Inspired by Aaker’s (1991) notion of a strong brand, Ambler and Barrow (1996, p. 187)
define the employer brand as: “the package of functional, economic and psychological
benefits provided by employment, and identified with the employing company”.
The definition has later become a key definition in research on employer branding, thus
rooting present research on employer branding in the underlying assumptions that have
guided the classical branding paradigm (e.g. static, sender focused and independent of
any relational influences, cf. Csaba and Bengtsson, 2006), and furthermore framed in
relation to obsolete organizational contexts and challenges (Schultz, 2005) without
consideration for the societal demand of corporate sustainability. Following this notion,
current conceptualisations of employer branding are characterized by: