A beach in Athens: Glyfada

As I wrote in my post of 14 April, I had a nice, free of business break in Athens and Thessaloniki.
Ten days away from the craziness of Istanbul. Spent some time with friends in Thessaloniki and drove from there to Glyfada, Athens; a suburb with many water sport accommodations of the Summer Olympics 2004.

Exactly there on the beach was my hotel: nice sunrise and sunset every day. Weather was great: 21 - 23 degrees.


The road from Salonika to Athens is beautiful, only an area of 50 km, where the EU sponsored project of 600 million Euros, reconstructing the road, leaves the driver stuck in massive traffic jams. But the view, when you are waiting and waiting, is spectacular. Not the Amalfi coast but there is a lot to see and watch.


And yes, the Greeks know how to put their country on the agenda. Turkey is still doing bad regarding PR and advertisement. The last attempt was almost copy paste of the Greek commercial. The only difference: the Greek commercial is still running and the Turkish one is out the air, for 2 months now. Turkey gets enough attention I guess, so why bother about some good promos? The answer 'lies' in the mouth of the Turkish bureaucrats...

Typical Turkish or Turkishness...what's the difference?

One of the things I don't understand in Turkey is the word 'Turkishness'.
I know what is 'typical Turkish', like hospitality, pride, raki or baklava, but asking around, nobody could give a clear answer. If someone is telling me "you are typical Dutch (stingy, multi lingual, or whatever)", I respond: "Yes, so what?".
Turkishness sounds also something like some kind of race, and then not the inferior one...
Anyone out there to give me an answer on this?

Boxing with the politicians

Reuters put this picture on the wire. Saw this one in the British, French, Italian, German and Dutch newspapers already. The Dutch newspaper allows their readers to comment interactively on their news. Saw some hilarious reactions. One was very funny: A guy asks for the patent to make a show about it (Boxing with the Politicians) for van der Ende (Dutch TV maker responsible for Big Brother, Who Wants to be a Millionaire etc.)
Some suggest even to import this 'style' of debating in the EU, which is too dull for many...
Personally I think this is not good for Turkish fragile image, although I saw these kind of scenes in Italy and Spain as well...

Mrs. Gül

She said that she had noticed the anger on the faces of the people at the mass "republican rallies".
"When you look at the past of these angry people you notice that they grew up without love. This is why I am not angry at them. Life is short and beautiful, why are we consuming it with these arguments?"

Mrs. Hayrünnisa Gül

In an interview with Sabah, published in Today's Zaman, Mrs. Gul makes a statement unworthy for a possible first lady by denigrating other people their views.

How to address a Nation III

As in my former posts, I promised to write about Mr. Erdogan's speech which he delivered last Monday, April the 30th.
I see this not from a political point of view, but as a foreigner who is living in Turkey.

Honestly, Mr. Erdogan's speech was bad from the beginning until the end, from my observation as an international communication manager.

Why? I shall explain this in detail.

First of all, there was and is a mini-crisis in Turkey. Which means that either the President or the Prime Minister has to ease the tension! To avoid speculations about 'who did what', simple: tell what is going on.
Instead of a clear explanation about the increasing tensions, the Turkish nation saw a bad 30 minutes promo about how well the economy is doing. No words about the social standards of the average Turks and nothing about the their struggle for life, neither about the tension with the military nor with the EU. Not one word to the people about what really is going on. Only empty words about: Let's Unify.
Nothing wrong with promoting what you did, but don't use your time as a Prime Minister by what you and your party have achieved, while ignoring the tensions and protests in the streets and the country.
Also, Turkey became more polarized while the PM was asking for unification. And in this speech there was no sign of consensus or compromise. It was party politics as usual. And that's exactly what you don't do in this situation. Addressing the Nation means being above all parties.

Second: it takes 5 minutes for an ordinary statesman to highlight his or her mission.
30 minutes of preaching will have a boomerang effect. You don't get your message understood.Listeners will get confused. And all the facts you want to bring over will fade away as a leaf, blow away in the wind.

And last but not the least: the footage.

If you address a nation which is in crisis, don't use the propaganda tool. Be fair. Don't misuse the situation to broadcast a bad promo. And don't compare Turkey now with Turkey in 1923. The facts which were shown are hilarious. Also, it's not good to broadcast all the time short shots of people applauding for you, which leave the impression that a new cult was created. A new cult, but this time about Mr. Erdogan. Are we serious?

How to address a nation II

More than 80% of our communication is non-verbal. And therefore propaganda is a dangerous tool as I stated in my article of Wednesday, April 24th.

Enfin, wanted to write down here why T.E. Erdogan missed a Golden Goal this week Monday when he made a speech on Television. But my computer is not listening to me anymore. Will bring it to the Laptop Hospital tonight.

Until later!

How to address a Nation

Yes, it was the BBC which brought the news first that the Prime Minister of Turkey would address the nation at 20.15 local time on the 30th of April. The Turkish media were slower. Either they don’t have the equipment, or they lack the courage to bring Flash news.

With this I mean: news which is news worthy. No speculations. I see too often the ‘?’ sign above articles and comments. Which leads always to speculations. The first trap for the reader.

Anyway, I am a foreigner, and therefore suspicious, especially when I talk or write. But I don’t want to get mangled in Turkish politics. But I can assure you that the Turkish politicians from right to left, from conservative to liberal (are there any?), are the reasons that Turkish image vanished upon today; which makes life not easier for Turkish people when they want to go abroad for personal reasons, or, simply, to do business.

More later about my professional view regarding T.E. (no, not E.T) Erdogan's speech. And the opportunity of a Golden Goal, which he missed by the way...sleep well!

The reputation of a headscarf

It takes 10 years to build a respected brand reputation, but you can destroy it in 5 minutes.
The Internet coup by the military was a start, but now it looks like that Turkey cannot get enough of all the negative images they are sending out! They are in the spotlight of the international media, and they don't want to leave the stage.

And..will the tourists come back this year? Good for the hard valuate.

Never heard that a country is sending its government away because it developed a rising economy, reshaping the social structure for its people, and last but not the least: was finally on track with what it promised before it came into power.
And this all because of a headscarf... Explore your senses, is what they promise in Greece...

I am knocking my head to the wall since I can not understand it anymore...

Who is concerned about Turkish Image?

These are interesting days in Turkey. And, yes, now big parts of the world are watching the Turks. First the Turkish Armed Forces warned the current government of the AK Party that 'they' (read: the army) also have a say in the debate about who will be the next president. Then the EU warned the Turkish army not to interfere. At last but not the least, the Turkish government warns the Turkish army that the Prime minister is still above the army.
The only country which didn't warn was the USA. But they condemned the statements made by the 'Generals'.
In the end, this is not good for Turkish image!

Only Burma, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Libya, Egypt, and Thailand are ruled by the military.
Does Turkey as a candidate member of the EU belong here?
Although Turkish army is respected, it's feared as well.
It would be an economical disaster and a setback for years if the military would have a say in politics.
For more info about military who like to play around with countries click here.

A new President for Turkey?

A. Gul for President. That will be an earthquake for Turkey. Personally, I don't think that he is a bad choice. Unfortunately, his wife is wearing not a headscarf, but is covered in a comical way, which will not attribute to Turkish modern image.

On the other side, Turkey claimed to be secular for decades, but was not; it suppressed its Muslim religion and as a result, National-islamists harmed Turkey more than this government over the past five years. Its secularism was a religion by itself.

Turkey’s Image – the final One

This article is published on February 27th in Turkish Weekly.

Back to the criteria. In Turkey’s image part - 1, I introduced the Famous Six: the criteria of the Nation Brand Hexagon™ as devised by Simon Anholt. The first three: Export, Tourism and Governance are described in that same article. While writing about the last three parts, Hrank Dink was killed, and I wrote an Intermezzo: Turkish Image part 2a. The forth criteria is about Investment climate, which worthy of its own article, it is described in Turkey’s Silent Revolution. Last but not least come what are, in my opinion, the most important issues: Turkish Culture and Heritage and Turkey's biggest asset, its citizens.
Therefore, this is my final article about Turkish Image. It will complete the general image of Turkey from my point of view but guided by the points set out by the Nations Brand Index™ of Simon Anholt.

Read the full article here

Turkish Silent Revolution

Published in Turkish Weekly of February 12, 2007

Since 2001 Turkey is in transition. Better to say: it’s undergoing a real revolution, an economical one. Not forced by the EU since it started accession talks but helped by the World bank and IMF. And Turkey is following the EU in relations with social, political and economical reforms. And as a matter of fact regarding the latter, it’s obvious that Turkey is doing pretty well.

Read the full article here

Turkey's Image part 2a - an intermezzo

This article is published in Turkish Weekly on February 2, 2007

The killing of Hrant Dink shows how fragile Turkey’s image is. Certain internal and international nationalistic groups and other opportunists already ‘hijacked’ his death for their own purposes!
The Turkish newspapers were full of condemnation, and the foreign press saw an opportunity to show how difficult life for independent Turkish journalists and writers is: exploring that some even have bodyguards and use police protection!
I bet you that even in a polarized country like the USA, high profile journalist of the NYT, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal, LA times etc. are using ordinary taxi chauffeurs as their drivers…

Read the full article here

Turkish Image No 1.

This article is published in Turkish Weekly of January 13, 2007.

Branding of a country has become an important issue in the world of today. Whether we like it or not the globalization trend enforces countries to compete with each other.
Self supporting economies, which Turkey was until the beginning of the 1980’s, are an anachronism today. For those who still believe in that, look at Zimbabwe or North Korea and what it became.

Branding a country is not only for the attention, respect and trust of
investors, or for the hard valuation of the tourists, it must tell the story about a country which respects and gains developments throughout its social, political and economical decisions.

The image of a country is also made by the products which they sell abroad
Do we care about what these consumers think? Are they essential for our image? Yes. And are Turkish Vestel, Beko or Arcelik brand names in West Europe? No. In Poland? Maybe.

Read the article here

Gateway or Get-Away

In the last years many ads are published here in Turkey. Some of them to promote Turkey, some of them to promote brand names.
What made me curious was that many of the ads are copy-paste ads, using headings as ‘Think Global, act Local’, ‘Spend Global, Earn local’, 'As a Local, You can travel Global' etc.

Also the word ‘Gateway’ seems to be an attractive word for my fellow advertising colleagues…
We dream from Gateway to Gateway…into the Universe...

But I was annoyed when I saw the heading of the Turkish Daily News: "Your Gateway to Turkey on the way to Europe". Too many words and it doesn’t cover anything.
Are the Turks invading Europe again...
I don’t get it...

This week THY (Turkish Airlines) started a new ad campaign on e.g. BBC world, CNN etc.
Beautiful art, pictures, music….but at the end the pay off: "Your Magical Gateway to the World".
I want now a Get-Away.

A Culture Shock...

Five years ago, when I went to Prague for some marketing research, I expected a gray country. Czechoslovakia (since 1993 separated in Czech Republic and Slovakia) was a former ‘East block’ country and I thought that not much was changed since it became independent from the former Soviet Union. But what a difference with my expectations..

Prague was already transformed into a Western city. And its beautiful architecture was intact.

The same happened with me when I came to Istanbul in June 2002 for the first time. Yes, I did know Turkish people from Amsterdam. Kind and friendly as always, they didn’t cause problems but were pretty much on their own. But such a contrast with the Turkish people in Istanbul. A cosmopolitan city with more than 15.000.000 people (ask any citizen of Istanbul how many people are living in Istanbul; most of them will give you a different answer, between 12 and 16 million). What is weird is that the Asian side of Istanbul is more European and the European side is more Asian.

And, thanks Jonathan, for helping me out with my first blog.