Internal and External Marketing IELTS Reading: Answers & Detailed Explanations

In business, branding is not just about external customers; it must start from within, with the team itself. The reading passage Internal and External Marketing explores the intimate relationship between advertising messages and the operational reality within a company. Through classic examples of success at IBM, Nike, and Ford, and failures at United Airlines and British Rail, the text clarifies the importance of “two-way branding.” This is an ideal resource for practicing the skill of matching information between companies (Matching Features) and navigating linguistic nuance traps in the IELTS exam.

Reading Passage

Internal and External Marketing

A Employees need to hear the same messages that you send out to the marketplace. At most companies, however, internal and external communications are often mismatched. This can be very confusing, and it threatens employees’ perceptions of the company’s integrity: They are told one thing by management but observe that a different message is being sent to the public. One health insurance company, for instance, advertised that the welfare of patients was the company’s number one priority, while employees were told that their main goal was to increase the value of their stock options through cost reductions. And one major financial services institution told customers that it was making a major shift in focus from being a financial retailer to a financial adviser, but, a year later, research showed that the customer experience with the company had not changed. It turned out that company leaders had not made an effort to sell the change internally, so employees were still churning out transactions and hadn’t changed their behavior to match their new adviser role.

B Enabling employees to deliver on customer expectations is important, of course, but it’s not the only reason a company needs to match internal and external messages. Another reason is to help push the company to achieve goals that might otherwise be out of reach. In 1997, when IBM launched its e-business campaign (which is widely credited for turning around the company’s image), it chose to ignore research that suggested consumers were unprepared to embrace IBM as a leader in e-business. Although to the outside world, this looked like an external marketing effort, IBM was also using the campaign to align employees around the idea of the Internet as the future of technology. The internal campaign changed the way employees thought about everything they did, from how they named products to how they organized staff to how they approached selling. The campaign was successful largely because it gave employees a sense of direction and purpose, which in turn restored their confidence in IBM’s ability to predict the future and lead the technology industry. Today, research shows that people are four times more likely to associate the term “e-business” with IBM than with its nearest competitor, Microsoft.

C The type of “two-way branding” that IBM did so successfully strengthens both sides of the equation. Internal marketing becomes stronger because it can draw on the same “big idea” as advertising. Consumer marketing becomes stronger because the messages are developed based on employees’ behavior and attitudes, as well as on the company’s strengths and capabilities – indeed, the themes are drawn from the company’s very soul. This process can result in a more distinct advertising idea because marketers are more likely to create a message that’s unique to the company.

D Perhaps even more important, by taking employees into account, a company can avoid creating a message that doesn’t resonate with staff or, worse, one that builds resentment. In 1996, United Airlines shelved its “Come Fly the Friendly Skies” slogan when presented with a survey that revealed the depth of customer resentment toward the airline industry. In an effort to own up to the industry’s shortcomings, United launched a new campaign, “Rising,” in which it sought to differentiate itself by acknowledging poor service and promising incremental improvements such as better meals. While this was a logical premise for the campaign given the tenor of the times, a campaign focusing on customers’ distaste for flying was deeply discouraging to the staff. Employee resentment ultimately made it impossible for United to deliver the improvements it was promising, which in turn undermined the “Rising” pledge. Three years later, United decided employee opposition was undermining its success and pulled the campaign. It has since moved to a more inclusive brand message with the line “United,” which both audiences can embrace. Here, a fundamental principle of advertising – find and address a customer concern – failed United because it did not consider the internal market.

E When it comes to execution, the most common and effective way to link internal and external marketing campaigns is to create external advertising that targets both audiences. IBM used this tactic very effectively when it launched its e-business campaign. It took out an eight-page ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring its new vision, a message directed at both customers and internal stakeholders. This is an expensive way to capture attention, but if used sparingly, it is the most powerful form of communication; in fact, you need do it only once for everyone in the company to read it. There’s a symbolic advantage as well. Such a tactic signals that the company is taking its pledge very seriously; it also signals transparency – the same message going out to both audiences.

F Advertising isn’t the only way to link internal and external marketing. At Nike, a number of senior executives now hold the additional title of “Corporate Storyteller.” They deliberately avoid stories of financial successes and concentrate on parables of “just doing it,” reflecting and reinforcing the company’s ad campaigns. One tale, for example, recalls how legendary coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, in an effort to build a better shoe for his team, poured rubber into the family waffle iron, giving birth to the prototype of Nike’s famous Waffle Sole. By talking about such inventive moves, the company hopes to keep the spirit of innovation that characterizes its ad campaigns alive and well within the company.

G But while their messages must be aligned, companies must also keep external promises a little ahead of internal realities. Such promises provide incentives for employees and give them something to live up to. In the 1980s, Ford turned “Quality is Job!” from an internal rallying cry into a consumer slogan in response to the threat from cheaper, more reliable Japanese cars. It did so before the claim was fully justified, but by placing it in the public arena, it gave employees an incentive to match the Japanese. If the promise is pushed too far ahead, however, it loses credibility. When a beleaguered British Rail launched a campaign announcing service improvement under the banner “We’re Getting There,” it did so prematurely. By drawing attention to the gap between the promise and the reality, it prompted destructive press coverage. This, in turn, demoralized staff, who had been legitimately proud of the service advances they had made.

Questions

Questions 28-34

Use the information in the passage to match the company (listed A-F) with correct category or deeds below.

Write the appropriate letters A-F in boxes 28-34 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once

A legendary anecdote inspire employee successfully

B advertisement campaign inspire employees and ensure a leading role in business

C improper ads campaign brings negative effect

D internal and external announcement are different

E campaign brings positive and realistic expectation internally

F a bad slogan that failed both to win support internally and raise standard to its poor service

28 One health insurance Company

29 British Rail

30 IBM

31 United Airline

32 A financial service company

33 A Shoemaking company (Nike)

34 The Company of (Ford)

Questions 35-38

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 35-38 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

35 Employers in almost all companies successfully make their employees fully understand the outside campaign.

36 Currently IBM is more prominent in the area of E-business

37 United Airline finally gave up an ads slogan due to a survey in 1996.

38 Nike had improved company performance through telling employees legendary corporation stories.

Questions 39-40

Choose TWO correct letters below

Write your answers in boxes 39-40 on your answer sheet.

Please choose TWO approaches in the passage mentioned that were employed as company strategy:

A promoting the visual effect of their products’ advertisement

B launching inspiring campaigns internally

C introducing inner competition

D learning how to sell stories among senior executives

E applying an appropriate slogan

Full Translation of the Reading Passage

[Section A] Employees need to hear the same messages that you send out to the marketplace. However, at most companies, internal and external communications are often mismatched. This can be very confusing and threatens employees’ perceptions of the company’s integrity: They are told one thing by management but observe that a different message is being sent to the public. For example, a health insurance company advertised that patient welfare was the company’s top priority, while employees were told that their main goal was to increase the value of stock options through cost-cutting. And a major financial services institution told customers it was shifting its focus from being a financial retailer to a financial adviser, but a year later, research showed that the customer experience with the company had not changed. It turned out that company leaders had not made an effort to sell the change internally, so employees were still churning out transactions and had not changed their behavior to match their new adviser role.

[Section B] Enabling employees to deliver on customer expectations is important, of course, but it is not the only reason a company needs to align internal and external messages. Another reason is to help push the company to achieve goals that might otherwise be out of reach. In 1997, when IBM launched its e-business campaign (widely credited with turning around the company’s image), it chose to ignore research suggesting that consumers were not ready to embrace IBM as a leader in e-business. Although to the outside world this looked like an external marketing effort, IBM was also using the campaign to align employees around the idea of the Internet as the future of technology. The internal campaign changed the way employees thought about everything they did, from how they named products to how they organized staff and approached sales. The campaign was successful largely because it gave employees a sense of direction and purpose, which in turn restored their confidence in IBM’s ability to predict the future and lead the technology industry. Today, research shows that people are four times more likely to associate the term “e-business” with IBM than with its nearest competitor, Microsoft.

[Section C] The type of “two-way branding” that IBM executed so successfully strengthens both sides of the equation. Internal marketing becomes stronger because it can draw on the same “big idea” as advertising. Consumer marketing becomes stronger because messages are developed based on employee behavior and attitudes, as well as the company’s strengths and capabilities – indeed, the themes are drawn from the very “soul” of the company. This process can result in a more distinct advertising idea because marketers are more likely to create a unique message for the company.

[Section D] Perhaps even more importantly, by taking employees into account, a company can avoid creating a message that does not resonate with staff or, worse, causes resentment. In 1996, United Airlines shelved its “Come Fly the Friendly Skies” slogan when presented with a survey revealing the depth of customer resentment toward the airline industry. In an effort to own up to the industry’s shortcomings, United launched a new campaign, “Rising,” in which it sought to differentiate itself by acknowledging poor service and promising incremental improvements such as better meals. While this was a logical premise for the campaign given the tenor of the times, a campaign focusing on customers’ distaste for flying was deeply discouraging to staff. Employee resentment ultimately made it impossible for United to deliver the improvements it promised, which in turn undermined the “Rising” pledge. Three years later, United decided that employee opposition was undermining its success and pulled the campaign. Since then, it has moved to a more inclusive brand message with the line “United,” which both audiences can embrace. Here, a fundamental principle of advertising – find and address a customer concern – failed United because it did not consider the internal market.

[Section E] When it comes to execution, the most common and effective way to link internal and external marketing campaigns is to create external advertising that targets both audiences. IBM used this tactic very effectively when it launched its e-business campaign. It took out an eight-page ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring its new vision, a message directed at both customers and internal stakeholders. This is an expensive way to capture attention, but if used sparingly, it is the most powerful form of communication; in fact, you only need to do it once for everyone in the company to read it. There is also a symbolic advantage. Such a tactic signals that the company is taking its pledge very seriously; it also signals transparency – the same message going out to both audiences.

[Section F] Advertising is not the only way to link internal and external marketing. At Nike, a number of senior executives now hold the additional title of “Corporate Storyteller.” They deliberately avoid stories of financial success and concentrate on parables of “just doing it,” helping to reflect and reinforce the company’s ad campaigns. For example, one story recalls how legendary coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, in an effort to build a better shoe for his team, poured rubber into the family waffle iron, giving birth to the prototype of Nike’s famous Waffle Sole. By talking about such inventive moves, the company hopes to keep the spirit of innovation – a hallmark of its ad campaigns – alive and thriving within the company.

[Section G] However, while messages must be aligned, companies must also keep external promises slightly ahead of internal realities. Such promises provide incentives for employees and give them something to live up to. In the 1980s, Ford turned “Quality is Job!” from an internal rallying cry into a consumer slogan in response to the threat from cheaper, more reliable Japanese cars. It did so before the claim was fully justified, but by placing it in the public arena, it gave employees an incentive to match the Japanese. However, if the promise is pushed too far ahead of reality, it loses credibility. When a beleaguered British Rail launched a campaign announcing service improvements under the banner “We’re Getting There,” it did so prematurely. By drawing attention to the gap between promise and reality, it prompted destructive press coverage. This, in turn, demoralized staff, who had been legitimately proud of the service advances they had made.

Summary of Academic Vocabulary in the Reading

• Mismatched (adj): Not matching, out of sync.

• Integrity (n): Honesty, moral uprightness.

• Resonate (v): To evoke empathy or strike a chord.

• Resentment (n): A feeling of bitterness or indignation.

• Shortcomings (n): Flaws, deficiencies.

• Incremental (adj): Increasing gradually.

• Undermine (v): To weaken or sabotage.

• Stakeholders (n): Parties with an interest in the company.

• Parables (n): Allegorical stories or symbolic tales.

• Demoralize (v): To discourage or lower morale.

Answers and Detailed Explanations

28. D (One health insurance Company)

Explanation: Section A notes the company advertised patient priority but told employees to prioritize cost-cutting (internal/external mismatch).

29. C (British Rail)

Explanation: Section G mentions the “We’re Getting There” campaign was launched too early, leading to negative press and demoralized staff.

30. B (IBM)

Explanation: Section B notes the e-business campaign aligned employees and helped IBM outperform competitor Microsoft.

31. F (United Airline)

Explanation: Section D notes the “Rising” campaign focused on negatives, causing employee opposition and failing to improve service.

32. C (A financial service company)

Explanation: Section A notes this company promised a shift to advisory services but failed to change employee behavior, resulting in no change to customer experience.

33. A (A Shoemaking company – Nike)

Explanation: Section F describes telling the story of Bill Bowerman using a waffle iron to inspire innovation.

34. E (The Company of Ford)

Explanation: Section G notes Ford used a quality slogan to create a realistic incentive for employees to catch up with Japanese competitors.

35. FALSE

Explanation: Section A states that in most companies, messages are often mismatched, not successfully aligned.

36. TRUE

Explanation: The end of Section B states people are four times more likely to associate e-business with IBM than with Microsoft.

37. TRUE

Explanation: Section D confirms United Airlines shelved its old slogan after a 1996 survey.

38. NOT GIVEN

Explanation: Section F only mentions telling stories to keep the spirit of innovation alive; it does not explicitly state that this “improved company performance.”

39 & 40. B, E

B: Launching inspiring internal campaigns (IBM, Nike).

E: Applying an appropriate slogan (Ford, IBM).

The reading on Internal and External Marketing is clear proof that communication cannot be separated from the human element in business. Studying the full text helps you grasp subtle linguistic nuances, such as the difference between “acknowledging shortcomings” and “inspiring real-world action.” This is a core skill for not only solving “Matching deeds” questions but also avoiding traps regarding absolutes (e.g., “almost all,” “most”) in True/False/Not Given questions. May you apply these management terms well to improve your speed and accuracy in upcoming complex Reading passages.