Brand Internalisation in an International Context

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Brand Internalisation in an

International Context

A case study of William Hill

James L. Greenwood

16 Woodburn Drive Whitley Bay Tyne and Wear

NE26 3HS United Kingdom

Dual Award Advanced International Business Studies and Management (MA/MSc) Supervised by

Dr Matthew Gorton - Newcastle University Dr Henk Ritsema - Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

12046578 / S2441004 j.greenwood@newcastle.ac.uk

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List of Tables

Table 1 - Interviews ... 26

Table 2 - Paradigm of analysis ... 30

Table 3 - International operations of William Hill... 34

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Contextualisation A ... 37

Figure 2: Contextualisation B ... 38

Figure 3: Contextualisation C ... 39

Figure 4: Communication A... 40

Figure 5: Communication B ... 40

Figure 6: Communication C ... 41

Figure 7: Characters A ... 43

Figure 8: Characters B ... 44

Figure 9: Gibraltar Summary - internalisation level: moderate ... 46

Figure 10: Philippines Summary- brand internalisation level: high ... 48

Figure 11: Bulgaria Summary - brand internalisation level: moderate ... 49

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Acknowledgements

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Abstract

This thesis will identify how brand internalisation can be realised from the perspective of internal stakeholders with a view to identifying key contributors to the success of an internal branding programme in an international context. Using Hofstede's cultural dimensions, this research will also analyse the effect national culture may have on the implementation of internal brand values. This research uses a mixed methods approach to both data collection and analysis in a case study of British bookmaker, William Hill PLC. The findings indicate three key over-arching themes that contribute to a successful internal brand as well as a moderating effect of national culture.

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Abbreviations

PLC Public limited company

BBVA Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria

UK United Kingdom

MNE Multinational enterprise

FSA Firm-specific advantage

QR Quick response

KPI Key performance indicator

PDI Power distance index

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Structure

Following a brief explanation of key ideas and introduction to William Hill, the research question and hypotheses are presented. The research question leads into a literature review of which the aim is to critically discuss and review current literature and empirical evidence relating to brand internalisation. The research methodology is a justification of the chosen research strategy used for this thesis to be followed by results and analysis. This will comprise of the research findings combined with a critical discussion, based on the extant literature. Finally, the conclusion will sum up the main findings from the thesis as well as practical and theoretical implications and limitations of the research.

Introduction

The importance and power of employee commitment has contributed to management literature for decades, first questioned in 1946 by management consultant Peter Drucker (Drucker, 1999). Despite its long history, the methods to achieving commitment in new or existing employees are still questioned today. The challenge lies in generating enthusiasm, participation and commitment (Drucker, 1999) among employees which ultimately results in engagement and an alignment of values between those of the firm and those of the employee. In other words, employees need to embody the brand they work for.

A brand is a cluster of functional and emotional values (de Chernatony, 2001) which can be embodied through multiple channels at a corporate level, forming a 'corporate brand'. These can be utilized for many purposes including forming relationships with consumers (Anisimova, 2009). However, the corporate brand values need an outlet of exposure to consumers, particularly in the service sector where employees are required adopt behaviours and deliver them as a promise (Schultz and de Chernatony, 2002). For this reason, the subject of the study will be a company in the service sector that

experiences the context of alignment of corporate values and expectations or performance among employees (Ind, 2001).

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and foreign subsidiaries. The internal branding programme used by William Hill was entitled 'HOME', based on the company slogan, 'William Hill: The Home of Betting'. The programme was based on four pillars (appendix1) designed to be ubiquitous in everyday work processes and incorporated through all channels in the company. As described in the message from the CEO (appendix 2) in the HOME handbook, the programme was implemented with feedback and involvement from William Hill employees:

"…we toured the business to ask you what you thought about HOME and the more we talked, the more it became clear that each of the letters in HOME really meant

something to you."

However, it is clear that the customer was taken into consideration, since they will be the end recipient of the brand via an embodiment from employees.

"…we give them the best betting experience that they can get anywhere through our prices, products and customer service … that’s what we mean by making them feel at home with us."

The theoretical grounding of this study revolves around a phenomenon known as 'brand internalisation', which is rooted in Dunning's (1980) eclectic paradigm. Internalisation occurs when a firm can develop and exploit a FSA; i.e.: values developed at a corporate level as a brand and exploited by utilizing these values to form relationships with consumers. By internalising brand values, employees are more likely to behave in a manner that is consistent with a firm's own values (Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2007). There are numerous empirical examples of successful internal branding programmes detailed in the literature review (Alloza, 2008; Causon, 2004; de Chernatony, 2005; Smidts, 2001) but there is no agreed best practice, something this thesis will help to confirm.

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This thesis will identify how brand internalisation can be realised from the perspective of local internal stakeholders with a view to identifying key contributors to the success of an internal branding programme, i.e.: what are the factors that differentiate successful internal branding programmes from unsuccessful internal branding programmes. Using Hofstede's (2006) cultural dimensions will add a further novel element to the study by explaining whether or not national culture has an effect on brand internalisation and gain insight as to how this can be mitigated.

Research problem

The problem becomes apparent when revising the extant literature in the field of brand internalisation, its international complexities and the limited nature of the existing empirical research. Although there is a comprehensive amount of literature detailed in the literature review regarding internal brand programmes, corporate brand and internalisation, there is a prominent insufficiency in this research; the lack of an

international. Granted, de Chernatony's (2005) study on the role of leadership during the internal brand building process addresses the cultural challenges faced internally as brands expand internationally, however this is only done from the point of view of company leaders. Furthermore, Tarnovskaya and de Chernatony’s (2011) case study of IKEA only used senior managers and brand influencers as research subjects, as opposed to local managers who effectively enact the brand. Therefore, the research question for this thesis is:

What are the contributors to a successful internalisation of brand across international operations?

From this, a number of sub-questions can be developed which will also be answered throughout the research:

How aligned are the values of William Hill employees to those of the company? Do cultural differences affect the level of brand internalisation in an international context, and if so, how can they be mitigated?

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element to an existing research area, novel insight can be gained and a new context can be given.

Research Motivation

There are two motivations for the subject of this research. Academically, the existing body of research on internal brands is a subject of interest for the researcher. Given there is a number of different studies on internalisation of brand, there is no clear

accepted framework on a best practice internationally. Alloza (2008) (appendix 3) is the most recent attempt however this does contradict some key studies (de Chernatony, 2005; Causon, 2004). The opportunity to expand on this field and be able to produce further insight into the black box that holds contributors to a successful internal brand is attractive.

Professionally, motivation for this research arose when working in William Hill's marketing department and gaining strategic exposure to their internal branding programme in an induction to the company. The HOME values (appendix 1) were developed in 2011 and rolled out across the whole company in an attempt align employees and have everybody 'pulling in the same direction' (Head of Brand, 2013). Seeing the effectiveness of the programme first hand gave an exposure to the

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Literature Review

The purpose of this section is to summarise and critically discuss the current literature on the topic of brand internalisation as well as providing the reader with a narrative of its origins and development of the field. Following an introduction to the subject, this chapter will explore its groundings in corporate brand identity and the intrinsic link between alignment of values among employees and the external delivery of the brand to the customer, particularly in the service industry. Empirical examples of internal

branding programmes will be presented leading into an introduction to the notion of national culture; explain why branding programmes are complicated when they are transferred into an international context. Finally, deductive hypotheses based on the potential effects of national culture on brand internalisation will be explained.

Introduction to corporate values

The power of employee’s commitment and its financial return was first mentioned by Peter Drucker in management literature in 1946. Drucker (1999) spoke of the

importance of utilizing a style of business management capable of generating enthusiasm, participation and commitment among employees. Generating these attributes across a large number of employees can be done in a variety of ways;

companies can use hard and soft tools to create an aligned company. BBVA set up hard tools (replacing executives, variable pay, performance contracts, etc.) but these were ineffective when compared to soft tools such as leadership development, staff empowerment and internal brand communication activities which proved most successful (Alloza, 2008).

Corporate brands and the service industry

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can be envisaged as containing three components; brand personality, brand associations, and consumer benefits. Anisimova (2010) goes on to say that the key advantage of developing a successful corporate brand is the potential capability to develop intangible assets at corporate level which can be leveraged to build relationships with consumers. Although corporate branding still requires the synchronisation of core competences with the external environment, it also necessitates a greater organisational focus integrating internal activities and personnel in order to deliver consistency and gain acceptance across departments (Harris and de Chernatony, 2001). Such intangibilities are even more necessary in the service sector which is intangible by nature (Kimpakorn and Tocquer, 2009) and it is argued that the corporate brand is crucial, rather than

advantageous. Hatch and Schulz (2003) state that a corporate brand not only influences the customer perceptions of the company, but also the perceptions of all stakeholders, begging the question of how a corporate brand can be communicated to external stakeholders. The performance of a brand in a knowledge-based, service sector company rests on the delivery of the brand, the responsibility of which rests on the customer-facing employees (Punjaisri and Wilson, 2011). This is an echo of Schultz and De Chernatony’s (2002) sentiment which states that service employees embody the brand and adopt behaviours as a promise, thus delivering the promise to customers. The service sector dominates in developed and many developing countries (McDonald et al, 2001) and the success can be attributed to the advancement and ubiquity of

technology and globalization. Branding in the service sector is recognised as a challenge that can be eased by the creation of an internal brand through internal marketing

practices (Papasolomou and Vrontis, 2006). Their study revealed that creating a strong brand via internal marketing was an effective method of aligning service brand

employees to their corporate brand values. A UK retail bank was the subject of the study and had a programme based on four pillars; treating employees as customers, training and education, quality standards, and rewards systems. Compared with Alloza's (2008) study of BBVA, these can be deemed 'hard' tools whereas BBVA found success with 'soft' tools. Furthermore, Wallace et al. (2013) conducted a study on two retail banks that launched their brands via development of new values and internal branding campaigns as a direct response to falling in brand league tables in an economic

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closures by retail chains are increasing1. Smidts (2001) found that employees tend to embody a brand that is viewed positively by outsiders. This research can gain insight into how other firms in the betting industry can successfully activate their internal brand by aligning the values of their employees to those of the firm.

This research uses a knowledge-based company as a subject due to the complexities and importance of brands within the service sector in the context of employee recruitment, employee retention (Knox and Freeman, 2010), alignment of corporate values and expectations of performance among new and existing employees (Ind, 2001). The intrinsic link between internalisation of the brand and the external delivery of the brand to the customer is recognised (Vallaster and De Chernatony, 2005; Punjaisri and Wilson, 2011; Schultz and de Chernatony, 2002) and the large body of literature surrounding brands and the service industry (Kayaman and Arasli, 2007) can give this thesis a richer context.

Internalisation, alignment and engagement

Coined by Buckley and Casson (1976), internalisation theory demonstrates that

multinational enterprises (MNEs) organise bundles of activities internally such that they are able to develop and exploit firm-specific advantages (FSAs). Brands are specifically acknowledged by Dunning’s eclectic paradigm as an intangible asset (Dunning, 1985; Rugman, 2010). Therefore, the differentiating capabilities of a brand (Grant,1991) can be translated to internal brands and considered an FSA due its positive impact on employee performance; through internalisation of brand values, employees are more likely to behave in a manner that is consistent with their own values (Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2005). Hence, employees need to have a feeling of belonging to an organisation in order for them to behave in a manner that is in line with a firm’s brand values (Causon, 2004; Harris and de Chernatony, 2001). While brand image focuses on consumers’ perceptions of brand differentiation, brand identity is more concerned with how managers and employees make a brand unique (Harris and de Chernatony, 2001). By hiring and training employees to ‘live the brand’, corporate values are reinforced along with increased expectations of performance among new and existing employees (Ind, 2001).

1_{High Street chain store closures soar, says research}

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For the purposes of this research and given the current definitions in literature explained in this chapter, employee engagement and brand internalisation will be taken as one entity of the same definition. If employees are engaged, then by definition the brand is internalised and vice versa. The brand engagement process undertaken at BBVA (Alloza, 2008) had a rational as well as an emotional meaning; it is a personal and emotional commitment but it also alludes to the idea of rational and formal engagement and commitment to work. The adjective engaging reinforces the emotional aspect and refers to something attractive that is enjoyable (Kapferer, 1997).

The marketing literature takes a normative approach to brand internalisation, discussing it in terms of alignment of staff’s attitudes and behaviours with a brand identity, in other words, a unique internal brand (Tarnovskaya and de Chernatony, 2011). Within

alignment literature, there are two schools of thought. Firstly, that alignment brings superior performance by claiming that a benefit is received from “aligning” external brand image and internal values (i.e.: the corporate values with those of the employees) (Chun and Davies, 2006; Hatch and Schultz 2003). Alternatively, stakeholder theory (Donaldson and Preston 1995) states that all stakeholders hold different interests in a firm meaning different stakeholders require different marketing materials to be satisfied. Customers may look for companies that are reliable, while current or potential

employees are more concerned about trustworthiness (Fombrun, 1996). This research agrees with the first school of thought in that alignment brings superior performance and that resolving these issues is important for marketing managers, who must decide how to promote their brands internally (Chun and Davies, 2006), examples of which are given in the subsection: Empirical examples of internal branding programmes.

Although Fombrum's (1996) statements refer to the difference between internal and external stakeholders, it is most likely the case that different sets of internal

stakeholders require different internal marketing materials in order to be fully engaged in a firm's internal marketing efforts.

Contributors to internalisation of brand

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values to the brand is low. However, alignment or brand internalisation is developed through organisational socialisation, which is a process, driven by an informal transmission of values through colleagues and superiors, as well as by formal value communication (Burman and Zeplin, 2005).

Smidts (2001) confirmed that employees eagerly identify with organizations that they believe are positively evaluated by outsiders, leading to the conclusion that employees possess a self-enhancement motive. The industry to which the company belongs may be a big factor in how the company is perceived as well as corporate social responsibility initiatives. As previously stated, the betting industry is a relatively unstable industry in the context of external perception, which may be affected by perceived social impacts (Eadington, 1999).

Internal brand communication activities have been seen in a number of studies as a key success factor in internalising a brand (Alloza, 2004; Alloza, 2008; Smidts, 2001). Smidts (2001) states that the communication climate and the ease of communication flow in a firm is more important that the content of the individual communications, explained by social identity theory (Pratt, 1998). In other words, a corporate culture in which communication is two-way, effective and often is more important than the subject matter of the messages communicated.

Causon (2004) identified a three-stage internal brand implementation system used by City & Guilds. Firstly, the education phase was designed to give brand champions tools with which to work throughout the business. A basic presentation was given as a

measure of defining the organisational attributes of City & Guilds. Stage two was the identification phase and consisted of the brand champions going through areas of the business and deciding which departments were ‘on’ or 'off' brand. ‘On’ brand

departments were those which identified and embodied the brand, ‘off’ brand

departments were those which did not. Each brand champion relayed their feedback to the brand team. Finally, the implementation phase consisted of tackling the deep-rooted concerns areas of the business which were implementing the brand correctly and were deemed to be 'off-brand'; often found in communication, resourcing and planning areas (Causon , 2004).

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to the following leadership behaviours; a clearly defined vision and facilitating communication. Consequently the leader plays a central role in creating a shared understanding of brand-supporting behaviour. This fosters identification and

commitment of group members within their team, eliminates role ambiguity through the provision of clear guidelines, and facilitates formal working relationships between group members (Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2005). Vallaster and de Chernatony (2005) also propose that leaders need to negate negative cultural differences by

embodying brand values themselves, trust employees and show commitment to the clear vision via verbal and non-verbal methods.

Empirical examples of internal branding programmes

Despite its foundations in the phenomenon, it must be stressed that internalisation of brand is a different area to corporate brands (Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2005). In Tarnovskaya and de Chernatony’s (2011) case study of IKEA, it was argued that the correct, standardized enactment of the brand should be implemented across all stores and its implementation should be under strict corporate control until the brand becomes unmanageable. However, this was reflected by the character of activities (obligatory training and control) aimed at country and store managers which fall in the category of ‘hard-wired initiatives’ as coined by Alloza (2008) and thus contradicting his results. This is an empirical example of standardization of internationalisation processes across culture.

This paper argues that this is not best practice and internal brand programmes can be optimized by utilising or mitigating cultural differences. Tarnovskaya and De

Chernatony (2011) also go on to explicitly identify the lack of research into the ways employees form their understanding about their brand and enact this through their everyday behaviours in geographically dispersed organizations, which is an area in which this research aims to contribute.

In the case study of BBVA (Alloza, 2008), it is shown that although successful corporate brand management depends on brand engagement and strategic alignment initiatives but when facing mergers and acquisitions it becomes vital how well companies manage their brands through alignment of their strategic visions,

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in implementing a business model where employees are aligned with the strategy and feel committed when delivering experiences through their behaviour (Alloza, 2008).

International complexities

Rugman and Verbeke (1992) make a fundamental distinction between Firm-specific advantages (FSAs) that are non-location-bound and those that are location-bound. FSAs may be location-bound if they entail substantial costs when applied to other regions (Dunning, 1980; Rugman & Verbeke, 1992). As Hu (1995) states, the costs in transfer are not necessarily financial since the tacit nature of a resource (e.g.: a brand) can be difficult to replicate and transfer. FSAs developed in the parent country, much like William Hill's internal brand programme is not necessarily easily transferrable across countries. Rather, the success of transfer of these FSAs is dependent on the country itself. Furthermore, the transfer of internal brand programmes and therefore brand internalisation across international operations is not straightforward and levels could vary in different contexts. Brand internalisation is dependent on the perception of a firm’s values by its employees, which will vary.

Brand internalisation represents a serious challenge for any organisation and is an important driver of brand success (Tarnovskaya and de Chernatony, 2011). It has been argued that the worldwide marketplace has become so homogenized that multinational corporations can market standardized products and services all over the world, by identical strategies (Jain, 1989) To facilitate a consistent delivery of the brand promise, retailers need to communicate their brand visions and values to all employees in

different store locations and ensure their shared brand understanding (Burt and Sparks, 2002). What is crucial, however, is that organisations understand how best to develop and deliver internal messages in order that this form of communication be effective (Hardaker and Fill, 2005).

The argument for globalisation or standardisation has engulfed marketers for decades, Elinder’s (1965) seminal article: “How international can advertising be?” being one of the first to invoke discussion, who stressed that emerging similarities in European consumers made uniform advertising feasible. Killough (1978) said this was inconceivable and Quelch and Hoff (1986) argued that the decision is not a

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can be degrees of standardization. According to Medina and Duffy (1998), marketers’ challenges are presented by different environments, the success of which depends on the marketing strategy’s applicability and compatibility in said environment. This can be translated to the internalisation of branding efforts because it seems logical to suggest that the applicability and compatibility of the internal branding strategy to foreign markets is also a crucial success factor, particularly for support functions. When thinking about the product brand, the view that is most commonly preferred by researchers is adaptation, rather than standardization (de Chernatony, 2001; Kapferer, 2005) due to branding being a social and interactive process, strongly influenced by its cultural contexts (Cayla and Arnould, 2008). This evidence suggests that brand

internalisation success depends on the localization of the strategy across countries. Having said that, Hollis (2008) argues one of the greatest challenges for MNEs lies in carefully managing brand concepts across different cultures. Despite Hollis (2008) referring to external brand concepts that are compatible with culturally different markets, it is logical to suggest that the same premise applies to the success of an internal

branding programme due the abstract relational nature of the problem. Torelli (2012) confirms the importance of this problem as he states that customers react more

favourably to those brand concepts which are established on emotional attributes rather than functional attributes.

There are many reasons why complexities might arise when internal branding programmes are transferred to overseas operations. Taking Rugman and Verbeke's (1992) view that successful brand internalisation is a FSA; brand internalisation is an advantage that is not easily transferrable abroad due to the costs required to mitigate cultural differences.

Internal brands versus culture

The necessity to mitigate cultural differences in brand strategy was first identified by Plummer (1985) in the context of brand personality, defined formally by Aaker (1997) as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand. A country's culture has long been identified as an environmental characteristic that influences behaviour.

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framework that has provided the theoretical foundation upon which much cross-cultural research has been based (Blodgett et al., 2008). Further detail of how this thesis will use Hofstede's (2005) cultural dimensions to analyse the locations of the case's overseas operations is detailed in the methodology.

Power distance measures how different national cultures tolerate social inequality as well as the relationship with authority (Hofstede, 2005). The level of power distance dictates behaviour of individuals depending on their level in a hierarchy. In a high power distance society, individuals recognise the opinions of authority and are influenced by such behaviour in a positive way. This can be translated as a positive response to an internal branding programme that has been legitimised by senior management, leading to the adoption of company values by employees, therefore:

H1: The level of brand internalisation in a foreign subsidiary is positively

correlated to the power distance score in the host country.

Uncertainty avoidance measures ways of dealing with uncertainty and ambiguity, which turned out to be related to the control of aggression and the expression of emotions (Hofstede, 2005). Cultures high in uncertainty avoidance do not respond well to

emotional change. Consequently, it can be expected that this would lead to a resistance to the implementation of new internal brand values and therefore:

H2: The level of brand internalisation in a foreign subsidiary is negatively

correlated to the uncertainty avoidance score in a host country.

Individualism measures the relationship between the individual and the group (Hofstede, 2005, pp23; Roth, 1995). According to Triandis (1995), one can identify collectivism when group goals have priority and individualism when personal goals have priority. People who score highly on individualism are more likely to do things that benefit themselves and are less likely to respond to marketing media (Lam, 1997). It is logical to assume that the same can be said for internal marketing media, resulting in a

resistance to internal branding programmes and therefore:

correlated to the individualism score in a host country.

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masculinity societies tend to assert control over their own decision making and are less influenced by marketing media or social norms (Lam, 2007), masculine societies live to work, rather than work to live. Although coined as a metaphor (Ind, 2001) embodiment of brand requires engagement and commitment that is difficult to get from a workforce that is not internalised.

correlated to the masculinity score in a host country.

Since Hofstede's research was conducted in an organizational setting, the cultural

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Methodology

Introduction

This research seeks to reveal how aligned the values of customer-facing William Hill employees are to the values of William Hill, creating insight into the factors that contribute to an internalised brand in an international context and how differences in national culture mediate the transferability of internal branding programmes. This will develop an understanding into how firms can mitigate the differences in national culture and internalise their brand effectively across foreign operations.

This section will justify the research strategy used by the researcher for this thesis firstly by explaining the mixed methods approach used in data collection and analysis. The data sources are detailed fully as well as the reasoning behind the choices that led to the sources being chosen. An exploration of validity and reliability will follow, as well as a critique of the method used based on research methods literature. Finally, a case context will be presented to enable to reader to contextualise the findings.

Research design

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degree, mixed methodologies (qualitative and quantitative) helps mitigate purists’ concerns and provides the needed depth of understanding. It is important to note that the research process started with a qualitative phase of interviews the developed into a mixed methodology upon gaining a greater understanding of the subject, something which Nummela (2006) argues increases validity.

The first part of the research, including the primary research question followed an inductive approach, where a case was empirically observed. However, following an emergent mixed methods approach, it was deemed suitable to extend to a deductive approach when measuring culture, a part of the study which arose during the study as opposed to before, in order to counter the limitations in generalizability. Inductive reasoning is the most effective approach for the open ended research question because of the probabilistic nature of the problem (Patton, 2005). During and following the empirical observation, ideas were formulated as to whether the research question and sub-questions could be answered. Following this theory development, the deductive method of prior hypotheses can was upon the researcher gaining insight to the topic. In contrast to traditional hypothesis testing, case study hypotheses emerge from the analysis of data, rather than being made a priori, and emerge only after a careful comparison of data and constructs (Eisenhardt, 1989). As previously shown, it is

empirically confirmed that internalising a brand is positively linked to firm performance (Harris and de Chernatony, 2011); however there is no evidence or accepted best

practice to suggest the contributors of successfully internalising a brand internationally therefore, inductive was the optimal method. However, there are many accepted cultural paradigms that are widely accepted across many fields and quite difficult to ignore, so it is sensible to use a deductive approach and one such paradigm as a framework; in this case, Hofstede (2006).

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quantifying the value of a brand internally (Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2005). The research question is grounded in existing theory and literature and is prominent in data collection methods to discover if it is empirically sound (de Vaus, 2001, p.223). By using the case study approach to study specific research areas, novel and valid theory can be developed which can be tested afterwards using quantitative methods.

A case study can be defined as ‘the detailed examination of a single example of a class of phenomena’ (Abercrombie et al., 2000, p.41). Dyer and Wilkins (1991) argue that the in-depth study of one case is the core of case study research which is the method that this research uses. One case enables the researcher to gain a deep and rich

understanding which yields a superior quality of theorising. Moreover, due to feasibility issues, it is only realistic to use one firm as a test subject rather than multiple firms. Although a case study produces a deep understanding, it is limited and narrow which affects the generalizability and to an extent, the validity of the findings. However, due to the research question and sub-questions being grounded in prior academic literature the limitations are restricted. As Yin (1984) states, a well-formulated theory may enable the deduction of a situation that would provide a critical test of the theory’s proposition. According to Thomas (2004), case studies present two types of validity issues; internal and external. Internally, investigator bias or influence can arise but it is important to stress that this is not exclusive to the case study method (Stoecker, 1991). Externally, it can be argued that using one case in point in order to generalize is impossible. However, this is not always true and this certainly does not take away any value from a case (Stake, 1995). These points are covered in greater detail in Validity and Reliability.

Data Sources

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Table 1 - Interviews

Position in William Hill Interview Length (minutes)

Location

Head of Customer Service Hub 22:20 Manila, Philippines

Head of Customer Services Gibraltar

26:48 Gibraltar

Customer Service Manager 20:25 Sofia, Bulgaria

Firstly, the Head of William Hill's Customer Service Hub in Manila whose primary responsibility is briefing customer service agents on current internal and external events in order to give them a point of reference when dealing with customers. Since there is no betting industry in Manila, more work has to be done in order to communicate employees the correct information that enables them to relate and respond to customer issues. The customer service hub is designed as an information processing centre. The Head of Customer Services (Gibraltar) whose role is divided between two sites due to Capita Resourcing owning the UK site and employing the telephone agents, therefore requiring less time. This person is in charge of the customer service processes in

Gibraltar and is responsible for the line managers that deal with the telephone agents directly.

Finally, the Customer Service Manager in Sofia, Bulgaria who is responsible for daily management of customer service operations in Sofia will also be interviewed. Main responsibilities for this position include enforcing employee engagement,

communicating and developing new policies; appraisal and ensuring employees reach targets. Unlike the other sites, Sofia houses foreign language customer service

employees who attend to William Hill's global customer base.

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year on year) (appendix 5). Employees can participate in the survey by visiting

www.whhometruths.com or smart-phone users scanning a QR code on internal posters and downloading an app. Taken from the HOME truths results document provided by William Hill: 'The HOME truths survey is an employee engagement index and is a

measure of respondents' commitment to William Hill'.

The format of the survey has not changed over time, each year being a Likert (1932) scale survey. The advantage of this survey typology is the ease of understanding of the participant and ease of quantification by the researcher. Furthermore, it is unlikely that previous questions can influence others. The data is presented in the Results section as positive responses, neutral responses and negative responses. Where results are shown as positive percentages (% Positive), these are calculated by adding together positive responses (”Strongly Agree” + “Agree”) and dividing by the number of respondents which answered the question. Results are presented as whole numbers for ease of

reading, with rounding performed at the last stage of calculation for maximum accuracy. Values from x.00 to x.49 are rounded down and values from x.50 to x.99 are rounded up. Therefore in some instances results may not total 100% (William Hill HOME survey, 2012). It must be stressed that this is secondary data and only reported,

aggregated data was used, rather than reported data. This means extra care was taken to avoid distraction from the research problem and unconsciously focusing on unrelated areas.

Data Collection

Qualitative interviews are used to produce empirical results that can be analysed in a specific way. In order to produce the correct level of insight and data, recorded emotionalist semi-structured interviews will be the chosen method because the focus can be put on several relating topics, without being too rigid to the questions; this is suitable to an open research question about a topic where little is known and

performance indicators are not set. An emotionalist standpoint treats interviews as a pathway to participants authentic experiences and does not focus on information but rather people's perceptions, conceptions, understandings, viewpoints, and emotions (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008; p79).

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considered prior to the start of the interview (Cohen and Crabtree 2006). Rather than standardized interview, semi-structured interviews have been selected due to its applicability to the clearly defined research question and the necessity of delving into the personal realities of the interviewees. As previously stated, the interview schedule (appendix) contains key over-arching questions. One area was related to the notion of brand internalisation to see if the interviewee was aware of the concept. Further areas included communication, heterogeneity of internal branding programmes across regions and company culture as these topics feature in the literature as relevant topics. They also served as the best three areas that would lead to free discussion, stemming into different topics. After these topics were covered sufficiently, follow-up questions about the HOME truths answers for respective sites were asked in order to gain insight into the reasoning behind the data. Each interview lasted less than half an hour due to the time constraints of the managers.

Method of Analysis

Following on from the collection of data, the data must be analysed in a way that will deliver novel insight and coherent results into the chosen topic and given research problem. This research will borrow and adapt the mixed methods research designed by Castro (2007) as depicted in Table 2.

Following the interview, the recordings will be transcribed, ready for analysis. The interviews will then be coded and analysed thematically. Coding involves looking for common utterances and as the name suggests, ‘themes’ which can be grouped together. Thematic analysis relies heavily on the diplomacy of the researcher, trusting that the existing preconceptions and epistemological commitments to not interfere with the coding of the themes. Should this happen, the coding is unconsciously driven towards the researchers theoretical interests. If bias is avoided, conclusions are then drawn from coded themes. The framework that this research uses is that of Braun and Clarke (2006) who state five stages of analysis; familiarization with data, generating initial codes, searching for themes among codes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the final report.

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give insight into how firms can strategically implement an internal branding programme and internalise their brand. Secondly, they will be utilized as a streamline for the

HOME truths results. The HOME truths survey is an internal company document and many of the questions are not grounded in academic theory, but rather are used as an employee happiness gauge. By comparing the themes with the survey, a list of questions can be extracted that serve as relevant metrics for an internalised brand, thus enabling the researcher to determine the level of internalisation based on the HOME truths questions.

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Table 2 - Paradigm of analysis

Qualitative textual evidence

Stages Design Collection Conversion Analysis Interpretation Integration

Core construct: Brand internalisation Open-ended questions Audio recording Transcription Familiarising and generation of themes Analysis of quotations Integrative analysis and drawing conclusions Survey distribution by William Hill Permission of use Selection of relevant questions Descriptive analysis Re-contextualisation

Quantitative numeric evidence

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Limitations

Like most data collection methods, semi-structured interviews have limitations. Although the tone of the interview is light and informal which lead to interviewees often giving authentic accounts of subjective experience (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008: p82; Silverman, 2010), unstructured interviews can be the reiteration of familiar cultural anecdotes. Furthermore, interviewer bias can take over during an interview leading to questions almost forcing prescribed answers from an interviewee to satisfy the interviewer’s needs (Stemler, 2001). To combat this, open questions will be utilized to give participants more control over their answers and the direction of the interview. Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008; p84) categorise five typologies of questions that can be used in interviews; the first of which being open or closed, other are simple or complex; neutral or leading; direct or indirect; primary or secondary. The questions formulated were simple in order to minimise the confusion when interviewing non-native English speakers. They were neutral to avoid confusion and pre-assumption; for example, 'How important do you think visual aids are?' rather than 'Do you think visual aids in the form of mounted brand logo displays are good or bad?'. Although direct questions can cause offence and controversy, they are an effective way of producing talk quickly, which is crucial since the interviewees in this research have made their time constraints clear. Finally, secondary questions will be used whenever possible in order to have the

respondent elaborate on their first answer, as is the nature of semi-structured interviews. The varying levels of English language proficiency made for different responses to questions, meaning secondary questions were not always necessary due to the

interviewee expanding without prompt, although this was not always the case. Thematic analysis also has a number of advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantages include reliability concerns since data can be interpreted differently by different researchers (Guest, 2012) and that flexibility makes it difficult to concentrate on what aspect of the data to focus on (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

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significant proportion of employees originate from elsewhere. A major limitation of a conducting cultural analysis on the countries in question is the inclusion of Gibraltar, which was included for practical reasons. Its unique nature leaves it lying somewhere between Spain and the UK. Although Gibraltar has been under approximately 300 years of British rule and many Gibraltarians consider themselves politically British, they are culturally a lot nearer to the Spanish. Gold (1995; p327) finds that most Gibraltarians reluctantly admit to being anthropologically Spanish. Therefore, Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores will be taken from Spain, rather than the UK.

Finally, there are issues with endogeneity in this subject. It is possible and logical that brand internalisation leads to a better firm performance (Ind, 2001; Punjaisri and Wilson, 2011) however, higher firm performance may lead employees to buy into the brand’s values and company ethos thus, creating alignment.

Validity and Reliability

As explained above, case studies have long been the object of criticism and are often seen as an inappropriate strategy of inquiry due to their limited nature (Thomas, 2004). Arising from this debate is the necessity of case study researchers to produce rigorous data and yield findings of high internal validity, while satisfying the problem of generalization or external validity.

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Externally, the issue of generalizability lies in the limited nature of the single case used by this research. However it is acknowledged that case studies are best used for

explanatory purposes which are what this thesis aims to achieve. Rather than aspiring to generalizability, this thesis aims to develop theory which will develop and build on existing theory rather than testing deductive hypotheses on a larger scale. By analysing one case deep insight can be gained into an empirical reality of a firm who has recently implemented an internal brand programme. By addressing the transferrable nature of this overseas, this research will be able to uncover the applicability of the success factors overseas. In line with Eisenhardt's (1989) framework, the case was pre-selected on the grounds of applicability in order to maximise the external validity.

Ethical Issues

The research was conducted and processed to the legal standards set by the UK Data Protection Act (1998) and the professional standards set by the Market Research Society Code of Conduct (2010) from the inception to design and from execution to future use. All interviewees were made aware that their names would not be revealed to other employees of William Hill in an attempt to extract honest answers from the

interviews. Furthermore, all interviewees were asked permission to record the interview, prior to the event via email in which it was made clear that the interviews were

voluntary and could be stopped at any point for whatever reason.

Due to the nature of the research exploring the internal aspect of the organisation, it was necessary to delve into the work practices put in place by the interviewees as managers. The probing natures of the questions were not meant to offend although care was taken to explain this to interviewees. This was simply a way of gaining comprehensive insights with a view to developing knowledge in the field of brand internalisation. The HOME truths survey data in internal company data and full permission was acquired from the relevant departments of William Hill for its full use and publication.

Case Context

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revenue of £1.2bn and a profit of £230m in 2012 (William Hill, 2012). This company was chosen as a subject due to its recent internationalization of different operations (listed below) and its efforts to align its brand values throughout these new acquisitions and foreign subsidiaries. For a company of William Hill’s heritage and stature,

internationalization has come late in the life cycle of the firm. This is due to the recent transformation of the environment of the gaming industry across the globe. The following extract is taken from the William Hill annual report (2012): “in a number of

countries, governments have changed or are changing their regulation of gambling, particularly online gambling. This presents William Hill with the opportunity to provide our products in countries outside the UK, for instance Italy and Spain have granted online gaming licences”. To complement these new markets, it is no longer required to

have every support function in the UK (see table 3) as cost efficiencies can be made by outsourcing low-skilled customer service positions to Manila and Sofia.

Table 3 - International operations of William Hill

Location Customer-facing operations

Support functions Established

UK (various) Retail Head office/IT 1934

Austria Online Country head office 2011

Italy Online Country head office 2011

Spain Online Country head office 2012

Sofia, Bulgaria n/a IT 2008

Tel-Aviv, Israel n/a Online 2008

USA Sportsbook Country head office 2012

Australia Online Country head office 2012

Manila Customer service Customer service 2011

Gibraltar n/a HQ 2009

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Results and findings

The following chapter will be a detailed analysis and interpretation of separate qualitative and quantitative data, leading into an integrative conclusion.

Firstly, the themes derived from the coding of qualitative interviews will be displayed and novel insight into what internalisation means to William Hill management will be explained. These will be compared against current literature in order to determine the generalizability and validity of the findings and lead to new or confirming evidence of contributors to successful brand internalisation.

The themes will then be used to extract relevant questions from the HOME truths survey which will determine the level of internalisation for each country. As previously stated, the HOME truths survey features many questions which are irrelevant to this study and to include them would run the possibility of skewing findings.

Finally, the level of internalisation will then be compared to the prior deductive hypotheses based on Hofstede’s (2006) national culture dimensions and a judgement can be made as to whether or not culture effects brand internalisation.

Results Part 1 - Thematic Analysis of interviews

The following themes were extracted from interviews with managers from the three sites following a thematic analysis that followed Braun and Clarkes (2006) rigour. The three themes identified were 'contextualisation', 'communication' and 'characters' and have been identified by the management and the researcher as key contributors to the success of William Hill's internal branding programme; HOME. These themes will form part of a discussion of the existing literature presented in this section.

Contextualisation

The idea of contextualisation of the internal brand revolves around including and immersing the values in every task and project undertaken by the employees (figure 1). Harris and de Chernatony (2001) identified that internal consistency and congruence are essential to the success of a brand. Therefore, it is imperative that managers identify a way to match their processes and tasks to that of the brand values or risk their

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customer-facing employees who are entrusted with delivering the brand promise (Schultz and de Chernatony, 2002). In Bulgaria, existing workplace processes such as KPIs were given a new context by being linked to the 'H' of the HOME values; 'Hungry for success'. By contextualising a simple process with a simple phrase, the meaning behind the process and phrase was strengthened.

Figure 1: Contextualisation A

Interviewee location

Quote

Gibraltar '…every single scenario for me should sit under one of those four

core values so I found it really useful'

Gibraltar 'immersing people in the messages, getting the imagery up on the walls, we changed all the documentation we use for people’s one to one reviews'

A way to enhance the immersion of the brand is by using visual workplace branding in offices and on documentation (figure 1) to put the programme in a day to day context. Visual brand materials and contextualisation of the brand messages are two very different things but each come across as equally important parts of the internal brand building process. This suggests that a consistent intensity of delivery is required as well as consistency of subject matter.

A visual identity can serve as a focus for employees (Olins, 1989) and a logo can become a type of representation for the personality of the company and its brand values (Bernstein, 1986). Bernstein (1986) points out that it is what the logo represents which has value rather than the logo itself. In other words, the interviews revealed that a key success factor in aligning the values of the employees with that of the firm is visual stimuli. However, the employees must be able use that visual stimulus as a

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Figure 2: Contextualisation B

Quote

Bulgaria '…so what we did to try and connect it with things from the day to

day role you know like matching it around just the phrases and say things like 'make it happen' and 'everyone matters' and put it in a day to day context just like…I give you an example, you have KPIs to reach so that would be the H [Hungry for Success]. '

Bulgaria ‘So you see the way we try to make it more understandable for the

people, rather than just dumping it on them.’

Bulgaria ‘…the performance management document we developed 18 months

ago we actually created them on the HOME model. So, if you look through it, results, call quality, this is when people actually started the connection between HOME. If you have a company message but you can't see it in everything you do then it doesn't make sense'

As well as giving processes further meaning, contextualisation of messages also made the internal branding implementation process easier to understand as a whole. As mentioned later in this chapter, metaphorical phrases such as 'hungry for success' could lose meaning when translated into different languages. However, the above evidence shows that by contextualising the phrase into every day practices, meaning could be restored and problems mitigated.

Causon (2004) also detailed an education phase in the case study researching City & Guilds as part of the internal branding phase which is clearly recognised by William Hill management (figure 2). Furthermore, training and education courses were

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further confirming Alloza's (2008) study. The fact that the four HOME pillars (appendix 1) are emotionally based rather than functional is perhaps a testament to the success of its implementation methods. Empirically, both methods have found success but it seems logical to assume that should an emotionally based (Kapferer 1997; Torelli, 2012) internal brand be implemented with the same functionality as Papasolomou and Vrontis' (2006) study, its success may have suffered.

Furthermore, the inclusion of employees at a fundamental level (figure 3) is critical to the success and suggests that a bottom-up approach is preferred to top-down, in line with Vallaster and de Chernatony (2005) who postulate that a bottom-up approach should be used to empower the employees. It is evident that this method is crucial in developing values which employees can identify with. Somewhat contradictory to Vallaster and de Chernatony's (2005) work, William Hill conducted their

implementation of HOME without an initial top-down approach, which would

eventually change to bottom-up after a shared brand understanding has been achieved. Likewise, Tarnovskaya and de Chernatony (2011) postulated that a standardized approach was necessary in their case study of IKEA. This presents a need for further research to determine whether there is a best approach or what characteristics a firm must possess in order to warrant bottom-up or top-down.

Figure 3: Contextualisation C

Quote

Philippines 'I can see parts of me in it and I’m sure that every single person that works for William Hill can see part of them in it'

Gibraltar 'The way they went about it by actually coming getting staff to sit down and actually worked on what HOME was…[is] how they've managed to build that brand'

Communication

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current internal affairs and events, as a necessity for their role and to maximise engagement. Alloza (2008) notes intensive communication as one of the ten best practices but not limited internally. Alloza (2008) states that the value gained from engaging employees with an internal brand should be communicated to the market, a subject missing in the interviews.

Figure 4: Communication A

Quote

Philippines 'We’re in an area where things happen so quickly in our industry that

if we don’t get the communication out to people and let them know what’s going on in the business then the level of service we offer to a customer would be abysmal'

Bulgaria 'I mean to make sure the management are there to explain the changes'

Communication of the brand itself needs to be targeted correctly, as one interviewee said. It is documented in the extant literature that brand 'ambassadors' work to

communicate effectively to every part of the firm; i.e.: employees who are 'off-brand'. This also indicates that a bottom-up (Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2005) approach is more suitable because this involves communicating directly to employees about the brand, rather than senior management deciding on brand values and leaving them dormant (Tarnovskaya and de Chernatony, 2011).

Figure 5: Communication B

Quote

Gibraltar '…what we’re doing is preaching to the converted. We’re reaching

the people that were already signed up for it and flying the flag but we rarely get to the point where a lot of people will go out of that room and go and challenge people in the business around'

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Post-development, an internal branding programme needs internal brand ambassadors to champion the brand and communicating it across the company. Taken from the

interviews, the most effective way of internalising a brand is via a two-stage process; firstly, the management needs to embrace the brand (Balmer and Grey, 2003; Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2005) in order to delegate to ambassadors who can go out and target employees to communicate it to others employees in off-brand departments (Causon, 2004). These findings disagree with Alloza (2008) who states outside of his decalogue that all employees are ambassadors who embody the brand. Rather, this thesis agrees with Harris and de Chernatony (2001) who postulate that certain employees should carry an extra responsibility of communicating the brand to other departments. Moreover, Hardaker and Fill (2005) stress the importance of the delivery of

communication and postulate that if firms can develop how best to transmit messages, then employees can be sufficiently engaged with brand values. Furthermore, Hardaker and Fill (2005) cite research that indicates that the level of organizational

communication, as perceived by employees, equates with their level of engagement. Therefore, the better the communication, the higher the level of engagement.

As described in the interviews, championed events such as brand workshops have been an effective method of communicating the internal brand programme for William Hill. These types of events can be classified as a variant of formal communication. There are many instances in the literature of workshops being utilized as platforms to increase awareness and understanding of brand values. Such two-way communication creates a two-way communication climate which facilitates the development of intuitively lived brand-committed behaviour (Tosti and Stotz, 2001; Harris and de Chernatony, 2001).

Figure 6: Communication C

Quote

Bulgaria '…as a manager you have to create an environment in which people

feel comfortable enough to speak out'

Gibraltar '… know the important thing is that when we get back we talk about

what we’ve heard and what we’ve understood and what we feed back to the department and how we deploy it'

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(2001) confirmed that the communication climate of a has more of an impact on employees identifying themselves with a firm than the content of the communication itself. In a climate where feedback is accepted by both management and employee, a feeling of belonging can be initiated and engagement increased. It is logical to suggest that this provides further evidence for a bottom-up implementation of an internal

branding programme so to capture the real emotional values of the employee and brand. This also suggests that although the implementation process may be a moment in time, the brand values may be a dynamic entity, requiring feedback on their relevance as a business and employees change. This presents a further gap in the field and this thesis calls for research on the longitudinal dynamics of corporate brands.

Characters

Shown in the interviews, it is evident that the actors involved play a large part in the success of the internal branding efforts of a firm. Gibraltar underwent a radical overhaul of staff in order to recruit new employee who had the correct values instilled in them already (figure 8).

Having a successfully internalised brand depends on the contextualisation of the programme in every day work practices as well as the communication contents and methods and the people that are exposed to it. As stated in the literature, internalisation is the alignment of values (Tarnovskaya and de Chernatony, 2011) which could be construed as a deeply personal matter, suggesting that certain types of personality will receive internal branding programmes better than others. Although an internal brand programme may be able to manufacture alignment to some degree by being all inclusive such as the four HOME pillars or Papasolomou and Vrontis' (2006) four components, it is evident that there is often clashes when dealing with different national cultures. Since culture is a personal programming of the mind based on many different social and environmental factors a person can collect through life experiences (Hofstede, 2006), it is logical to suggest that an emotional response to brand values will differ depending on the cultures of people.

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whereas Philippine employees favour Everyone Matters. This is addressed in more detail in Results part 3 where the levels of brand internalisation of each site are measured against Hofstede's (2006) cultural dimensions.

The main take away from this point is that the management do exemplify adaptation from a centralized branding programme, rather than standardization in an attempt to get employees of certain nationalities to engage with the brand. As previously stated, it is important to contextualise the values of the programme but it is apparent that it is more important to contextualise the correct and relevant points of the programme. According to Medina and Duffy (1998), marketers’ challenges are presented by different

environments, the success of which depends on the marketing strategy’s applicability and compatibility in said environment. This necessity of adaptation to an environment gives a new context to the ongoing debate between standardization and adaptation, and provides more evidence to the latter. This is also an important practical implication for managers, who need to address how much internal brand values need to be manipulated to suit the native employees.

Figure 7: Characters A

Quote

Philippines 'Extremely about making sure a happy workforce is a productive workforce is the best way for me to weigh up what HOME is all about. We want a group of people who are happy in their roles, are comfortable in their roles and by being that, they work harder and they strive to succeed and drive the business forward.'

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Figure 8: Characters B

Quote

Philippines 'It doesn’t particularly have a place for people that are, when

William Hill put the effort in to make you happy then don’t drive and haven’t got the drive and ambition to kind of move up and make things change'

Gibraltar 'It took 6-12 months to really hammer that message through, get the right people on board and talk to the new troops, get the existing ones signed up to [the brand]'

Bulgaria 'If you the manager don’t embrace it, you shouldn't expect the people to embrace it'.

Although certainly, the more radical strategy taken by sites, Knox and Freeman (2010) identify the importance of recruitment of appropriate employees that support and develop the brand image (figure 8). The methods used by Gibraltar are also in line with Punjaisri and Wilson (2001) who recognised that to overcome any possibilities of recruiting the wrong people, orientation should designed for the potential new recruits with the brand values in mind (Punjasri and Wilson, 2011). The interviewee indicated that brand alignment of employees was an inclusive process which is an important insight from this research. Whilst recruitment of new employees that have a pre-existing fit to the brand values is necessary, this process can be utilized further to include the existing employees in brand orientation (e.g.: HOME champion events, figure 5) in order to increase alignment (figure 8).

Finally, the existing body of literature suggested that leadership development (Alloza, 2008; Vallaster and de Chernatony, 2005) is an essential part of brand internalisation. Evidence for this has appeared in these findings (figure 8) with management

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Results Part 2 - Corroboration of themes with HOME truths questions

In order to determine the level of internalisation of William Hill's operations in

Gibraltar, Bulgaria and Philippines; this section will use the annual reported data from the internal employee engagement survey entitled 'HOME truths' from 2012. As stated in the methodology, many of the questions included in the survey are designed to measure specific employee happiness based on tangible benefits such as remuneration and rewards. These questions such as 'I am satisfied with the benefits I receive at William Hill' and 'I am able to strike a healthy balance between my work and home life' have been omitted from this research and the questions will be streamlined in order to produce brand internalisation metrics at a more specific and valid level.

The three themes discussed in the previous section will be corroborated with the most suitable questions taken from the HOME truths survey (table 4) and then compared in order to discover the levels of brand internalisation in each site.

Table 4 - Brand internalisation metrics

Theme Questions

Contextualisation I can see a clear link between my work and William Hill's objectives

Communication I am kept informed about the important activities within William Hill

The senior management have communicated a vision of the future that motivates me

In William Hill there is open and honest two-way communication

Characters Working at William Hill motivates me to go the extra mile I feel a strong sense of belonging to William Hill

In order for employees to contextualise an internal branding programme such as HOME, they need to be able to see it in their every day work processes and tasks. This can also be construed as a link between work and objectives, an objective being the

Brand Internalisation in an International Context