Let’s assume that you are the owner of a business in your own country and you want to expand your market to Turkey. The Turkish domestic market is a very interesting selling area. Turkey has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with a growing, young population that, in recent years, has witnessed a steady increase of its disposable annual income. Nearly every sector in Turkey’s economy has shown booming figures. More and more foreign investors have been discovering the opportunities that Turkey offers, and their investments only help to give the economy a further boost. Domestic investments are also shooting up. Consumer spending as well as business investments makes the Turkish home market an attractive selling location for many enterprises.
If you want to expand your selling area to the Turkish market, you will have to take a number of inevitable steps. Many foreign entrepreneurs get stuck in their attempts to enter the Turkish market because they are insufficiently familiar with Turkish legislation and (business) culture, not to mention the language barrier.
To decide on the right marketing strategy to sell his product in Turkey, an entrepreneur needs to gain an insight in local customer behavior and trends. The entrepreneur should preferably start by investigating and mapping out the following aspects:
- Volume of the sales market: the number of potential buyers and the composition of the total demand, itemized into initial, replacement and additional demand.
- Developments on the market in recent years and the prognoses for the coming years.
- Selling prices of the product on the sales market.
- Volume of the supply market and the suppliers’ collective capacity.
- Any other information required for the import of the goods into Turkey.
- Possible storage and distribution facilities –rental rates, required permits, availability.
- Analysis of the geographic location of the enterprise with regard to the market; what influence does available storage space has on transport costs?
- Analysis of opportunities
Besides the inventory and analysis of the above mentioned the investors should obtain:
- Advice on the best option to sell your product(s): through a distributor, an agent or a trading or export management firm.
- Advice on the locally prevailing terms of payment– a major point of attention, because in Turkey it is quite common to pay in installments.
- Advice on dealing with currency fluctuations.
- In case public bodies are among the targeted buyers, specific advice is required, as special rules and regulations may apply. (24.05.2013)
Semiha UNAL (Managing Director)
S4U Business Management Consulting and Foreign Trade Limited
