Businesses develop various strategies to gain competitive advantage in the market. Branding is one of these strategies. They try to create a distinctive brand that allows them to outperform their competitors and grow successfully. Brand is an important marketing tool for goods or services that give businesses an advantage. The main source of competitive advantage for a product or service is developing a recognisable brand name. Therefore, companies strive to achieve a favourable, conspicuous position in people's thoughts and create a brand name that can influence a large number of people. A consumer who buys a branded product believes that the brand guarantees the quality of the product and that what was promised to him has actually materialised. The brand promises both tangible and intangible satisfaction through its use, thus guaranteeing both. The product is an output that can be obtained from the production lines after a series of processes; the brand is a set of emotional experiences that take place in the memory of consumers. While competitors can easily imitate products, brands are different. A product may go out of fashion quickly, but a great brand is enduring and is bought at a higher price because of the loyalty that is created between brands and customers. A company's branding has a crucial role in determining its performance both domestically and internationally and in increasing its recognition in a competitive and modern business environment. A brand is more than a sign, logo or identity. It is the impression left in the minds of a product's name, logo, brand, signs, advertisements, product users and a large number of consumers. One of the most important problems of private sector tea companies operating in Rize province is not being a brand. The aim of this study is to investigate the work of private sector companies operating in the Turkish tea market in the name of branding. In this sense, questions were asked in accordance with the in-depth interview technique with the officials of 16 private sector tea brands operating in Rize province and the answers were evaluated. As a result, the problems experienced by the companies in going beyond the family company identity, delays in institutionalisation, deficiencies in advertising and promotion, and the inability to compete financially with the big companies in the market were observed as the prominent branding problems.

Brand, private sector, tea, strategy