How a Corporate Influencer Co-creates Brand Meaning: The Case of Pawel Dillinger from Deutsche Telekom

Research on the internal anchorage of a brand constitutes an important building block of the brand management discipline. Considering this, the increasing importance of a positive overall brand experience along all brand touch points has resulted in a parallel increase in the importance of how employees can live the brand. Corporate influencers, an area of study that is to date underresearched, could be a vehicle to authentically bring a brand’s identity closer not only to customers but also to employees. Therefore, our research focuses on the question of how a corporate influencer expresses the positioning of a corporate brand to internal audiences. To gain a deeper understanding of the instruments and tactics of an impactful corporate influencer, we chose an in-depth case study approach. We selected Pawel Dillinger, an informal corporate influencer of the German telecommunication brand Deutsche Telekom, and deeply analyzed his use of an internal social media platform to promote the corporate brand. Our research presents content categories and communication styles, underpins the role of authenticity in internal brand management, and illustrates how a brand ambassador contributes to the enacting of the values of a corporate brand. We do so by offering seven propositions characterizing the communication habits of a corporate influencer.