1.6 Internal marketing
As well as ensuring marketing orientation, an organisation should also undertake internal marketing. Internal marketing views an organisation’s employees and their positions as customers and internal products. For example, a receptionist who represents the organisation when people call offers a product based on connecting the caller to the correct person (this is the receptionist’s internal product offering). As a customer the receptionist will expect to be provided with the correct contact information for everyone in the organisation so they can perform their product offering (their job) to the best of their ability.
Stop and reflect
Take a few minutes to reflect on how internal marketing affects you in your current job.
- Who are your customers?
- Are they external or internal?
Once you have identified who your customers are, think about how you deliver added value when you attempt to satisfy their needs. You should also ask yourself whether what you deliver is really of value to your customers.
How does internal marketing fit within marketing orientation? Marketing orientation argues that all employees of an organisation should undertake their job roles with the specific intention of maximising customer satisfaction. In the example of the receptionist, they are contributing towards the potential customer’s positive perception of the organisation and its product offering by handling their call effectively and efficiently.
Internal marketing aims to satisfy the needs of employees in their ability to undertake their job roles. Satisfied employees will be more able to offer a satisfactory service to existing and potential customers. Internal marketing, and consequently its contribution to achieving marketing orientation, consists of three objectives (Gronroos, 1981, 1985):
- overall – to have employees who are customer conscious, motivated and care orientated
- strategic – to create an organisational environment that supports customer awareness
- tactical – to sell the reasons for marketing efforts to all employees via staff training programmes as employees represent the face of the organisation.