Before design, what the brand will say.

How is a brand name found, and why does strategy come first?

Brand strategy is the written framework that defines whom a brand speaks to, how it stands apart from competitors and in what tone it speaks. Naming is the process of finding a brand name that fits this framework, is easy to say and is usable. Together they form the basis of all later decisions such as logo and advertising.

What does brand strategy cover?

Although strategy may sound like a concept reserved for large companies, for a small business too it consists of clear answers to a few basic questions:

• Target audience: Who buys your product or service most, and with what need?
• Positioning: What is the difference you can truly offer that sets you apart from competitors meeting the same need?
• Brand values: What are the principles you will never give up in communication and service?
• Brand voice: Formal, friendly, technical, warm? Which words do you use and which do you avoid?
• Core message: If you had to describe your brand in one sentence, what would you say?

We look for the answers to these questions together with you in the workshop session. Most business owners know very well why they do their work differently but find it hard to express this in a short, clear sentence. Our job is to bring this knowledge out and turn it into language the customer understands.

Once these answers are written down, the designer, copywriter, advertising manager and sales team all look in the same direction. In work done without a strategy, every new campaign and every new brochure is debated from scratch.

A simple way to tell whether a strategy is right is to read it through the customer's eyes. Does your positioning statement describe something you can truly offer, or is it a generic statement any competitor could make? Words like "high quality and reliable" are not distinctive on their own because everyone uses them; you need to write down what they concretely mean in your business.

What should a good brand name be like?

We look not for a name everyone likes but for a name that does its job. The criteria we use in evaluation are these:

1. Sayability: A person who hears it once on the phone should be able to spell it correctly, and there should be no hesitation in pronunciation.
2. Memorability: Short names with rhythm that are easy to repeat are remembered more easily.
3. Distinctiveness: Generic words that directly describe the industry both get confused with competitors and can cause difficulty at the registration stage.
4. Room to grow: Names tied too closely to a single product or district can become too narrow when the business grows.
5. Digital availability: A suitable domain name and social media username should be available.
6. Check for negative associations: The name should not mean something unwanted in other languages or in local usage.

We derive name proposals from different approaches: names that directly evoke the brand's promise, abstract but memorable names, names based on the founder's name or a place, and compound words. Each approach has different strengths and weaknesses; we state these clearly in the shortlist.

We test the shortlisted names not only on paper but in real use: on a sign, as an email address, as a social media profile and spoken over the phone. These simple trials reveal problems that are not noticed at first glance.

Honest information about registration and TÜRKPATENT

In Turkey, trademark registration applications are made through TÜRKPATENT (the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office), and the applicant is the business itself; if you wish, you can have an authorized trademark attorney handle this. Sova Ajans does not provide legal advice, does not file the application on your behalf and does not promise that a name will be registered.

What we do during the naming work is a preliminary search: we check the shortlisted names in TÜRKPATENT's online database, in domain name records and on social media platforms, and eliminate clearly conflicting options. However, the absence of an identical record is not enough; similar names, records in the same goods and services class and the likelihood of opposition require an expert's assessment. For this reason we recommend consulting a trademark attorney before the final selection and placing sign and print orders only after this assessment.

How is the strategy document used in practice?

The strategy document is not a report that sits on a shelf but a guide consulted in daily decisions. The designer looks at the same document when choosing the logo and colors, the copywriter when preparing website and social media copy, and the advertising manager when defining the target audience. The sales team draws on the positioning statement when describing the company to customers, and on the brand values when a new campaign idea is being discussed.

In the brand voice section, we give concrete examples instead of abstract adjectives: how to answer a customer question, how to write an announcement, which words are preferred. This way, even if different people write the texts, the brand speaks like the same person.

On-site and online work

The most productive part of strategy work is the workshop session attended together by the decision makers. With businesses in Sakarya and the surrounding area, we can hold this session in person, at your business or in an office setting. With clients across Turkey we cover the same questions in a video call and share the strategy document and the name presentation online. In both cases the documents are delivered in writing and can be shared with your team.

Common mistakes in the naming and strategy process

• Having a logo designed first and only then thinking about what the brand will say.
• Choosing a name only because the domain name is free, without checking registration and similarity.
• Putting it to a vote among many people and choosing the name with the fewest objections, which is also the most ordinary.
• Insisting on names made of generic words that describe the industry.
• Having the strategy document prepared but not sharing it with the team; a document that is not used is of no help.
• Deciding on a name without having different people say it aloud and write it down. A simple phone test shows many problems early.
• Choosing a name based on a short-term campaign or a trending word; such names can look dated within a few years.