Corporate rebranding : an internal perspective (multiple case study into employee buy-in the higher education sector)

Abstract

Corporate rebranding involves the modification or change of the logo, tagline and the corporate brand name and is a common phenomenon in various industries such as telecom and an emerging strategic trend in the higher education (HE) sector. Corporate rebranding strategy often enables an organisation to become more relevant to its target market and improve its positioning (Melewar et al., 2012; Sonenshein, 2010; Vallaster and Lindgreen, 2011; Miller et.al, 2014). Employees play a vital role in, representing the brand values and fulfilling the brand promise to an organisation’s customers (Balmer and Gray, 2003; Balmer 1995; Harris and De Chernatony, 2006). The purpose of this study is to examine how the corporate rebranding strategy is implemented internally and report on how buy-in from employees is achieved. Corporate rebranding studies in extant literature are sparse in the HE sector. To fill this gap, a multiple case study of four UK universities was conducted to explore the complexity of the phenomenon in the HE sector. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to establish the relevance of major themes uncovered by an extensive literature review. This was followed by thematic analysis of the data. Findings of the study emphasized upon the role of internal brand communication in facilitating employees to accept the new corporate brand and their buy-in. The involvement of employees and the role of leadership in the corporate rebranding process were significant in gaining employee support. Employees who identified with the new corporate brand and who were engaged and committed to their roles expressed a greater degree of buy-in post rebranding. This is an important contribution to the literature on corporate rebranding from an internal perspective. Further research is recommended to measure existing levels of employee engagement and employee identification.