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Lorraine Carter, Branding Expert & Professional Speaker for Keynotes, Conferences, Seminars, Masterclasses, Workshops & Masterminds

Lorraine Carter is an expert in brand building to drive commercial growth and high performance. A winner of multiple awards, she speaks from over two decades experience in branding strategy, development and management working with national and international brands, many of which are household names.

She helps your business and brand become your ideal customers’ favourite brand, and you and your team very savvy brand builders.

Lorraine’s methodologies and systems, such as the Persona Brand Building Blueprint™ and ‘How to Build a Brand Programme’ are used globally and also feature on The Economist Group platform. It’s the approach she uses to empower you and your team to make your brand highly visible, different, credible, trusted, memorable and much loved by your primary audience — so that your standout brand commands lead position, grows market share and increases your profits faster.

Lorraine’s Speaking Topics

The most important thing to take away from any talk or presentation is actionable steps so you can make a difference in your business or organisation to drive growth.

Every presentation or talk Lorraine gives is tailored to meet the needs of the audience attending. This means she invests time in understanding their particular challenges and clarifying what they really need to know so the strategies she shares can be catalysts for effective change and expansion.

Here you’ll find a selection of Lorraine’s most popular topic outlines for her keynotes, presentations, masterclasses and courses. The final title and programme for every event though are tailored to meet your particular audiences’ needs, delivery style, length of programme and degree of interactivity.

Lorraine’s expertise is in branding strategy, brand leadership, leveraging brand strategy to drive the commercial imperative, brand purpose to drive productivity, performance and purchase, personal versus corporate brand alignment to accelerate growth and mitigate risk, innovation and business creativity to ensure brand longevity and relevance and leveraging the female imperative in brand leadership together with marketing and brand design.

Her programmes, keynotes, presentations and masterclasses are customised to a range of audiences including C-level leadership, managers, entrepreneurs, MBA and M.Sc students, SME/SMB businesses and statutory agencies.

Lorraine works closely with customers globally, event planners, conference organisers, meeting planners and speaker bookers to tailor keynotes, presentations, masterclasses and leadership training that empowers, motivates, entertains and initiates transformative change so growth is accelerated.

Why Branding Strategy Underpins The Commercial Imperative of Your Organisation

Branding is NOT marketing or design but the bedrock strategy supporting and directing your whole business so your brand strategy is fundamental to your business’s success, longevity and ongoing profitability.

In fact, branding strategy provides the direction for design, marketing and the communications process and marketing campaigns that follow on from it. Branding comes before marketing or design, yet marketing and design are both essential to your brand and business success too — all three are separate yet interlinked disciplines and core to all high performing businesses. The question is how to utilise and leverage each of them to the best effect like all the leading brands in the world.

Your brand is the story, the personality, the purpose, vision, mission, values and promises it makes to meet your customers’ expectations in certain ways. The collection of experiences your customers have every time they engage with your brand through your products, your services and the people that represent and champion your brand — all of which is developed through, and takes its direction from your brand strategy.

Lorraine takes you through what branding is and isn’t, demystifies all the misinformation around branding and gives you a solid reorientation so you can leverage branding very strategically and make far more informed choices with your team.

This talk is invaluable for all business leaders, entrepreneurs, business owners and managers — those responsible for the leadership in their organisation and the effective use of brand strategy to grow their business and increase their profits.

Revitalise, Rebrand or Build and Launch a New Brand Entirely? What Every Business Leader and Brand Manager Needs to Know to Ensure ROI?

The business world is in a constant state of flux. Markets change, new trends emerge, disruptive competitors alter long-standing rules, and customer preferences evolve — all of which impacts your brand. Consequently, brands are constantly evolving to ensure future growth and relevance. Even the longest standing and greatest brands in the world need subtle rejuvenation to stay relevant, if not a total rebrand, in order to maintain their market leadership.

Rebranding or revitalisation can take many guises from the complete wholesale change of a company, service or product, to something less dramatic and of a more understated, evolutionary nature in the form of a brand refresh. The question is, which route to choose and then how?

Here Lorraine shares with you how to evaluate which route to choose, the most effective process for overhauling or refreshing your brand and all the critical essentials you need to include to ensure a successful brand transformation — the do’s and don’ts for doing it successfully. A priceless investment for all leaders, brand owners, managers and entrepreneurs considering brand refresh, revitalisation or a total rebrand.

Personal Branding — We’re All CEOs!

Aligning Your Personal Brand with Your Corporate Brand to Drive Success

How do others see you in the business arena?

What do others think when they hear your name?

Is your personal brand aligned with your corporate brand?

Your unique personal brand isn’t a collection of past dates, facts, and accomplishments reflected on your CV. It’s your online and offline reputation, it’s how you interact with others, and it’s fundamental to whatever you do every day, whether you’re a globe-trotting CEO, remote work-from-anywhere pro or an office-bound downtown professional.

In short, everyone has a personal brand, whether they like it or not. To get the right personal brand, you must create it to your liking and nurture it.

Personal branding is not an overnight task either; it requires time and focus upfront as well as ongoing maintenance. Personal branding is not limited to the entrepreneur either — it applies to each and every one of us.

You can be a mini-celebrity within your own industry. CEOs, television presenters, marketing mavens, team sports figures and popular professors are longstanding examples of individuals who have built personal brands from inside their place of work.

Or, you can create your own personal brand outside the corporate world as an industry leader.

Personal brand development and management in the business world is also essential to help mitigate risk both at a personal level and even more importantly, at a leadership level, particularly when you’re part of a large organisation.

This presentation empowers leaders to re-evaluate their personal brands so that they are enabled to build their personal brands with the uncommon X factors that make them the go-to-person and thought leaders in their sectors.

Lorraine’s talk is a priceless investment for all leaders who want to develop, shape and manage their personal brand so it’s fully aligned with their professional agenda, career objectives and, where applicable, aligned with the ‘corporate brand’ they represent and champion.

Why and How Brand Purpose Drives Performance, Productivity, Purchase and Ultimately Increases Profits

Profit is Not Brand Purpose. The sole intention, or purpose of a business, is not, and cannot be, just to make money. Rather, profit is a consequence of doing business. People are fundamentally driven by something bigger than themselves, by the greater good, contribution and meaning be they staff, stakeholders or customers so if your brand purpose is not clear you’re going to find it more difficult to outshine, outperform and stay ahead of your competitors. So the question is, what does your brand stand for … and upon?

As a leader, one of your most important jobs is to connect your people to their greater purpose because when an authentic purpose permeates business strategy, brand strategy and decision making the personal good and collective good become one.

When a leader communicates purpose with authenticity and constancy, employees recognise the commitment and begin to believe in the purpose themselves and re-orientate.

The change is signalled from the top and then unfolds from the bottom up underpinning organisational performance and profit while also attracting high-performing talent.

Lorraine shares what brand purpose means in terms of your brand and how it’s integral to your brand blueprint which in turn provides the direction for your brand strategy so you can increase your brand reach and grow your profitability — the raison d’être for your brand’s existence. The actionable strategies in this presentation are essential for all ambitious leaders now and into the future.

Branding and C-Suite Leadership — Leveraging Your Influence for Growth

Whilst most organisations focus their branding endeavours on brand strategy, marketing, communications and brand collateral, many neglect one of the most important drivers behind their brand – their C-Suite leadership of the brand.

Senior management are the visionaries, voice and champion leaders of their brand. If this falls short, as Gallup market research indicates it does with alarming frequency, then you’re leaving the door wide open for your competitors, not to mention lost market share and profits.

Here Lorraine shares with you how CEO and C-Suite brand leadership, and their personal brands, create a powerful ripple effect that starts with the internal company culture and extends to customer interactions and overall brand perceptions.

The question here is, when did you last give your brand leadership an honest appraisal? Can you clearly articulate what your brand stands for and what makes you different to your competitors? Does every member of your organisation, top-down and bottom-up, share the same brand purpose and vision. Is everyone congruently expressing it, authentically living it and actively supporting your business growth in a measurable way to outshine your competitors?

This presentation is a ‘must’ for all brand leaders and owners who want to impart visionary brand leadership so they’re not another one of those under-performing statistics. The actionable insights Lorraine shares in this talk could be the best investment you make this year in your brand and business growth.

Winning Brand Packaging — How to Grab Attention and Beat the Nine Second Test

Packaging is brand design at the sharp end, the art of promising and being believed, an embodiment of the brand that projects the key brand messages. If first impressions are mission critical then the challenge for great brand packaging design is to engage with the customer through communicating the product’s emotional and functional benefits together with its core proposition — all to create impulse in the blink of an eye.

One of the greatest challenges today for leaders and brand owners or managers is the diminishing attention span of today’s customer — now reported to be comparable to that of a goldfish — combined with the ‘always-on’ onslaught of surrounding ‘noise’, not to mention the increasingly aggressive retail battlefield.

In this presentation, Lorraine takes a look at the essential ingredients required to create successful and arresting pack design so that it imparts a memorable brand story in a single and highly effective statement while also catching the attention of the time-deprived consumer, and convinces them to buy.

She also touches on all the other critical factors of great packaging design including shape, structure, colour psychology, functionality and sustainability to name a few. An invaluable opportunity for product leaders, brand owners, managers and entrepreneurs to look at changing trends, evaluate their packaging and to ensure they integrate all these indispensable elements for success.

Global or Local, What Does Your Brand Stand For and Why Should I Buy Your Product, Service or Idea?

You’ll probably agree that regardless of what sector you operate in, today’s market is incredibly competitive. With audience attention spans diminishing, getting noticed, let alone heard, is a bigger challenge than ever before.

So how do great brands break through the noise and win the attention-getting battle? How do you, as the brand leader, owner or manager, get your brand noticed — product or service — and purchased, repeatedly? How do you add value, command a premium and build loyalty with customers and transform them into champions of your brand?

In this talk, Lorraine shares with you how to stand out so your brand is distinctive, different, credible, trustworthy, memorable and much-loved by your ideal customers. How to create incomparable added brand value so the price is not the default decision influencer and customers become tunnel-visioned about buying what you sell — and what’s more, are happy to pay a premium. How to become the winning brand anomaly, in a sea awash with generic, forgettable, price fighters.

This presentation is a priceless investment for all leaders, brand owners, managers and entrepreneurs who want their brand to be the ultimate decider, the brand leader that is unmistakably different so they can dominate their market.

About Lorraine

Lorraine Carter is an expert in brand building to drive commercial growth and high performance. Founder of Persona Branding & Design, she’s won multiple awards over the last twenty years working with brands on international markets, many of which are household names. Brands like Nestlé, Kerry Foods, Eurofound, Law Society of Ireland, Radisson Blu, Tesco, Castle Brands, Aldi, Wavin, Abberley Luxury Yachts, Dunnes Stores, Waitrose, Saba and Rubicoin to name a few. She helps you become your ideal customers’ favourite No.1 brand and a savvy brand builder with a high performing team.
Lorraine’s methodologies and systems, such as the Persona Brand Building Blueprint™ System and How to Build a Brand Programme are used globally and also feature on The Economist Group platform. Her skill lies in empowering you and your team to make your brand highly visible, different, credible, trusted, memorable and much loved amongst your primary audiences — so that your standout brand commands lead position and grows your profits faster.
Lorraine takes underperforming or under-leveraged entities (product or service) and, working with business leaders, managers and entrepreneurs, transforms them into highly recognised, profitable brand names much loved amongst their primary audience.
An international branding expert, professional speaker, masterclass leader, advisor, writer, M.Sc guest lecturer, designer and mentor, she’s also the winner of Best Blog Ireland of an SME, Business Woman of the Year, Dublin and listed as one of the top 1,000 Women of Influence in Ireland in the Irish Tatler Business Annual. Lorraine’s featured in The Sunday Business Post Newspaper, The Irish Times Newspaper, The Law Society Gazette, Creativ Verpacken, ICOGRADA, Irish Packaging Year Book, Irish Tatler Magazine, Food Ireland along with various radio interviews and podcasts to name a few.

As Featured In

Want to book Lorraine to speak at your next event or lead your branding workshop, masterclass or branding mastermind?

We’re thrilled! Send us a short note if you want a tailor-made solution or choose from those listed and we’ll be in touch.
We do our best to read every message within 48 business hours. We’re kind of obsessive about customer care so if you don’t hear back, that means we didn’t get your message so please do send it again.

    “I recently organized a large Business Forum for business owners and stakeholders entitled ‘After the Storm – New Business Opportunities’ to highlight the challenges and changing face of doing business in 2013. I was delighted to engage Lorraine Carter to speak at the Forum as I have seen first hand her expertise in Branding and Design.

    More importantly I know Lorraine as a Professional Speaker who delivers not only excellent content but is passionate about the positive financial impact of great branding and design.

    Lorraine’s talk entitled ‘Brand Your Way Out of Recession’ was extremely well received. Her clarity, eloquence and use of storytelling evoked clear examples of how both big, medium and even small businesses have reached the top with successful use of effective branding and design.

    I’d recommend Lorraine as a Speaker at your next event or conference. She is an expert in what she does but more importantly she is an expert who knows how to speak about it!”

    Sharon Cahir | Author Solicitor Lawyers and Leaders Coach and Trainer

    “I have had the benefit of working alongside Lorraine Carter with mutual clients and will happily do so again.

    Lorraine understands the power of brands for businesses in a way that makes practical sense to businesses. Her dedication to her craft is a great credit to her along with her attention to her clients and the details that matter.

    Lorraine understands how to work with people who don’t work with brands on a daily basis and above all Lorraine has a bottom line value orientation. I look forward to continuing working with Lorraine and her team at Persona Branding & Design.”

    Dave Gribben Enable Better Business

    SHS-500px

    “The Maguire & Paterson brand was established in 1882 and therefore the rebranding and new packaging had to be managed in a very sensitive and caring manner.

    Persona Branding & Design worked very effectively with the M&P management team ensuring that the findings of consumer research were correctly interpreted and factored into the brand revitalization and new range designs. We found their ability to steer us of significant benefit.

    Persona Branding & Design also ensured that we kept our focus on core objectives and diplomatically challenged us at various stages on our thought process, ensuring that any brand preferences did not stray from the core objectives.

    We would have no hesitation in recommending Persona Branding & Design and we would be very pleased to speak with any potential client(s).”

    Neil ScaifeHead of Commercial Control | SHS Sales & Marketing Ltd

    Rubicoin-500px

    “Lorraine Carter creates meaningful and immaculately designed brands based on a deep subject matter expertise.  She, through Persona Branding & Design, provides a world class professional services for all sized enterprises.

    Her understanding of target markets results in memorable and distinctive work that empathises with end customers. Lorraine brings a uniquely positive energy to every meeting that leaves her clients engaged and delighted.

    Emmet SavageFounder and CEO | Rubicoin

    “Lorraine Carter is a true marketing professional. She is highly creative and has delivered impactful, innovative brand solutions for my business for almost a decade.”

    Rita AhernManaging Director | Food Matters

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    “Persona Branding & Design supports our company with an excellent level of creativity in all areas of branding, design and marketing. They listen, understand and interpret our needs perfectly with a formidable proficiency in execution. It is only fair to say that our company expectations of original briefs have always been exceeded.”

    Andy MulloyManaging Director | Connemara Seafoods Ltd

    Caterhire-500px“I have worked with Persona Branding & Design for more than 8 years. They have become an invaluable extension of our team, working with us in a flexible, intelligent and pragmatic way.

    Once commissioned, they became part of the business extending their expert opinion and brilliant creative solutions in total harmony with our requirements which has achieved great results. This is important since it is often the detail that can make or break a business relationship.  Their work philosophy is the best contract a client can hope to receive.”

    Gavin DivillyManaging Director | Cater Hire Ireland Ltd

    Wavin-500px“Persona Design successfully applied their extensive branding experience from consumer goods directly to an important industrial B2B product range within our organisation. This was pivotal in the formulation of our brand communications strategy which also included design, packaging, point of sale material and brand promotional plan, all of which contributed to a very successful commercial outcome.”

    Michael O’DonohueCountry Director | Wavin Ireland Ltd

    “Lorraine is an excellent start to finish project manager with tremendous creativity and ability to work budgets and timelines effectively.”

    Kelley SpillaneSenior Vice President | Castle Brands

    Country-Crest-500px“I can’t say enough about the excellent work that Persona Branding & Design has done for us. They didn’t just look at our design requirements but challenged us to really look at the fundamentals of our brand and our target market.

    They fully engaged with our team and questioned our thinking, providing strong guidance when needed to keep us all on track. Not only is their work exceptional but it’s an absolute pleasure to work with them too.

    The end product has evoked huge comment from customers and buyers alike as to its thought provoking branding, design and uniqueness, thus putting Country Crest into a whole different zone of marketing.”

    Tony Doyle Commercial Director | Country Crest

    “Lorraine Carter from Persona Design recently presented at our Dell Social Media Event on the importance of Brand for Corporate and Self. Lorraine provided great tips, many of them thought-provokingfrom her vast experience in developing brands, as an individual, for customers and the importance of building relationships.

    I would highly recommend Lorraine as a trusted advisor on Brand Development and Management.”

    Joan ByrneSaaS Portfolio Manager EMEA | Dell Inc

    Zed-Candy-500px“Persona Design has always exceeded the objectives of our briefs. Their level of interaction and creative rigour offering a range of fresh concepts is brilliant.

    Apart from being great people to work with, Persona Branding & Design offers an unbeatable combination in their level of service, lateral thinking, attention to detail, strategic focus and commitment to all projects undertaken. They are a key asset within my company and I would be delighted to personally recommend their services.”

    Donal KavanaghSales & Marketing Director | Zed Candy Ltd

    “Persona Design are very talented brand consultants and packaging design experts. They are knowledgeable, creative and highly dependable. My company has hired them for a number of projects and we have always been very pleased with the results.

    In fact, several of their projects for us have won prestigious awards. I highly recommend Persona Branding & Design.”

    Mark Andrews IIIChairman of the Board | Castle Brands Inc

    Robert-Roberts-500px“Persona Branding & Design has adroitly managed several of our most important brand design briefs over the past couple of years and in doing so brought a high degree of creativity plus in depth knowledge in dealing with packaging and print suppliers that was vital for the completion of the successful end product.

    Their attention to detail and open book costing consistently ensures no surprises on design or origination quotations.”

    Gerry MurphyMarketing Director | Robert Roberts Ltd

    “I was delighted to be a participant in Lorraine’s Master class on Branding, Packaging and Design. Lorraine has extensive experience is this area and her third party examples of clients she has worked with really drove the message home on the importance of one’s brand and how powerful it can be.

    She is passionate in her message and delivers it with conviction. I strongly recommend her as a trainer, speaker in the area of branding, packaging and design as she is truly an expert.”

    Margaret Hoctor Personal Coach | Trainer | Mentor and Facilitator

    Wavin-500px“Persona Design has worked with Wavin on the creation and development of the new branding and marketing collateral for the launch of a new range of premium products.

    They worked closely with our commercial team during this period to deliver a fantastic launch, on time and within budget. I would highly recommend Persona Branding & Design to anyone who is looking for a company that adds value through innovative ideas.”

    Brendan MurphyCommercial Director Wavin UK & Ireland | Wavin UK Ltd

    “Lorraine is a highly experienced and expert marketing professional. That’s just one way of putting it. She is an expert public speaker and her passion for subject matter shines though when she presents on a subject that is obviously close to her heart. Highly professional and credible, she is always looking for the best way to apply her talent for her clients best interest.

    Her firm is highly successful in delivering strategic marketing projects for their prestigious client base. I have no hesitation in offering my highest recommendation for Lorraine and her team at Persona Branding & Design”

    Paul C DwyerGlobal Cyber Security Expert

    “Lorraine’s depth of knowledge in branding is immense. I have attended some of her courses and also see first hand the benefits Persona Branding & Design can bring to a business. I am always happy to recommend Lorraine.”

    Ruaidhri PrendergastTechnology Sales Engine | Tech Marketing | Sofware | SaaS | FinTech | Hardware | 10x Return on Investment | Co-Founder | Ingenuity

    “I have known of Lorraine’s high quality work for a number of years and in late 2008 I finally had the opportunity to work with her in developing a brand and marketing strategy for an upcoming awards ceremony.

    Lorraine patiently guided the team through the process and was excellent in identifying the nuances, do’s and don’ts of our target market. We started out thinking a brand was just a logo but now know better!

    Before this however, Lorraine had sat down for coffee on an number of occasions with my colleague and I on a different venture and was very generous with her time and sharing her knowledge. I aim to call on Lorraine many times in the future and look forward to it.”

    Ian Lawlor New Business | Lotus Investment Group

    “I’d be happy to recommend Lorraine Carter and her company, Persona Branding & Design, to any client who wants an enthusiastic and passionate business partner to produce compelling brands built on a sound strategy.”

    Tim HealyMercator Marketing Research

    “Lorraine is both highly creative and strategic. Her professional and flexible approach combined with her attention to detail resulted in exceptional work which perfectly met the clients needs. A pleasure to work with. I’d happily recommend her for any brand project!”

    Alayne RooneyMarketing Consultant
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