Internal Branding Strategy of Singapore Airlines: A Detailed Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Singapore Airlines' internal branding strategy, highlighting its key components and their impact on the airline's success. It delves into the company's internal communication system, emphasizing how it aligns with corporate values and mission, ensuring employees understand and embody the company's commitment to excellence. The report examines the training programs for cabin crew and frontline employees, detailing the emphasis on 'soft' and 'functional' skills, the SOAR (Service Over and Above the Rest) strategy, and the importance of continuous evaluation and improvement. The report also explores the company's operational management strategies and the integration of internal and external branding efforts, ultimately revealing how these elements contribute to SIA's competitive advantage and strong brand image within the airline industry. This report is a valuable resource for students studying business development and marketing, offering insights into the internal branding practices of a globally recognized airline.

Running Head: Internal Branding Strategy
Singapore Airlines
Internal Branding Strategy

Internal Branding Strategy 1
Singapore Airlines is a globally renowned brand. It also stands amongst the most profitable
airline companies across the globe. Services rendered by Singapore Airlines are the major
reasons for the success of the organization and this has helped them to develop an effective
image in the competitive business environment of airline industry. Internal and external
communication and training related aspects plays crucial role in order to uplift organizational
performance. External communication system is essential for developing effective relationship
with potential consumers and it also plays vital role in spreading awareness amongst the target
audience. Apart from this, external communication is used for advertisement, developing public
relations, and the like. It helps the organization to develop a distinctive and effective image in the
market in relevance with the competitors. On the other hand, there is an internal communication
and training system which contributes pretty high in the success and growth of the organization
(Singapore Airlines, 2018).
This report will focus over the internal communication system and training procedures adopted
by the Singapore Airlines in order to develop an effective brand image. Internal branding
strategy of Singapore Airlines will be covered under this report which will focus over taking care
of employees’ needs and providing them training on the basis of organizational requirements.
Employees are considered as the most crucial source for an organization in order to accomplish
the desired tasks in the expected manner so that desired goals could easily be acquired. Thus,
internal training and branding strategy also plays vital role in the success and growth of the
organization.

Internal Branding Strategy 2
Singapore Airlines (SIA) was established in 1972 and today it is one of the top rated airline
companies. It is also known as the flag carrier for Singapore. Apart from Singapore, they serve in
various countries in Asia, Europe, Australia and other regions of the globe. In a very short time
period, SIA has developed an effective image in the marketplace along with effective goodwill
amongst target and potential consumers. SIA’s world class services, modern fleet and innovative
offerings have won the organization abundant national and international awards over years
(Chong, 2007). It was awarded as the ‘best airline company’ in 2005 by Conde Nest Traveler.
Along with this, it was also awarded as the ‘world’s best international airline’ in the same year
by Travel and Leisure Magazine. Success factor of Singapore Airlines is their internal branding
strategy which helps them to grow, gain competitive advantage as well as to develop effective
relations with consumers and employees (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2012).
Internal Communication System of Singapore Airlines
Employee communication system adopted by the Singapore Airlines is majorly concerned with
the corporate values and the mission of the company. Primary mission of Singapore Airlines is to
be on the peak position in terms of providing airline transportation services in the global
category. Apart from this, mission statement of SIA also includes providing best quality services
and maximising the rate of return for the benefit of its shareholders and of employees. These are
the crucial objectives through which organization will be able to gain its desired goals and the
objectives easily and effectively along with attaining competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Safety, customer’s priority, integrity, teamwork and concerned for employees are certain primary
corporate values for Singapore Airlines (Baumgarth & Schmidt, 2010).

Internal Branding Strategy 3
People Network department controls employee communication system. This department reports
to the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources team and he is the member of management
committee which takes all exclusive and important decisions on behalf of the company. Chief
Executive Officer is the most senior authority of the organization and Senior Vice-President
directly reports to the CEO. Primary role of People Network department is to develop strong and
effective relationships amongst employees and management in order to attain desired goals and
the objectives. With the help of effective communication system, organization used to share core
values, mission and other strategic directions of the company with employees (Chong, 2007).
This helps the management to develop a positive image amongst the employees for company.
This communication system includes face-to-face meetings, extracurricular activities, and
communication channels. These mediums also help the management to conduct interactive
sessions in order to make bond amongst the team members as well as with the management so
that expected and effective outcomes could be acquired (Canterberry & Gillath, 2013).
Apart from the People Network System for developing and maintaining effective relationship
amongst the employees and management, organization has also adopted several other options
through which core values of the organization are conveyed to the employees through four stages
during their tenure. Firstly, it is conveyed while candidates join the company then at the training
and development programs. After that, core values of the organization are conveyed to
employees through corporate events and lastly through corporate communication channels like
Outlook. In these four stages, employees are provided with required and necessary information
related to their job (Danthiir, Wilhelm & Roberts, 2012). Along with job information, duties and
responsibilities are also given to them so that the assigned task could be accomplished in an

Internal Branding Strategy 4
appropriate manner. Training sessions and development programs are conducted for the
employees in order to teach them the way of behaving and treating a consumer, serving a
consumer as well as the way of responding a consumer’s query. With the help of this method,
organization is being able to develop an effective image in the marketplace along with
developing effective relationship with potential consumers. Regular updates and innovations are
also made in these programs through which consumer and employee satisfaction could be
enhances as these two are the most crucial pillars for the success of an organization (De
Chernatony, 2010).
Singapore Airlines’ internal branding strategy also consist an evaluation system under which
company’s core values are aligned with behaviour. This alignment is also considered as the
crucial performance indicator in terms of employees’ annual appraisals. Evaluation process helps
the employees to determine their performance and the gap between organizational expectations
(Chong, 2007). While conducting evaluation programs, consultants arrange additional training
sessions for the employees in order to improve weak employees’ efficiency. Cabin crew is
another crucial department which directly interacts with the passengers and serves them. In order
to train cabin crew employees, Singapore Airlines’ management conducts a four month training
session under which all aspects are being covered which are essential for rendering best and
effective services to the passengers. This training session focuses over ‘soft’ skills and over
‘functional’ skills (Foster, Punjaisri & Cheng, 2010).
Soft skills pertain to the intercultural communication, personal dignity and convincing strategies
for negotiating with the demanding passengers. After completion of this four month rigorous
training, candidates are asked to face a three stage interview to get selected in the team of cabin

Internal Branding Strategy 5
crew. Candidates are selected on the basis of their knowledge and skills which were taught in the
training and development sessions. Candidates’ knowledge and learning are being compared
with the things which were taught during training sessions. And only most reliable and
promising candidates are being appointed in the organization. Once selected candidates join SIA,
the training assists them to enrich alignment between the cabin crew's personal value system and
Singapore Airline’s corporate values. Cabin crew is the most essential department which helps
the organization to develop and maintain positive image in front of the passengers. This is the
major reason candidates are required to pass three staged rigorous interview (Heracleous &
Wirtz, 2010).
In the initial stages of training, trainees are taught to establish various values like greeting
passengers in positive manner, communicating with them with making eye contact. With these
ways, passengers could be served in a positive way along with resolving their queries. One of the
crucial core values of cabin crew department is ‘customer first’. To practice this value, they are
trained in such a manner so that cabin crew members could be able to take care of the passengers
with a smile on their face infect in duress conditions. In addition, Singapore Airlines provides
free language-and-culture classes aimed at improving crew's understanding of their passengers
(Heracleous & Wirtz, 2012). Training does not stop after four month training programs, it
continues for entire tenure of an employee. On the job training method is being adopted by the
management of SIA in order to keep its employees updated. This helps the organization to meet
with the customer’s expectations as well as with the latest market trend. Evaluation program is
also practiced continuously in order to match the employees’ personal values with the
organizational core values. This forces the employees to perform adequately as per

Internal Branding Strategy 6
organizational expectations as well as to pass the evaluation test. It is a continuing process that
requires an adequate management attention (Heracleous & Wirtz, 2014).
Singapore Airlines has also adopted a strategy named SOAR (Service over and above the rest)
which describes company’s mission to the employees. SOAR strategy also focuses over uplifting
organizational performance in comparison to its competitors. This strategy has the potential to
align company’s core values with the crew’s personal values which helps them to improve
efficiency to serve the passengers appropriately. For instance, one of the core value of SIA is
‘Customer First’ is connected with the SOAR value which is smile on passenger’s face while
travelling (Kapferer, 2012). SOAR session also includes the sharing of practical scenarios and
situations by the previous and experienced crew members in order to aware the new members
with the situations which may arise. This helps the crew members to prepare accordingly as well
as it is also essential in terms of improving employees’ efficiency.
The four month training program also covers various aspects such as behavioural training,
maintaining body language training which includes all elements from face expression to physical
appearance in front of the passengers. Combination of core and SOAR values helps the
organization to establish strong relations amongst the potential consumers along with acquiring
organizational desired objectives. Apart from the cabin crew members, frontline employees also
plays vital role in demonstrating company’s core values. For this, they are provided with an
effective training program known as ‘Transforming Customer Service’ (Keller, Parameswaran &
Jacob, 2011).
Above mentioned techniques are certain crucial elements through which Singapore Airlines have
made their internal branding strategy strong and efficient. In order to improve the performance of

Internal Branding Strategy 7
the organization along with determining the areas within the organization with the scope of
improvement, management of the organization continuously conducts evaluation programs. With
the help of these techniques, organization has managed to develop effective relationship amongst
the employees and customers. This is the most crucial aspect of internal branding strategy of
Singapore Airlines and this has lead the organization to gain competitive advantage. Apart from
the internal branding strategy, Singapore Airlines’ external strategies such as promotional and
marketing strategies are also effective enough. Primary reason of success of the organization is
the combination of both internal as well as external branding strategies through which they have
attained competitive advantage in the target and potential market (Chhabra & Sharma, 2014).
The efforts which are implemented by the organization in order to produce the goods and
services are known as operations. And the management is the term which includes activities
through which the strategies are implemented for accomplishing the tasks in an effective. This
report will include the discussion regarding the operations management of Singapore Airlines.
Along with these variables, there are numerous attributes which needs to be considered while
increasing the effectiveness of the services rendered to the target audience. With the help of
above factors, organization could determine the effectiveness of their services as well as it is also
helpful for the organization to attain its desired goals and the objectives (Pinar, et. al., 2011).
Primary aim of increasing the effectiveness of the services or products are to gain more benefits,
for increasing the revenues, for increasing the demand of organizational products and services
and for gaining the competitive advantage over competitors (Porter, 2011). Along with this, it is
quite effective in increasing the customer base and market share of the organization in the
international airline industry. Organization would be able to accomplish its desired goals and the

Internal Branding Strategy 8
objectives on the basis of the management’s expectations. With this process, quality of the
services could be enhanced on the basis of target audiences’ requirements as well as on the basis
of management’s expectations. Along with this, another crucial objective of implementing this
process is to provide value added services to the consumers along with the primary service for
entertaining the experience of the consumers as well as for uplifting their image in the
consumer’s perceptive for the organization (Sharma & Kamalanabhan, 2012).
Singapore Airlines has also adopted the customer feedback system in order to generate positive
outcomes. This strategy will help the organization to improve the quality and effectiveness of
their services in relevance with the customer’s requirements. This will help the organization to
maintain the quality of their services due to which organization will be able to attain its goals and
the objectives for expanding their international market presence (Srivastava & Thomas, 2010).
From the evaluation process, it was observed that more than 83% employees of the organization
indicated that they had a clear understanding regarding company’s goals and objectives. While
evaluating, it was also observed that the crew and non-crew employees understand the
effectiveness of training and internal communication system. Employees of Singapore Airlines
have rated these programs above average. With the help of these ratings, effectiveness and
efficiency of training programs and team building activities could be analysed. These programs
help the employees to understand organizational process, requirements and the measures
practiced within the workplace in order to accomplish the tasks (Van Deursen & van Dijk, 2015).
Organization could also easily covey its message and information to the newly joined employees
with the help of training and interaction sessions. In summary, Singapore Airlines’ main motive
behind conducting training programs and interactive sessions are enhancing employees’

Internal Branding Strategy 9
efficiency as well as to mould their skills and knowledge as per organizational expectations
(King & Grace, 2010). Singapore Airlines’ multi-faceted model also describes the effectiveness
of the training and internal communication programs. In the multi-faceted model of corporate
identity five aspects are being included i.e. projected identity, professed identity, manifested
identity, attributes identity and experienced identity. With the help of these aspects of the multi-
faceted model of corporate identity in order to increase the effectiveness of the model as well as
to uplift the performance of the organization in the target market, organization has attained its
desired goals and objectives along with acquiring relevant competitive advantage (Wilden,
Gudergan & Lings, 2010).
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that the Singapore Airlines’ internal and
external branding strategies are effective enough to gain desired outcomes as per management’s
expectations. This essay concluded the effectiveness of internal branding strategy of the
organization along with the components of internal branding strategy. Singapore Airlines was
established in 1972 and from that period of time, they had attained an effective place in the
international airline industry and primary reason behind this success and growth is the efficiency
of their strategies irrespective of internal communication and promotional and advertisement
strategies. SIA deserves what they had gained and as per the projections, they will be able to lead
the whole airline industry in near future.

Internal Branding Strategy 10
References
Aaker, D.A. and Joachimsthaler, E., 2012. Brand leadership. Simon and Schuster.
Baumgarth, C. and Schmidt, M., 2010. How strong is the business-to-business brand in the
workforce? An empirically-tested model of ‘internal brand equity’in a business-to-business
setting. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(8), pp.1250-1260.
Canterberry, M. and Gillath, O., 2013. Neural evidence for a multifaceted model of attachment
security. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 88(3), pp.232-240.
Chong, M., 2007. The role of internal communication and training in infusing corporate values
and delivering brand promise: Singapore Airlines' experience. Corporate Reputation Review,
10(3), pp.201-212.
Danthiir, V., Wilhelm, O. and Roberts, R.D., 2012. Further evidence for a multifaceted model of
mental speed: Factor structure and validity of computerized measures. Learning and Individual
Differences, 22(3), pp.324-335.
De Chernatony, L., 2010. From brand vision to brand evaluation: The strategic process of
growing and strengthening brands. Routledge.
Foster, C., Punjaisri, K. and Cheng, R., 2010. Exploring the relationship between corporate,
internal and employer branding. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 19(6), pp.401-409.
Heracleous, L. and Wirtz, J., 2010. Singapore airlines’ balancing act. Harvard Business
Review, 88(7/8), pp.145-149.

Internal Branding Strategy 11
Heracleous, L. and Wirtz, J., 2012. Strategy and organisation at Singapore Airlines: achieving
sustainable advantage through dual strategy. In Energy, Transport, & the Environment(pp. 479-
493). Springer, London.
Heracleous, L. and Wirtz, J., 2014. Singapore Airlines: Achieving sustainable advantage through
mastering paradox. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 50(2), pp.150-170.
Kapferer, J.N., 2012. The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic
thinking. Kogan page publishers.
Keller, K.L., Parameswaran, M.G. and Jacob, I., 2011. Strategic brand management: Building,
measuring, and managing brand equity. Pearson Education India.
King, C. and Grace, D., 2010. Building and measuring employee-based brand equity. European
Journal of Marketing, 44(7/8), pp.938-971.
Chhabra, L. N. and Sharma, S., 2014. Employer branding: strategy for improving employer
attractiveness. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 22(1), pp.48-60.
Pinar, M., Trapp, P., Girard, T. and Boyt, T.E., 2011. Utilizing the brand ecosystem framework
in designing branding strategies for higher education. International Journal of Educational
Management, 25(7), pp.724-739.
Porter, M.E., 2011. Competitive advantage of nations: creating and sustaining superior
performance (Vol. 2). Simon and Schuster.

Internal Branding Strategy 12
Sharma, N. and Kamalanabhan, T.J., 2012. Internal corporate communication and its impact on
internal branding: Perception of Indian public sector employees. Corporate Communications: An
International Journal, 17(3), pp.300-322.
Singapore Airlines, 2018. Accessed on 6th March 2018 from
http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/in/home
Srivastava, R.K. and Thomas, G.M., 2010. Managing brand performance: Aligning positioning,
execution and experience.
Van Deursen, A.J. and van Dijk, J.A., 2015. Toward a multifaceted model of Internet access for
understanding digital divides: An empirical investigation. The Information Society, 31(5),
pp.379-391.
Wilden, R., Gudergan, S. and Lings, I., 2010. Employer branding: strategic implications for staff
recruitment. Journal of Marketing Management, 26(1-2), pp.56-73.