Is Turkey the Right Market for Global Brands?
Turkey, a young republic with a population of over 75 million (mainly young) could certainly be considered a true comsumption market. And it has not been long since many of the succesful brands came to Turkey for the first time. Indeed for example, when Unilever was trying to establish its roots in Turkey with products such as VITA, SANA etc the company hardly had any competition in this market from global giants.
Nor did it have any from local companies as Turkish industry was only at the crawling stage at the time. Today however this country is a paradise for global companies and brands such as UNILEVER, PROCTER & GAMBLE, SAMSUNG, SONY and many many more. They stand good chances of penetrating the market quite fast as people are price oriented but certainly more “advertising/trend” oriented.
PRICE AND PROMOTION ORIENTED CONSUMERS
To provide a typical example the poor guy earns about 700 Turkish Liras (US$ 450) a month (2011 figures) – not enough to make a healthy living – and does DARE to buy an i-Phone for double his salary (US$ 900) simply because it is trendy and probably several of his friends have bought one as well.
This fact makes it possible for brand goods to make enough profits in spite of the tough competition. Generally speaking “demand is hardly behind supply”,especially talking about popular brand goods.
TOUGH COMPETITION BETWEEN STRONG BRANDS
A tough competition for instance is between PEPSİ and COKE – not to include Turkish brand Cola Turka by Ülker for a moment. It is not a surprise that Turks use a lot of Cola drinks too and this ensures some fairly satisfactory profits for said brands.
For instance COCA COLA Turkey alone has made a revenue of 1 billion 554 million Turkish liras in the first half of 2011 with a profit of 75 million Turkish liras(rate.. 1 dollar= 1,6 TL)
ONE OF THE MOST PROFITABLE MARKETS FOR ELECTRONIC GOODS
It is a known fact Turkey is one of the best markets of companies such as SAMSUNG, APPLE etc. Big international companies have been aware of this appeal for some time and that is why many new foreign brands come ove to open businesses in Turkey each and every year.
CURRENT PICTURE IN 2023 / EDITOR’S NOTE (UPDATE)
The Turkish economy cannot be considered to be in its best shape as things look today. Purchasing power has drastically dropped due to hig inflation and decreasing value of Turkish Lira. This , as explained by many experts (reliable objective ones) is due very incompetent management by the politicians in power since 2002 (and after 2010 in particular). As the country approaches the most important election in its history on May14, a great majority of citizens hope a new administration will take over and lead the country to a more prosperous future again. (First published on 17 August 2011 and edited on 15.04.2023)
Editor
BUSINESS TURKEY TODAY
