Sirianni, N.J., Bitner, M.J., Brown, S.J., & Mandel, N. (2013) Branded service
encounters: strategically aligning employee behavior with the brand positioning.
Journal of Marketing, 77, 108-123
Introduction
Customers in the end determine what a brand means to them, so marketers invest significant time
and effort in supporting the firm-selected brand image, with the use of promotional messaging to
establish key associations in customers’ minds. Key questions: how marketers can leverage these
service encounters to reinforce brand meaning to positively influence customers’ responses to
brands. Person-to-person communication is more persuasive than impersonal media sources.
Branded service encounters: service interactions in which employee behavior is strategically aligned
with he brand positioning. Compared to generic good service, branded service encounters should
not only lead to positive brand impressions but also enable customers to process brand information
provided by the employee more easily and thus help them develop a more coherent understanding
of a brand’s overall meaning.
Study: employee-brand alignment on the presented personality dimension can enhance overall
brand evaluation (customers’ general affective assessment of a brand) and customer-based brand
equity (the value added to a product or service by associating it with a brand name). One mediator
(brand conceptual fluency) and two moderators (brand familiarity and employee authenticity).
Conceptual development
Employee-brand alignment → customers responses to brands.
I.e. shape customer brand knowledge through positioning brand personality: dimensions are
sophisticated, rugged, sincere, competent, exciting. Context congruity: higher congruity, easer to
process and understand, increases fluency and preference. Alignment leads to higher congruity.
→ H1a: Overall brand evaluation is more favorable when the employee’s behavior is aligned with the
brand personality than when the employee’s behavior is misaligned with the brand personality.
However, overall brand evaluation measures customers’ affective responses, while customer-based
brand equity measures managerial implications of brand building (i.e. higher perceived quality and
premium price).
→ H1b: Customer-based brand equity is greater when the employee’s behavior is aligned with the
brand personality than when the employee’s behavior is misaligned with the brand personality.
Moderator brand familiarity.
Brand familiarity: a customer’s background knowledge acquired as a result of direct and indirect
experiences with a brand. More familiarity will lead to less processing motivation, so these
customers will use less extensive and more confirmation-based processing. We suggest that
employee-brand alignment will have a milder effect on customers of familiar brands due to their
decreased processing motivation (they use top-down, less focused, more brand cues, processing).
Otherwise, less familiarity means bottom-up, so systematic and focused processing and cognitive
evaluation.
→ H2: The positive effect of employee–brand alignment on (a) overall brand evaluation and (b)
customer-based brand equity is stronger for unfamiliar brands than familiar brands.
Mediator conceptual fluency.
Conceptual fluency: the ease with which customers can process and understand information such as
brand meaning. Context congruity (alignment between context and stimulus) increases conceptual
fluency, because of easier accessibility in memory. Employee brand alignment will lead to more
encounters: strategically aligning employee behavior with the brand positioning.
Journal of Marketing, 77, 108-123
Introduction
Customers in the end determine what a brand means to them, so marketers invest significant time
and effort in supporting the firm-selected brand image, with the use of promotional messaging to
establish key associations in customers’ minds. Key questions: how marketers can leverage these
service encounters to reinforce brand meaning to positively influence customers’ responses to
brands. Person-to-person communication is more persuasive than impersonal media sources.
Branded service encounters: service interactions in which employee behavior is strategically aligned
with he brand positioning. Compared to generic good service, branded service encounters should
not only lead to positive brand impressions but also enable customers to process brand information
provided by the employee more easily and thus help them develop a more coherent understanding
of a brand’s overall meaning.
Study: employee-brand alignment on the presented personality dimension can enhance overall
brand evaluation (customers’ general affective assessment of a brand) and customer-based brand
equity (the value added to a product or service by associating it with a brand name). One mediator
(brand conceptual fluency) and two moderators (brand familiarity and employee authenticity).
Conceptual development
Employee-brand alignment → customers responses to brands.
I.e. shape customer brand knowledge through positioning brand personality: dimensions are
sophisticated, rugged, sincere, competent, exciting. Context congruity: higher congruity, easer to
process and understand, increases fluency and preference. Alignment leads to higher congruity.
→ H1a: Overall brand evaluation is more favorable when the employee’s behavior is aligned with the
brand personality than when the employee’s behavior is misaligned with the brand personality.
However, overall brand evaluation measures customers’ affective responses, while customer-based
brand equity measures managerial implications of brand building (i.e. higher perceived quality and
premium price).
→ H1b: Customer-based brand equity is greater when the employee’s behavior is aligned with the
brand personality than when the employee’s behavior is misaligned with the brand personality.
Moderator brand familiarity.
Brand familiarity: a customer’s background knowledge acquired as a result of direct and indirect
experiences with a brand. More familiarity will lead to less processing motivation, so these
customers will use less extensive and more confirmation-based processing. We suggest that
employee-brand alignment will have a milder effect on customers of familiar brands due to their
decreased processing motivation (they use top-down, less focused, more brand cues, processing).
Otherwise, less familiarity means bottom-up, so systematic and focused processing and cognitive
evaluation.
→ H2: The positive effect of employee–brand alignment on (a) overall brand evaluation and (b)
customer-based brand equity is stronger for unfamiliar brands than familiar brands.
Mediator conceptual fluency.
Conceptual fluency: the ease with which customers can process and understand information such as
brand meaning. Context congruity (alignment between context and stimulus) increases conceptual
fluency, because of easier accessibility in memory. Employee brand alignment will lead to more
