2010:056 MASTER'S THESIS Communicating Online Brand Personality - intention, implementation and internal perception Heather Jacksic Niclas Liinanki Luleå University of Technology D Master thesis Marketing Department of Business Administration and Social Sciences Division of Industrial marketing and e-commerce 2010:056 - ISSN: 1402-1552 - ISRN: LTU-DUPP--10/056--SE ABSTRACT Expressing a brand‟s personality is shown to be an important way of communicating information about a brand that words alone cannot do. Companies today conduct much of their communication with customers via their company website. The study of the service sector is identified as an area of interest since there is a worldwide shift from manufacturing to industries requiring service organizations. As services are intangible, it is necessary for companies to make their offering more concrete. One way of doing this is by expressing the brand‟s personality. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that employees understand and can communicate the brand to customers. Data from four cases were used to evaluate how companies intend and implement their company‟s online brand personality. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. Once the companies‟ intention and implementation were established in this study, internal perception was examined to find if the intended messages were understood by staff members. The results indicate that in order to provide a high internal understanding of the brand, it would require that the brand is clearly defined by the people in charge of implementing it. By having ongoing communication about the brand through both formal and informal channels it gives employees more insight about the brand‟s personality. Additionally, hiring employees who share similar personality traits with the ones that the company‟s brand wishes to portray will enhance their brand communication efforts. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was written during the spring term of 2010 for the Department of Industrial Marketing, e-Commerce and Logistics at Luleå University of Technology. Research does not take place in a vacuum. Many people have helped by lending their knowledge and support. First, we would like to thank our thesis advisor, Lars-Ole Forsberg who met with us a number of times throughout this process to coax us to the finish line. Our meetings were always so helpful to get us back on track. Thank you for encouraging us to think. We would also like to acknowledge the professors in our department who have imparted their wisdom over the past two years. Instruction from different perspectives and life experiences has made our education that much richer. Finally, we would like to thank our respondents who took the time to meet with us and to give us thoughtful and meaningful answers to our queries. Your valuable input has helped us to better understand branding from a real-world perspective, far beyond what we could have ever learned in a classroom. *** In addition, I would like to thank my parents, Betty and George, for instilling in me the importance of education, hard work and always doing my best. These tools have helped me, not only in school, but in so many other aspects of my life. I thank my sisters, Sharon and Mary-Jo for having faith in me. Thank you to my husband, Lawrence, for his continuing support and for being a fantastic father, stepping in to parent when I couldn‟t be there. Finally, I thank my son, Micah, for his patience and his daily reminder of what is really important in life. My love to you all, Heather *** I owe a great deal to colleagues, friends and members of my family for encouraging and supporting me in completing this study. I would like to thank my parents Anne-Christine and Ingvar for raising me with the ambition and drive to aspire for a higher education. And I would like to thank the rest of my family for constantly asking me when I will be done which has motivated me to complete my education. Niclas Luleå, June 2010 Heather Jacksic Niclas Liinanki “Branding is first and foremost an act of communication: we brand therefore we are.” ~ Jean Noël Kapferer (2001) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Branding ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Internal Branding ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1.3 Brand Personality ............................................................................................................................ 2 1.1.4 Online Communication ................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.5 Branding in the Service Industry .................................................................................................... 2 1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.3 OVERALL PURPOSE ................................................................................................................................... 4 1.4 OUTLINE OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................. 4 2 LITERATURE OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 THE COMPANY WEBSITE........................................................................................................................... 6 2.2 COMMUNICATION PROCESS ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.2.1 Internal and External Internet Communication ............................................................................... 7 2.3 E-BRANDING ............................................................................................................................................. 8 2.3.1 Four Pillars of i-Branding ............................................................................................................... 8 2.4 BRAND PERSONALITY ............................................................................................................................. 10 2.4.1 Dimensions of Brand Personality ................................................................................................. 11 2.5 BRAND IDENTITY .................................................................................................................................... 14 2.5.1 Brand Identity System .................................................................................................................. 14 2.5.2 Brand Identity Implementation System ........................................................................................ 18 2.6 INTERNAL PERCEPTION OF THE BRAND ................................................................................................... 18 3 FRAME OF REFERENCE ...................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 INTENTION .............................................................................................................................................. 21 3.2 IMPLEMENTATION ................................................................................................................................... 23 3.3 INTERNAL PERCEPTION ........................................................................................................................... 25 3.4 EMERGED CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................... 26 4 METHOD .................................................................................................................................................. 28 4.1 RESEARCH PURPOSE ............................................................................................................................... 28 4.2 RESEARCH APPROACH ............................................................................................................................ 29 4.3 RESEARCH STRATEGY ............................................................................................................................. 29 4.4 SAMPLE SELECTION ................................................................................................................................ 30 4.5 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................................. 31 4.6 ANALYSIS OF RESULTS ........................................................................................................................... 32 4.7 QUALITY STANDARDS ............................................................................................................................. 34 5 EMPIRICAL DATA ................................................................................................................................. 35 5.1 CASE 1: COMPANY A 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