Abstract:

Internal branding is briefly defined as the process of aligning of employee behavior and brand promise. In particular in the service sector, brand promise is transferred to the consumers by the employees. It has been seen that in the corporations which established internal branding, employees are more willing to transmit the brand promise. Therefore, corporations that desire to have a unique customer experience started to give more importance to the employees. On the other hand, the formation of internal branding is closely related to internal communication, human resources practices such as, employee training, reward and leadership effects. As a result of internal branding, it is foreseen that firstly employees' emotional commitment and loyalty then, brand supported behaviors arise. However, the most important factor in demonstrating brand supported behaviors of employees is their emotional commitment to the brand. The aim of the study is to reveal the relationship between internal branding and affective commitment from the employee perspective. Quantitative research method is used in the study and data is collected through questionnaire method. In the research, internal branding has been handled in terms of internal communication,  human resources applications and leader perception. Findings show that there is a difference between gender,  education,  salary and job description variables in the perception of employees towards internal branding. The findings also show that there is a positive relationship between internal branding and affective commitment. Finally, it appears that there is a positive and moderate-level relationship between human resource applications and affective commitment, while there is a positive and high level relationship between internal communication-leader perception and affective commitment.

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