Brand awareness in the services sector influenced by eight internal marketing elements

The internal marketing mix for services typically consists of seven elements (product, price, place, promotion, people, processes and physical evidence). In this study another element, performance, was added to the mix to determine the influence of these eight elements on the brand awareness as perceived by customers of car rental companies in South Africa. Although car rental companies may have a strong brand position, the brand s successful awareness depends on the role the employees play in delivering the service (Wilson, Zeithaml, Bitner Gremler, 2012:249). This research aimed to provide guidance to South African car rental companies to improve their respective brand awareness, enabling them to expand customer bases whilst retaining existing customers through improvement of internal marketing programmes.