to marketing strategies and ‘price’ the psychological cost of adopt-
ing new methods of working. It is not, however, readily apparent
what ‘product’ and ‘price’ refer to, and as such this concept has
limited appeal. Whilst this approach can provide a loose framework
for guiding internal marketing activities, it is generally considered
not sufficiently robust to capture the true essence of internal mar-
keting issues.
Other traditional marketing activities include market segmenta-
tion and market research, which have been applied to the internal
market.21, 31Internal market segmentation refers to the method of
grouping employees with similar needs and wants, for example
front-line staff,^1 and targeting specific internal marketing plans
towards these groups. This practice is already widespread through-
out organizations, as evidenced by functional and departmental
structures within companies.
In recent years there has been a proliferation of employee surveys
as many companies seek ways of identifying the needs and wants of
employees and internal employee issues which may hinder improv-
ing service quality. Such surveys do, however, need to be handled
with much care, as employees are often suspicious of the real intent
of such surveys and frequently fear repercussions from their
‘honest’ responses. The author, whilst working with a particular
industrial goods manufacturer, found employees holding their
questionnaires up to the light to look for watermarks. The employ-
ees were convinced that despite the anonymity of the questionnaire
and the fact that the questionnaire was being posted by the individ-
uals themselves to an independent third party, the ‘management’
would still be able to identify them and enact their retribution.
Employees’ responses should, therefore, always be interpreted care-
fully, as many times employees will reply in the way they think the
organization wants them to. It is essential to manage employee
expectation by telling them precisely why the survey is being con-
ducted and what will be done with the results. Finally, it is impor-
tant to show that action has been taken over any causes for concern
raised in the survey.
Internal marketing and organizational design
In endeavouring to find satisfied customer-conscious employees,
internal marketing has expanded its remit into the realms of human
resource management. According to Berry and Parasuraman,
‘Internal marketing is attracting, developing, motivating and retain-
318 Relationship Marketing