The long-term insurance industry in the country is characterised by 75 registered financial services providers, with five (Sanlam Limited, Discovery Limited, Old Mutual Limited, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings Limited and Liberty Holdings Limited) dominating the market in terms of total rand value worth – between R725 million and R2764 million (ASISA 2023; Hagedorn-Hansen 2017; KPMG 2022). The South African long-term insurance industry aids the economy through policy payouts that contribute directly to the economy and indirect contributions via capital investments (ASISA 2023; StatsSA 2023; Van der Merwe et al. 2020).

The South African long-term insurance industry is highly competitive and relies on its experienced workforce to provide high-quality customer service and build trust with clients (Du Preez 2017; Kruger 2018). This is particularly applicable to IFAs, whose role entails liaising with clients, primarily to sell long-term insurance products, in conjunction with developing relationships with clients that allow for the provision of ongoing financial planning advice (Ainiyah, Nelloh & Sjahrifa 2020; Van der Merwe et al. 2020).

Consequently, effective and committed employees are a source of competitive advantage, particularly with customers becoming more demanding and sales pressures increasing (Hung et al. 2018). This is considered within the context of the South African long-term insurance industry facing increased competition and economic pressure. South African consumers endure increased costs of living and less disposable income, making it harder to sell policies and leading to more policy lapses (Deloitte 2022). Fewer long-term insurance policies mean fewer South Africans are protected against life-changing events, and fewer people are eligible for payouts. The money paid out to customers benefits the insured and contributes to the South African economy’s revenue flow. In 2022, this amounted to R578bn being put back into the country’s economy (ASISA 2023; StatsSA 2023).

Internal marketing has been established as a marketing strategy targeting employees, specifically as internal customers. Therefore, internal marketing strategies are designed to satisfy internal customers’ needs, just as external marketing strategies are designed to satisfy external customers’ needs. The goal of all marketing, including internal marketing, is retention (Ieong & Lam 2016; Qaisar & Muhamad 2021; Yi et al. 2023). Internal marketing takes a strategic approach to internal relationship management, identifying the right individuals to employ, preparing them for the employment exchange through motivation and training, and enabling them to perform at their best within the employment exchange (Papasolomou et al. 2017; Ristic, Mujanovic & Damnjanovic 2018), while working towards their employers’ shared vision (ed. Dadwal 2019; Paul & Shahadev 2018). Consequently, internal marketing activities strive to create a favourable internal environment that fosters co-operation, open communication and alignment with employers’ values (Ristic et al. 2018). Internal marketing originates from the traditional marketing mix elements, adapted to suit the internal customer – namely internal product, internal price, internal place and internal promotion (Paul & Shahadev 2018). With internal marketing displaying the services marketing characteristic of inseparability, where internal customers interact with other employers’ processes and the physical environment, internal marketing itself is required to be more service-orientated in nature. Thus, internal people, internal processes and internal physical evidence make up the services marketing mix for internal marketing (Abbas et al. 2018; Hoang et al. 2018; Vel et al. 2019). In addition, research supports the proposition to include additional internal marketing mix elements to further strengthen internal customers’ satisfaction (Grönroos 2020).

The expansion of the internal marketing mix is encouraged by Selvarasu (2017). The inspiration behind the inclusion of the additional elements is drawn from previous research. The inclusion of internal political power and internal performance management stems from the work of De Bruin (2019), with the addition of internal personal relationships motivated by the research of Nowlin, Walker and Azana (2018). Internal packaging was included following the findings of Chang et al. (2019) and internal positioning was found to enhance the employment offering by Djurdjevic et al. (2017). The inclusion of additional elements in the internal marketing mix is a method of enhancing the value internal customers perceive to be offered in the employment exchange, attracting and retaining internal customers (Grönroos 2020; Yu et al. 2019).

Relationship marketing theory, social exchange theory and expectancy disconfirmation theory provide the theoretical foundation of this study. Relationship marketing theory recognises the importance of building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships in the business environment with internal (employees) and external customers (Berry 1983; Jiang & Shen 2023; Morgan & Hunt 1994). From an internal perspective, relationship marketing establishes and maintains long-term relationships with employees (Akhmetshin et al. 2019). The relationship marketing component of commitment functions to stimulate employees’ desire to remain employed by their employers (Arasanmi & Krishna 2019; Ngoma & Ntale 2019). Social exchange theory emphasises high-quality social relationships (Blau 1986), specifically between employers and employees, which lead to increased employee satisfaction (Salas-Vallina, Alegre & López-Cabrales 2021; Yi et al. 2023). This study uses social exchange theory to support the proposed interrelationship between financial advisors’ perceived value and their employee satisfaction levels. Expectancy disconfirmation theory is applied in support of the idea that when employees receive the benefits they expect from an employment exchange, they are more likely to remain in that exchange (Arasanmi & Krishna 2019; Oh & Ma 2018). Employers’ internal offerings communicate to employees what to expect from the employment exchange, with internal marketing then used to deliver on those expectations (Arasanmi & Krishna 2019; Mainardes, Rodrigues & Teixeira 2019).

Internal product refers to the work employees perform (Sahibzada et al. 2019). It comprises the fit between the job and employees, role clarity, workload assigned as part of the job, training and development that takes place within the job, career opportunities and meaningfulness of the work. These components of internal product add functional benefits to employee perceived value by offering employees meaningful work and opportunities for growth and career advancement within a specified working environment (Jung & Suh 2019). Fewer physical and psychological costs are perceived by employees when the internal product offers an appropriate workload and role clarity (Coetzee, Ferreira & Potgieter 2019).

Internal place refers to the work environment where the employment occurs. Employees should have access to workplaces that are safe and suitable for the work that needs to be performed, with access to the necessary resources (Sahibzada et al. 2019). The work environment can provide value to employees through the provision of conditions that make the work performance easy and effective, with easy access to internal suppliers and other resources, within a workplace culture where employees share values (Bhatt 2020). Scholars (Abdelmoteleb 2020; Medina & Prieto 2022) have confirmed the relationship between employees’ working environment and their value perceptions.

Internal price encompasses payments for services rendered, including salary, commission, incentives and benefits relating to the costs employees incur to perform those services (Mura et al. 2019). Through remuneration, including the correct mix of fixed pay, incentives and additional benefits, employers are better able to attract and retain the best employees (Frye et al. 2020). Remuneration may also be intrinsic, such as socially rewarding relationships built through the employment exchange (Redelinghuys 2017). As such, internal marketing intends to provide more perceived benefits to employees and increase the value perceived within their jobs, setting internal price at the correct level to offset effort expenditure (Asaari, Desa & Subramaniam 2019). Huang et al. (2020) concurred, stating that employees perceive physical and psychological costs as reducing the value offered in the employment exchange.

Internal promotion encapsulates internal communication directed at employees. The most obvious internal promotion would be communication flowing from management, aligning employees with employers’ values and goals (Nemteanu & Dabija 2021). The internal promotion element also includes two-way communication between employees and employers, allowing employers to better understand how to meet employees’ needs, and internal activities designed to build a sense of community within the employment exchange (Cloteau 2018). Employers use internal promotion to engage with employees through communication, thus establishing emotional connections. The more employers engage with their employees, the more value is perceived in the communication directed to them (Špoljarić & Verčič 2022).

Considering the aforementioned discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed:

Within the employment exchange, employees interact with other employees, including peers and those in positions of authority (De Bruin 2019). Internal people strategically utilise the internal interactions between themselves and other employees to increase the value perceived in the employment exchange. Employees in positions of authority who utilise their position to positively influence the employment exchange contribute to the value perceived by those whom they manage. Employees in positions of authority also set the standard for how other employee interactions should occur within the employment exchange (Akbari et al. 2017). Through the leveraging of the internal people element, employers can encourage more supportive interactions between employees at all levels of the organisation, which contributes positively to employees’ value perceptions of the employment exchange (Cheng 2020).

Internal processes support employees in their performance of the work tasks required as part of internal product acknowledgement (De Bruin 2019). Internal processes should be designed to assist employees in performing their tasks and not purely to reduce costs. They are more valuable to employees when they enable workflows to run efficiently and assist employees in performing their tasks well, without incurring unnecessary administrative pressures (Boakye 2018). As such, internal processes save employees’ time and improve their performance and add value to the employment exchange (De Bruin 2019; Huang et al. 2020).

Internal physical evidence accounts for the tangible aspects of the employment exchange (Vel et al. 2019). This element adds to the tangible appeal of the employment exchange and workspace functionality (Agbozo et al. 2017). While internal place provides the workplace, internal physical evidence maintains the workplace’s aesthetic appeal (Chan & Tay 2018). Furthermore, internal physical evidence serves as evidence of work performed, such as documents that evidence information exchanges (Gladka & Fedorova 2019; Pakurár et al. 2019). Therefore, internal physical evidence adds to the perceived value of the employment exchange by drawing attention to aspects of functionality and streamlining of work output, making work processes more appealing to employees (Victor & Hoole 2017).

From the aforementioned, the following hypotheses are formulated:

Internal political power equates to social influence. The support employees can generate from others within the employment exchange reflects the political power they have (Berthelsen et al. 2019). When employees know they can exert some influence to gain support from others, they feel positive affective and cognitive benefits (Naz et al. 2020). Employees perceive there to be more value in the employment exchange, as the political power they are able to exert within that exchange feels empowering and the employees feel respected by those they have influence over (Im & Chen 2020).

Internal personal relationships refer to the relationships that may be formed between individual employees and peers, superiors or management. The ability to form personal relationships within the workplace creates a sense of belonging (Nowlin et al. 2018; Yi et al. 2023). Internal personal relationships increase employees’ value perceptions as they become more socialised within the employment exchange, which brings additional benefits, such as productivity, satisfaction and commitment (Pathak & Srivastava 2017; Vieira-dos Santos & Gonçalves 2018). Positive internal personal relationships let employees benefit from trust, confidence and collaboration among the internal people they work with (Victor & Hoole 2017).

Internal packaging encompasses the presentation of the internal product element to employees. The way employees’ tasks are presented affects how they perceive the work (Rasheed et al. 2020). The packaging of tasks includes the consistent application of internal branding, operating procedures and standardisation of output (Chang et al. 2021; Gill-Simmen et al. 2018; Yildiz & Kara 2017). Together, internal packaging and internal physical evidence can increase the value signalled to employees. Internal packaging allows employees to present tasks to fellow employees in such a way that they appear enjoyable and simpler to perform (Yildiz & Kara 2017). Employers may utilise internal packaging to increase work attractiveness, as perceived by employees, satisfying a need for easy-to-follow operating procedures (Biswas et al. 2017).

Internal performance management concerns employees being aware of how well they are performing their tasks, as required by the internal product element. Within the employment exchange, there should be measures to track employee performance. Beginning with the provision of clear performance standards, internal performance management also requires the communication of job requirements, the implementation of evaluation systems allowing employees to measure their performance, and a feedback system (Smith & Bititci 2017). Employees value regular feedback on their performance, as it allows them to track their achievement of work requirements and motivates them to improve their performance (Lechermeier, Fassnacht & Wagner 2020).

Internal positioning relates to employees’ standing in relation to others within the employment exchange. Employees’ internal position relative to their peers influences how employees feel about the employment exchange, including how satisfied they are with their position (Ristic et al. 2018). Internal positioning adds to the benefits employees perceive in the employment offering, as a higher standing equates to a more powerful or respected position and adds meaningfulness to the work (Daradkeh 2023).

Considering the given discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed:

An increase in employees’ perceived value will enhance their satisfaction levels within the employment exchange (Pathak & Srivastava 2017). When employees evaluate the employment exchange, they assess the various value-adding benefits offered by employers in relation to the sacrifices employees must make while earning those benefits. An exchange is deemed valuable when the benefits earned exceed the sacrifices (Rzemieniak & Wawer 2021). Research shows that when employees perceive the exchange to be valuable, they are more satisfied with the exchange made (Strenitzerová & Achimský 2019). Thus, if employees find value in the employment exchange, they are more likely to be satisfied. Against this background, the following hypothesis is proposed:

Turnover intention encompasses the likelihood of individuals engaging in behaviour to gain alternative employment to voluntarily leave their current employment (Caillier 2021). Turnover intention has an indirect relationship with employee satisfaction, as the higher the satisfaction level in the employment exchange, the lower employees’ intention to leave will be (Wang & Wang 2020). Research validates the claim that when employers implement actions that increase employee satisfaction, turnover intention decreases (Choi & Chiu 2017; Tosun & Ulusoy 2017). Considering the aforesaid discussion, the following hypothesis is formulated:

When employees decide they want to look for alternative employment, the commitment they feel towards their employers’ brands may have some influence. Brand commitment may be a useful moderator in securing long-term employment relationships, stemming from how appealing employees find the employer’s brand and how attached they are to it (Monteiro et al. 2020). Appealing brands have a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining employees, as they are viewed as attractive places to work (Carlini et al. 2019; Slavković et al. 2018). When employees feel attached to their employers’ brands, they feel part of the brands (Arasanmi & Krishna 2019). Accordingly, when employees experience brand commitment, they are less likely to consider seeking alternative employment (Dechawatanapaisal 2018; Gill-Simmen et al. 2018). As such, it is hypothesised that:

Figure 1 depicts the proposed empirical model for this study, illustrating the hypothesised relationships between the constructs of the study.

The study was positivistic and descriptive in nature (De Meyer-Heydenrych & Struweg 2021). The study targeted IFAs at registered financial service providers in South Africa (Burns & Bush 2020). The study’s sample selection constituted three phases. Phase one was based on judgement sampling, where the financial services providers were selected. In phases two and three, convenience and snowball sampling were used to select the IFAs for this study. In total, 410 respondents were sampled from the target population of financial advisors employed at South Africa’s 20 most significant long-term financial services providers, in terms of share of new business (KPMG 2021).

A structured, self-administered questionnaire was prepared as the data collection instrument, with sampled financial advisors volunteering to rate their agreement or disagreement with statements relating to the study’s constructs. Respondents had to rate their agreement or disagreement on a five-point scale (1 = ‘strong disagreement’; 5 = ‘strong agreement’). The questionnaire’s closed-ended questionnaires were adapted from previously tested data collection tools and chosen based on their suitability to the study’s objectives and hypotheses. As outlined in Table 1, each construct’s items were obtained from various sources (Barkhuizen 2005; Chang et al. 2021; Cohen 1993; De Bruin 2019; Djurdjevic et al. 2017; Frye et al. 2020; Nowlin et al. 2018; Park et al. 2010; Vasantha & Vinoth 2017).

The questionnaire was organised into sections. Section A included questions screening respondents for suitability for the study, based on the sample requirements of respondents having worked for more than 12 months as an IFA for one of the South African financial services providers included for analysis. Section B comprised questions on the demographic characteristics of the financial advisors who participated in the study. Section C consisted of questions on the extent of implementation of the internal marketing mix elements by employing financial services providers. Section D contained questions on financial advisors’ value perceptions, while Section E questioned financial advisors’ satisfaction. Section F included questions related to financial advisors’ brand commitment to their employers. To conclude, Section G questioned financial advisors’ turnover intentions. The sample size target was 500 financial advisors and 410 usable responses were gathered. Full ethical consideration was given to the study, including informing respondents of the study’s nature and purpose, participation being voluntary with the freedom to withdraw at any time, attention being paid to potential bias, and the protection of the financial advisors’ anonymity and confidentiality.

Data were collected via a quantitative, self-administered online questionnaire. A reputable research agency was hired for data collection, which adhered to South African protection of private information regulations. Ten fieldworkers residing in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa were employed by the research agency to collect data from respondents. The research agency identified potential respondents through voluntary opt-in procedures and industry contacts. Only respondents who adhered to screening questions stipulated for participation in this study could be considered. The fieldworkers contacted the potential respondents, requesting their voluntary participation in completing the self-administered questionnaire via email. Completed questionnaires were returned to the requesting fieldworker after completion. In terms of the online data collection process, the questionnaire was distributed via Google Forms. Respondents who completed the questionnaire were also asked to refer other potential respondents to secure higher levels of participation. Therefore, the final sample was secured through the application of convenience and snowball sampling to ensure the inclusion of the final sample elements in the study. Data were collected over a 2-month period, with 410 usable questionnaires being collected for analysis.

After the data were edited and cleaned, they were entered into SPSS 24.0. Using SPSS 24.0, frequencies and descriptive statistics were calculated to obtain insights into respondents’ demographic profile; their internal marketing, perceived value, satisfaction and employee turnover intention perceptions; and the 74 items measuring the five constructs of the study, with internal marketing comprising 12 sub-constructs. The measurement model and structural model were assessed using Amos 24.0.

Ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the University of Johannesburg School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems Research Ethics Committee, the ethical number is 2022SCiiS031.

The study’s respondents were aged 27–45 years, with 52.20% being male and 42.80% being female. Most respondents (30.50%) had a college and/or university diploma, followed by those with a university degree (29.80%). Most respondents (81.20%) had completed their regulatory industry examination and had been with their employer from 5 to 10 years (31.50%), with 87.10% of respondents having returned to the office to fulfil their work duties. Moreover, the results indicated a mean monthly gross salary of R20 0001 – R40 000. The highest-employing financial services providers were Old Mutual Life Assurance (19%), Liberty Group (15%) and Absa Life (12%).

With the aid of Amos 24.0, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on the 74-item, 16-construct model to determine its psychometric properties. The model was specified and adjusted based on the removal of items in the internal product and internal price constructs, resulting in the merger of these two constructs to form the construct internal product acknowledgement (subsequently hypothesis 3 was removed from the study). Furthermore, the modification indices calculated to improve the model fit – in this instance, the root mean square error of estimation (RMSE) – were also adjusted (Jöreskog & Sörbom 1993). The adjustments made to the model can be supported by literature because covariances were only included between error terms of items measuring the same construct (Wang 2014).

The final measurement model indicated a good fit, with all indices at or near a satisfactory level (see Table 2). The absolute indices for normed Chi-square and RMSE met the acceptable level at 2.174 (less than 3) and 0.054 (less than 0.070), respectively. At 0.839, the goodness-of-fit index (GFI) met the 0.80–0.90 acceptable level. The standardised root mean square residual (SRMR) was also at an acceptable level (0.428) because the value was < 0.80. Both incremental indices fell within the acceptable range, with the comparative fit index (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) being greater than 0.90 (0.937 and 0.925, respectively).

Table 3 summarises the various reliability and validity scores of the items used to measure the constructs of the study, including factor loadings, means and standard deviations (SDs), Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability (CR) and average variance explained (AVE). The results show that the mean scores vary between 2.19 and 4.43, with SDs of 0.545–1.444. The results (Table 3) confirm the regularity between the items measuring the study’s constructs. The Cronbach’s alpha scores fell above the 0.700 threshold, varying between 0.770 and 0.964 (Hair et al. 2014). The CR scores for all constructs (internal marketing, service quality and perceived customer satisfaction) varied between 0.791 and 0.937, exceeding the 0.7 cut-off. A comparison between the Cronbach’s alpha and CR results revealed all scores fell within the acceptable levels of reliability. Furthermore, the validity of the constructs used in this study’s model was assessed by investigating convergent and discriminant validity through a CFA. All items held factor loading values above the 0.5 threshold, as stipulated by Hair et al. (2014), implying convergent validity. The AVE was also calculated as an additional assessment of convergent validity, with scores for all the constructs exceeding the 0.5 threshold, thus confirming convergent validity for the scales applied to the study (Hair et al. 2014).

Discriminant validity was also determined by establishing whether the constructs’ AVEs exceeded the corresponding inter-construct correlations. Table 4 provides insight into the correlation and square root of the AVE matrix, and the results show that the square root of the AVEs for all constructs is greater than their correlations with other constructs, hence confirming discriminant validity

After evaluating the model’s psychometric properties and testing underlying assumptions, the structural properties had to be assessed. Like the measurement model, the following goodness-of-fit measures were assessed: CMIN/DF, DF, p-value, GFI, TLI, SRM and RMSE (see Table 5).

Table 6 provides insight into the findings concerning the study’s hypotheses. The table shows that 6 of the 14 hypotheses proposed are accepted.

Considering the given discussion, the following model is proposed.

The study’s results show certain elements of the internal marketing mix significantly and positively influence perceived value, which impacts employee satisfaction. In addition, brand commitment has a moderating effect on the employee satisfaction-turnover intention relationship. These results confirm previous research findings where it was also found that the more value employees perceived in their jobs, the more satisfied they were (Rzemieniak & Wawer 2021; Strenitzerová & Achimský 2019).

Based on the study’s results, internal marketing should be implemented more strategically in the South African long-term insurance industry. Financial services providers should strive to follow a more structured, systematic approach to internal marketing implementation. All internal marketing mix elements should hold equal importance and enhance IFAs’ perceptions of the value in the employment exchange. Internal marketing mix elements that are currently perceived by IFAs as being well implemented should be held as the benchmark, with the implementation of the other internal marketing mix elements seeking to achieve the same, enhance IFAs’ perceived value, improve employee satisfaction and reduce IFAs’ turnover intentions. As such, the following guidelines are proposed.