ABSTRACT
For several years now, HRM functions have been adopting the marketing concept of brand management and applying this marketing thinking to their HRM strategies under the label of ‘employer branding’. What is employer branding? The earliest definitions of employer branding were provided in the late 1990s in the context of the war for talent (Ambler and Barrow 1996). Employer branding was initially seen as most applicable in sectors where the unique talents and contributions of individuals are seen as part of a distinctive competitive advantage. It has been defined as:
the application of the idea of branding principles to HRM (Backhaus and Tikoo 2004; Barrow and Mosley 2006);
the ability of brands to embody high quality employment experiences and organizational identities that talent are happy to engage with and promote (Martin and Cerdin 2014);
a package of functional, economic and psychological benefits identified with an employing company (Ambler and Barrow 1996); and
the feelings, impressions, perceptions, beliefs and attitudes towards a company (Hsieh et al. 2004).
