SAAB versus internal marketing

Abstract

The alignment of company goals and strategies throughout an organisation calls for well-developed internal marketing processes. Those processes often seem to lack or function unsatisfactorily, judging from the fact that many companies have trouble communicating corporate values and marketing ideas to the final customer. When the customer's actual image of the brand does not match the intended brand identity, the marketing activities will not have the desired effect.

The purpose of this thesis is to address the difficulties in communicating corporate plans throughout the whole organisation and make an attempt to generate new knowledge by developing a new model on internal marketing. We have used Saab Automobile AB as our case company, a Swedish car manufacturer operating in the luxury automobile industry.

The development and maintenance of mutually valuable relationships is vital for effective internal marketing. Effort should be made to try to change the basis for relationships from manipulation to motivation. A greater interdependence between the parties would be likely to reduce uncertainty, and result in a more efficient use of resources. The main obstacle towards the building of relations is the lack of transparency in the development and communication of marketing activities. It is vital to create an environment in which information flows without being distorted. The main factors distorting the ultimate exposure of the brand identity to the customer are related to poor execution and communication of marketing activities. A lot of the problems related to execution and communication can be solved with better education of employees with regard to brand identity and its relation to the overall strategic marketing plan.