Interacting contributions of different departments to brand success

Adopting a grounded theory perspective, this research investigates the roles and interactions between marketing, customer services and human resources (HR) in driving success in UK financial services brands. CEOs/MDs, Directors of Marketing, HR and Customer Services, their line reports, front line staff and their agencies from 2 successful and 4 less successful financial services corporations participated in depth interviews for this project. Marketing strategically defining the brand, HR aligning policies behind the brand and customer services staff being brand exemplars enhances brand success. Organizations should abhor power struggles as no one department is critical — rather working together is key. The brand fulcrum model helps managers and researchers appreciate the harmonious activities of brand guardians (marketing), brand enablers (HR) and promise delivers (customer services). Favoring one department shifts the brand center of gravity resulting in an unstable state, which more equitable responsibility allocation resolves.