Internal indentity-based brand management : How to consistently deliver the brand promise at the point of sale?

In many well developed economies the number of brands as well as their perceived homogeneity is increas­ing for more than two decades. As a result, more and more brands appear interchangeable to their cus­tomers. To cope with this challenge it is necessary to develop a unique brand identity and to assure that this is being consistently delivered at all brand touch points. The latter requires that everyone who acts as a brand representative behaves according to the brand identity. Common understanding of and commit­ment to the brand are necessary prerequisites. A first model for internal identity-based brand manage­ment intended to fulfil these prerequisites was recently developed at the chair for innovative brand man­agement. The model is explicitly targeted at employees. This paper draws attention to yet another group of stakeholders which influences the brand image sub­stantially: the brands distributors. Empirical research has shown that particularly those internal refer­ence groups1 that have intensive interaction with the customers are able to influence the brand image. The purpose of this article is to assess whether the internal brand management model developed for employ­ees applies to distributors and to extend the existing model for the distributor context if necessary.