Customer-contact employees (CCEs) are integral facilitators of the product or service proposition a company offers its customers (Chase 1978, Parasuraman et al. 1985). In effect, for a company to be perceived as providing its products and services effectively and profitably, employees' job attitudes must be viewed positively by customers. An employee's job attitudes, which could be innate or firm-driven, have been shown to affect his/her overall job performance (Abraham 2000; Dean et al. 1998). According to Yim et al. (2012), to get the best benefit from customer-focused firm actions, management should ensure satisfaction of both its target customers and its employees. An example of firm actions that are generally believed to focus only on customer satisfaction is external marketing messages (e.g., ad campaigns; Gilly and Wolfinbarger 2010). Although strategically designed for external audiences, marketing messages also communicate organizational culture, mission, priorities, etc., to employees, particularly boundary spanners whose role is often featured in these communications. In their study of multiple companies and industries, Gilly and Wolfinbarger (1998) found that employees evaluate company advertising messages on the basis of quality, value consistency, and effectiveness. When employees identify with marketing campaign messages, their organizational commitment and performance is expected to improve, but a campaign which builds unrealistic customer expectations could negatively affect employees' j ob attributes, further undermining the organization's ability to deliver on its promise and retain quality customers.
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