecting the valued information from the customers through one to one conversation and then incorporating their thoughts in the marketing campaign.”
If we are to achieve our organizational objectives, we must accomplish all three steps. Take an example: your external marketing promises to deliver best ever massage at a reasonable price, somehow your employees are not in good mood, and finally they don’t collect the consumer feedback. Just imagine what might be the outcome. Certainly not positive! 

So motivate your employees; make sure internal marketing; increase productivity. Don’t forget to share your internal marketing experience.

11 comments:

  1. Cool post...I especially scoffed at point #6...most companies are too tight with the rewards!

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  2. Yeah, Rewards might increase productivity too. Thanks Eric!

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  3. Shiful, a really great post, it is so vital that employees are kept in the loop and communication amongst staff at all levels is something that you often find lacking especially within the larger firms. Everyone should be encouraged to take ownership of their role and how it utimately affects the organisation.

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    1. Thanks Amanda! I appreciate your active participation.

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  4. Really Nice Topic and well briefed. I was really looking for some info about Internal Marketing and I think this blog is really helpful.I would like to share this with my online medical community here.interactive marketing services

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  5. Hi I didn't quite understand the term 'internal marketing' but your article was well written, very informative and I also scoffed at number 6, not all companies will reward their employees. Well done.

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  6. Thumbs up for this post. Very clear and insightful.

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  7. Five marketing concepts helps to understand what and how organizations plan and execute their marketing strategies.

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  8. Very nice and quite informative post! It will be of immense helpful for marketing students.

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  9. I think this article will fully complement you article. PLease continue publishing helpful topics like this. Regards, from Always Open Commerce

    ReplyDelete

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