Marketing communication: principles and practice

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communication problems are perpetuated through attempts to manage via
such a fragmented approach to organization and management.
The broader approach discussed here robs the functionalist/specialist of
sole ownership of the territory, but the gain to the system when each individual
is able to contribute to the whole enterprise is realizable in terms greater
than mere ‘market efficiency’. The needs and wants of the individual can be
met as the means to achieving the corporation’s success in conducting the
business of the enterprise.
The structure for this is a network of self-managing teams (or mini-
businesses) who serve each other, develop specialist knowledge, execute
projects, and sell to ‘outsiders’. Internal marketing is the relationship 
and knowledge management required for the ‘new organization’. The
internal–external boundary becomes blurred as the traditional organization
form is dissolved in this move towards ‘marketization’, which is characterized
as having:
• a flattened organization
• fluid arrangements
• projectized work
• temporary network membership
• individual units aiming to own a market through better service
• symbiosis with customers
• pursuit of mutually satisfying employment relationships
We can now examine – see Boxes 11.3–11.4 – some applications of the
internal marketing way of managing.
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BOX 11.3
DELIVERING CUSTOMER SERVICE IMPROVEMENT
AT PARCELFORCE
An internal-marketing way of working was introduced in a business unit of a national
network parcel carrier.
The idea of introducing this approach into the business unit came about through a
convergence of thinking and experience. An extensive study of the principles and
practice of internal marketing in service businesses had been completed by an advisor
to the communications manager, who had attended presentations by a number of
communications professionals, including a talk about the introduction of internal
marketing in a large public sector government agency. This coming together in thinking
was facilitated by their cooperation on an informal review of organizational
communication practices within the business unit. Both realized that internal marketing
offered a systematic realignment of practices with the nature and purpose of the business
and that this would provide the infrastructure and climate for a number of other major
business improvement initiatives (known in Parcelforce as transformational projects).
The results of a national employee opinion attitude survey, conducted in May 1995,
showed that morale was low in the company. Perhaps indicative of the communication

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