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Employees’ brand understanding, brand commitment, and brand citizenship behaviour: a closer look at the relationships among construct dimensions

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Abstract

Employees ultimately are responsible for fulfilling the brand promise. Hence, internal brand management (IBM)—or the implementation of the brand, cognitively, affectively, and behaviourally, at the employee level—is critical to brand management success. Unfortunately, detailed insights about the relationships of important IBM outcomes, such as brand understanding, brand commitment, and brand citizenship behaviour, are missing. In existing multidimensional conceptualizations, these relationships tend to be investigated at higher-order levels, but managers need a clearer understanding across the specific dimensions of different IBM outcomes. By investigating a sample of 790 employees from a German tourism company, this study reveals the importance of the brand understanding dimension of behaviour relevance, which leads to various, desirable, brand-related employee behaviours; employees must comprehend their responsibility for the brand’s perception and subsequent success. The brand understanding dimensions of brand confidence and brand knowledge also are particularly important for brand endorsement and brand compliance behaviours, respectively. In contrast, the brand understanding dimension of brand relevance has a minor role. Finally, brand commitment is particularly important for the brand citizenship behaviour dimension of brand endorsement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Innovative Brand Management, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics, University of Bremen, Hochschulring 4, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Rico Piehler

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  1. Rico Piehler
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Correspondence to Rico Piehler.

Appendix: Construct measures

Appendix: Construct measures

Item

Mean

SD

Brand Citizenship Behaviour (BCB)–Brand Compliance

 Other people would characterize me as someone who…

  

  …follows brand-related rules and instructions of [brand#] with extreme care

4.14

0.75

  …avoids damaging [brand#]

4.80

0.43

  …pays attention that his personal appearance is in line with [brand’s#] appearance

4.30

0.79

  …acts in line with the standards for brand-adequate behaviour of [brand#]

4.31

0.74

Brand Citizenship Behaviour (BCB)–Brand Endorsement

Other people would characterize me as someone who…

  

  …represents [brand#] favourably

4.38

0.61

  …defends [brand#] if outsiders criticize it

3.98

0.78

  …recommends [brand#] as good employer

4.20

0.81

  …defends [brand#] when colleagues criticize it

3.59

0.81

  …actively promotes [brand’s#] products and services

4.09

0.86

Brand Citizenship Behaviour (BCB)–Brand Development

Other people would characterize me as someone who–to develop [brand#] further and better represent it–…

  

  …asks customers and colleagues actively for feedback

3.73

0.96

  …strives to develop expertise by reading manuals, guidebooks or professional journals

3.69

1.00

  …regularly takes the initiative to participate in trainings

3.73

1.04

  …reports customer feedback or internal problems/difficulties directly to the person in charge

4.17

0.84

  …takes initiative to develop ideas for new products, services or processes

3.75

1.02

  …takes over extra duties and responsibilities

4.21

0.83

  …does work beyond what is required

4.19

0.83

Brand Commitment (BC)

 I really feel as if [brand’s#] problems are my own

3.26

0.95

 I do not feel like “part of the family” at [brand#] (recoded)

3.63

1.23

 I do not feel “emotionally attached” to [brand#] (recoded)

4.18

0.95

 [Brand#] has a great deal of personal meaning for me

3.73

0.92

 I do not feel a strong sense of belonging to [brand#] (recoded)

4.00

1.18

Brand Understanding (BU)–Brand Relevance

 A strong brand is of great importance for our organization’s success

4.82

0.44

 Our brand is an important asset of our organization

4.71

0.56

 Brand success is directly related to our organization’s success

4.45

0.71

Brand Understanding (BU)–Behaviour Relevance

 With my behaviour, I have an effect on customers’ perception of [brand#]

4.03

1.03

 By living [brand#] face to face with other employees I strengthen the brand in the organization

3.65

0.96

 With my behaviour, I have an effect on brand success

3.81

1.01

Brand Understanding (BU)–Brand Knowledge

 I feel well informed about the brand goals of [brand#]

3.61

0.86

 I feel well informed about [brand#]

3.84

0.79

 I feel well informed about the brand promise of [brand#]

3.69

0.86

Brand Understanding (BU)–Brand Confidence

 From the brand identity and brand promise of [brand#] I can deduce a lot for my daily work

2.90

0.98

 Brand identity and brand promise of [brand#] are very clear and can be transferred to daily work

3.05

0.98

 Brand identity and brand promise of [brand#] communicate several specific details how I shall behave in my daily work

2.74

1.01

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Piehler, R. Employees’ brand understanding, brand commitment, and brand citizenship behaviour: a closer look at the relationships among construct dimensions. J Brand Manag 25, 217–234 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41262-018-0099-z

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