Antecedents and consequences of salesperson identification with the brand and company

To date, little research has investigated the antecedents and implications of salespersons' identification with the brands and the companies they represent. As the nature of the selling job is unique from other inside employee positions, with increased independence of the firm and loyalty that may be expanded to the customers rather than the firm itself, an investigation of this phenomenon within the sales context holds significant implication for sales force management. The salesperson also represents an extension of the marketing communication programme of the firm and thus has direct bearing on how the company and brand image are communicated to the customer. Therefore, the purpose of our paper is to hypothesize and empirically test the notion that higher levels of perceived congruence between a salesperson's own values and those values of the brand and company he or she represents will lead to higher brand identification and company identification which in turn should create higher job satisfaction, commitment and performance. We discuss our results and offer practical insights to sales managers. Further, we discuss limitations of our study and provide directions for future research.