PERSONAL BRAND OF A CEO AS A TOOL FOR IMPLICIT PROMOTION OF THE COMPANY BRAND: CASE OF SERGEK GROUP

In the modern world, a leader’s personal brand plays an important role in shaping the company’s image and reputation, as well as in attracting and retaining customers, partners and employees. A leader’s personal brand is the totality of his personal and professional qualities, values, competencies, style and lifestyle, which are reflected in his behavior, communication and interaction with others. A leader’s personal brand can be an effective tool for implicit promotion of a company, that is, promotion that does not impose its product or service on the consumer, but rather creates a positive impression of the company, its values, mission and culture.

The purpose of this study is to study the influence of the CEO’s personal brand on the implicit promotion of the company; the case of the company Sergek will be used to clearly illustrate the methods and technologies of this kind of promotion Group.

Sergek Group is a Kazakh company that develops and implements innovative solutions in the field of security, transport and urban management. The founders and CEOs of the company are the brothers Kairat and Aset Akhmetov. At the moment, the company faces an important task - building a positive image and positioning. This is due to the fact that the company Sergek Group, for the most part, is associated by many consumers with “penalty cameras,” that is, with video surveillance and monitoring systems for traffic violations, which are one of the company’s products, but not its only or main offering on the market.

This is clearly confirmed by Google ^* data. Trends . The queries that Kazakhstanis most often made in connection with the request “Sergek ” were “Camera”, “Fine” and “Speed” [1]. The research hypothesis is that the development of the personal brand of the founders of Sergek Group , Kairat and Aset Akhmetov, will allow the brand to change its positioning from “fining cameras” to “an advanced tool that ensures the safety of cities.” To test the hypothesis, the following methods will be used: analysis of literature on the research topic, review of well-known cases, modeling, as well as content analysis of publications on social networks and the media.

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that in conditions of high competition and information noise, companies need effective ways to promote their products and services, as well as to form trusting and long-term relationships with stakeholders. A leader's personal brand can be one such way if it aligns with the company's goals, values and strategy, and takes into account the needs and expectations of consumers.

The main material for study will be the article “How the Akhmetov brothers created Sergek and reduced mortality on the roads,” published on the Forbes portal Kazakhstan . Based on it, a content analysis will be carried out. However, even earlier, to form a hypothesis, an analysis of popular queries related to the brand under study was carried out through the Google ^* service Trends . The platform provides regional data (Kazakhstan was selected) for a specified period (30 days), displaying the most frequent queries in connection with the selected topic ( Sergek ).

As of January 24, 2024, the largest pool of requests was formed by the combination Sergek + Camera ( Google ^* platform Trends gave this combination a score of 100.) In second place is Sergek + Penalty (59 points), in fourth place is Sergek + Speed (10 points). Third place went to the combination Sergek + Aktau, which has nothing to do with this study.

In addition, specialized literature will be used to model the strategy for further development of the personal brand of the founders of Sergek Group and conducting the theoretical part of this study. A CEO’s personal brand is the image that is formed about him in the professional community, among clients, partners and company employees. A leader's personal brand reflects their personality, leadership, expertise , values, mission and unique selling proposition. A CEO’s personal brand helps to stand out among competitors, gain the trust and loyalty of the audience, increase the company’s recognition and reputation, attract and retain talented employees, increase sales and profits [2].

The personal brand of a leader in Kazakhstan has its own characteristics associated with cultural, economic and social factors. For example, in Kazakhstan it is important to take into account national traditions, value family and friendly ties, demonstrate social responsibility and patriotism, adapt to a rapidly changing market, use modern technologies and digital communication channels, and develop international cooperation and innovation. Examples of personal brands of executives in Kazakhstan can be found among entrepreneurs, owners of media holdings , publishing houses, TV channels, magazines, telecommunications companies, airlines and other businesses. For example, Armanzhan Baytasov, Beibit Alibekov,  Asel Zhakieva, Aidarbek Zhaksybekov, Aydin Rakhimbaev and others.

I would especially like to highlight the role of a leader’s personal brand in technology companies. Both foreign examples (Steve Jobs and Apple, Pavel Durov and Telegram) and local ones (Mikhail Lomtadze and Kaspi) are excellent. A bright, charismatic genius, an industry leader increases trust, increases consumer loyalty and connects closely with the brand and product, creating the so-called “added value”. The image of such a leader also helps to build the positioning of the product, to give a difficult-to- understand concept a simple and understandable design, a certain face that the consumer can easily recognize.

The potential of a leader’s personal brand is enormous. So, according to the Weber PR agency Shandwick, a strong personal brand of a leader increases the attractiveness of the company’s brand for investors in the eyes of 87% of respondents, and 83% of respondents are confident that a strong brand of a leader helps build the right positioning in the media [3]. In the context of this study, the personal brand of a leader has an even more difficult task. According to this hypothesis, a CEO’s personal brand can help change the organically formed idea of the company, help overcome objections and increase audience loyalty. The best example is the article “How the Akhmetov brothers created Sergek and reduced the death rate on the roads” [4]. This article deconstructs the image of young startup entrepreneurs who decided to change the world for the better. Data about their childhood is provided, which allows us to present the characters in more detail: Kairat studied abroad, participated in international physics Olympiads. Aset stayed at home and took care of his family. All this allows us to humanize an initially technological brand through the stories of its creators.

Executives also note that they faced the problem that foreign solutions were not suitable for the Kazakh market, thereby emphasizing the individuality of the country.

In the interview, the Akhmetov brothers communicate a simple key message: “Our task is to reduce deaths on the roads and make the cities of Kazakhstan safer.”

The speakers support their idea with factual data: “During the first year of the system’s operation, the number of deaths in road accidents in Astana decreased by 43%, from 60 to 34 cases, and remains at the same level; in Almaty for 2019–2022 - from 138 to 81; in Shymkent for 2020–2022 - from 57 to 38.”

This material caused an immediate surge of interest in the company and its founders. In particular, Google ^*Trends notes an increase in the number of requests on the topic of Kairat Akhmetov by 200% after the publication of the article in September 2023 [5].

This article is strikingly different from the information provided on the company’s official website and its pages on social networks. It is she who is able to solve several brand problems at once:

Shift the focus from the product and its functionality to the company’s mission;

Formulate and convey the brand mission;

Change the context of publications about the brand in the media space;

Build a personal brand of the founders and use it to promote the company’s activities;

Instill pride in a domestic IT product.

Ultimately, this article helps in realizing the brand's intended goal: changing the positioning from “A state-owned company that imposes fines” to “A Kazakhstan IT company that creates a safe and environmentally friendly urban environment.”

However, a single publication is not enough for a systematic change in positioning. Next, based on practical advice on promoting a leader’s personal brand in social media, a communication strategy for developing the personal brand of Sergek company executives will be proposed Group to change positioning [6].

Since brand analysis, development of a key message, definition of goals and objectives have already been completed in the previous parts of this work, you can immediately proceed to the selection of communication channels.

Thus, this article provides comprehensive information about the implicit promotion of the company’s brand through the development of the personal brand of the CEO of the organization.

^* (At the request of Roskomnadzor, we inform you that a foreign person who owns Google information resources is a violator of the legislation of the Russian Federation - ed. note)