Marketing and Car Rental Companies

THE

INFLUENCE

OF

INTERNAL

MARKETING

ELEMENTS ON BRAND IMAGE OF SELECTED CAR RENTAL COMPANIES IN SOUTH AFRICA

STUDENT NAME XXXXXX (student number)

Thesis

submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree PhD in Marketing Management in the Faculty of Management at the University of Johannesburg

JOHANNESBURG September 2009

Supervisor:

Prof xxxxx

Co-supervisor: Dr yyyy

Table of contents

____________________________________________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH 1.1 Overview of services and services marketing 1.2 Internal marketing 1.3 Brand identity and brand image 1.4 Car rental in South Africa 2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 3. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 3.1 Primary objective 3.2 Secondary objectives 4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5. HYPOTHESES 6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH 7. LITERATURE REVIEW 7.1 Theoretical paradigm 7.2 Research Constructs 7.3 Relationship between variables 8. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 8. 1 Research design 8.2 Research format 8.3 Population and sample 8.4 Data collection instruments, sources and procedures 8.5 Data analysis 9. DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY 10. CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY 11. CLARIFICATION OF TERMS AND DEFINITIONS 12. DIVISION OF THE STUDY 13. TIME FRAME AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS 14. LIST OF REFERENCES 3 3 4 6 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 19 19 20 22 23 23 24 24 25 26 27 27 28 28 29 30 31

2

Research proposal

1.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Organisations across all industries recognise that services are becoming an important factor in all their business dealings to obtain a competitive advantage (Strydom, 2005:114). According to Palmer (2005:2), every industry is a service industry and the only aspect that separates industries is the size of their service component. Innovative organisations offering unique services to customers are now succeeding in markets where established organisations have failed (Lovelock and Wirtz, 2004:4). Services marketing management is about servicing and caring about people (Kasper, van Helsdingen and Gabbott, 2006:9). People encompass individuals, households, employees and organisations. In general, services deal with intangibles, in other words, things that cannot be hold, touched nor be seen before they are utilised (Grönroos, 2000:7). Services refer to deeds, processes and experiences (Kasper et al, 2006:9; Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2006:4).

1.1

Overview of services and services marketing

Many skills, activities, knowledge, performances, efforts, deeds, systems and processes are required when implementing processes which focus on people. Developing and implementing assets and capabilities, including motivating employees to serve the client well through the delivery of excellent service quality is a challenge to any services organisation. The interaction between customers and service employees is vital for the actual success of service delivery (Kasper, van Helsdingen and de Vries, 1999:513). Organisations have realised that marketing and managing services presented issues and challenges not faced in manufacturing and packaged goods companies. Employees previously employed by manufacturing companies found that their skills and experiences were not directly transferable. Services organisations realised there are a need for new concepts and approaches for marketing and managing services organisations (Zeithaml et al, 2006:10). Customer expectations and experiences play a vital role in the success of a services organisation. Since customers mainly rely on the contact they have had with employees of the services organisation, personal contact between employees and customers will to a large extent determine the success of the services organisation (Lovelock, 1996:50). The

3

Research proposal

success of the Disney brand results from the organisation placing emphasis on the importance of their employees. They have realised that satisfied...


References: Strydom, L. (2005). Internal marketing in a service organisation. Unpublished MCom thesis, University of Johannesburg. Available from http//0-etd.uj.ac.za.ujlink.uj.ac.za/. (Accessed 10 August 2009). Varey, R.J. & Lewis, B.R. (2000). Internal Marketing: Directions for Management. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Wilson, A. (1972). The Marketing of Professional Services. New York: McGraw-Hill. Witt, P. & Rode, V. (2005). Corporate Brand Building in Start-ups. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 13(3):273-294. Zeithaml, V.A. McGraw-Hill. Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.J. & Gremler, D.D. (2006). Services Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Organisation. 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill. Zikmund, W.G. (2003). Exploring marketing research. 8th edition. Australia: Thomson South-Western.
&
Bitner, M.J. (2003).
Service Marketing. 3rd
edition. New York:
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