The Personal Brand. A New Instrument for Increasing Competitiveness

Ilze Rassa

Today's customer has become more discriminating in deciding which product or service to purchase. The “human” or personality factor plays an increasingly larger role in every sector and profession, as the customer has the desire to create a relationship with a brand, which is why brands are becoming more “humane”.

One of the ways of creating a more humane brand is to use the personal brands of employees and managers. These will ensure that a potential customer remembers and trusts us or our company's employees as experts and professionals in their field. Today, a personal brand is capital and its cultivation has become a necessity. The clearer, more interesting and diverse the personal brand, the greater the professional and social value.

In this course, you will find out how a personal brand develops, and how to cultivate it and maintain it. A personal brand does not have to be a goal in itself, but rather an aid for highlighting one’s idea, knowledge, values and mission. 

Aim of the course: To find out about the practice of polishing one’s personal brand and the opportunities this brings. To strengthen one's competitiveness in the work or product/services market or to also help one’s employees – experts, customer services specialists, salespeople, or managers to stand out among competitors, to be noticed and to remain in the minds of potential customers, as well as to be considered experts in their field.

Benefits:

• An understanding about what a personal brand is and the benefits that it provides to both a professional and the organization in which they operate.
• The ability to utilize personal capital to strengthen one's competitiveness in the market
• The learning of techniques for showing one’s uniqueness in the market
• The skills for creating the story and positioning of one’s brand
• Your uniqueness, value and strength are defined
• An understanding about various personal branding instruments
• The development of the most suitable range of instruments for reaching your target audience
• An understanding of how to use social media more successfully for strengthening your brand
• Suggestions for creating the image of an expert, opinion leader or professional in the market

Duration: 2 x 3 hours

Target audience: company employees or experts in their field, who care about their reputation and who wish to attract customers and improve their company’s competitiveness through the strengthening of their positive image.

Working method: a lecture, answers to questions, examples and observations from practice, practical work individually or in groups.

The active involvement of participants is a precondition for a successful training process!

Programme:

In the first part of the course, we will find out about the foundations for developing personal branding and how to create one’s brand to strengthen one's image and competitiveness.

In the second part, we'll find out about various instruments and channels which are used in the process of brand strengthening when addressing one's target audience.  

Session 1. The story of the personal brand. What am I? (3 hours)

• Personal branding – its role and importance in the contemporary employment and services market
• Personal branding and company branding: competitors or in tandem?
• The growth in the role of the Human-to-Human marketing communication trend 
• The positioning of a personal brand
• The personal brand story, its creation and practical application
• Practical work: creating a personal brand story (individually or in groups)
• Feedback

Session 2. Instruments for polishing one’s personal brand (3 hours)

• Direct and online personal brand polishing instruments
• Reputation and its evaluation
• The arsenal of personal branding instruments which a company can provide 
• Personal branding instruments which one can develop oneself
• Personal branding and social media
• Practical work: developing a plan for reaching the target audience
• Feedback

The online seminar will take place on the ZOOM platform. Ensure that your computer has a good internet connection, camera, headphones and a microphone. The online link will be sent to you by email.

If this is required at the corporate level, the programme can be adapted to the specific nature and needs of the company.