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YEGPARIAN: ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT
By Garen Yegparian on March 5, 2015 in Garen Yegparian
As the old saying goes, "There's more than one way to skin a cat"
(at the risk of offending the animal rights folks), and Turkey is
skinning a lot of cats. Ankara's multifaceted and long-term efforts
to improve its image constitute the broader context in which Armenian
Genocide denial falls.
At least since the time of Ataturk, Turkey has gone to great lengths
to become "European" and shed its well-earned barbaric image. Some
efforts were silly, such as changing their attire. More recently,
some constitutional/legal reforms have been made. You might remember
how, perhaps a decade ago, Turkey's public relations efforts expended
significant energy on trying to get English speakers to pronounce
the country's name as "toor-kee-yeh" to avoid being associated with
the homonymous bird and the dopiness that being "a turkey" connotes.
More serious efforts included hiring spokespeople to represent
Turkish companies and products. A good example is the Kobe
Bryant/Turkish Airlines deal. This ball-bouncer is so well liked
that even many Armenians who are otherwise very committed to
our cause gave him a pass. That positive image then "transfers"
to the company, and more subtly, to Turkey. While this issue
was hot, even someone as sensible and rights-defending
as Earl Ofari Hutchinson came to Bryant's defense (see
http://thehutchinsonreportnews.com/profiles/blogs/dont-blame-kobe-for-turkeys).
He argued that Bryant's association with the Turkish company (half
government owned) would not help Turkey's denial campaign. He went
even further, falling into the ludicrous "Turkey is a key ally"
argument trap, and defending Obama's refusal to carry out his pledge
to properly recognize the genocide. I wonder if Hutchinson would
have made similar arguments about the anti-South-African Apartheid
divestment campaign of the 1980's.
This kind of more subtle psychology- and marketing-based approach
seems to have been under way since Jan. 12, 2004 under the
auspices of Turkey's Ministry of Economy through a program dubbed
"Turquality"--clever, isn't it, the association of a "positive"
(quality) with Turkey? Check out the website www.turquality.com,
available in Turkish and English.
This all matters because: Imagine you have a positive opinion of
someone, let's say a good friend or sibling. If another person comes
along, even a trusted one, who gives you negative information about
the friend/sibling, you will probably not accept it as true or valid.
The new "information" conflicts with your positive "frame" of the
friend/sibling. This is the kind of positive image Turkey seeks to
build so that when someone criticizes its human rights record, its
occupation of Cyprus, its support of Islamic extremists, or genocide
denial, the person hearing the critique, because of a preexisting
positive frame of Turkey, will disregard the "bad" news.
I learned of Turquality from a friend who is a distributor being
wooed by some Turkish producers. According to this source, Turks
have fairly strong business/marketing/distribution operations in
other parts of the U.S., such as New York, Ohio, Texas, and Chicago,
and are now targeting Los Angeles. The same source also told me that
part of Turquality is a program that will match, dollar-for-dollar,
the money a Turkish company spends on marketing! I could not find
this on the website, but that does not mean it is untrue.
Turquality seems like very serious business. An unsurprising cast of
American consulting firms (Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, Ernst &
Young, KPMG, Mc Kinsey, Price Waterhouse Coopers), projected to grow in
number, is already involved. Already, 100 companies and 111 brands are
part of this program, presumably partaking of the roadmap development,
vision seminar, and executive development activities.
Turquality, as described on its website, "is an ambitious project
associated with bringing "Turkey" and "Quality" concepts together. It
was initiated by the Turkish government, Ministry of Economy, Turkish
Exporters' Assembly (TIM), and the Istanbul Textile and Apparel
Exporters' Association (ITKIB). ... It is basically an accreditation
system." The objectives are listed as:
- support companies in their brand-building efforts via helping them
to develop essential capabilities, competences, skills, and resources;
- undertake PR activities abroad for creating and enhancing awareness
on Turkish brands;
- create awareness on the internationally accepted values like quality
and novelty;
- ease access to the market intelligence in order to help companies
brand-positioning;
- act as an incubator and catalyzer for selected Turkish brands
This is the kind of effort that makes businessmen salivate. It can
also have serious ramifications for Armenians in our battle against the
Turkish government. We should be alert to this program and do whatever
is possible to mitigate its political/public relations side effects.
http://armenianweekly.com/2015/03/05/commercial-front/
By Garen Yegparian on March 5, 2015 in Garen Yegparian
As the old saying goes, "There's more than one way to skin a cat"
(at the risk of offending the animal rights folks), and Turkey is
skinning a lot of cats. Ankara's multifaceted and long-term efforts
to improve its image constitute the broader context in which Armenian
Genocide denial falls.
At least since the time of Ataturk, Turkey has gone to great lengths
to become "European" and shed its well-earned barbaric image. Some
efforts were silly, such as changing their attire. More recently,
some constitutional/legal reforms have been made. You might remember
how, perhaps a decade ago, Turkey's public relations efforts expended
significant energy on trying to get English speakers to pronounce
the country's name as "toor-kee-yeh" to avoid being associated with
the homonymous bird and the dopiness that being "a turkey" connotes.
More serious efforts included hiring spokespeople to represent
Turkish companies and products. A good example is the Kobe
Bryant/Turkish Airlines deal. This ball-bouncer is so well liked
that even many Armenians who are otherwise very committed to
our cause gave him a pass. That positive image then "transfers"
to the company, and more subtly, to Turkey. While this issue
was hot, even someone as sensible and rights-defending
as Earl Ofari Hutchinson came to Bryant's defense (see
http://thehutchinsonreportnews.com/profiles/blogs/dont-blame-kobe-for-turkeys).
He argued that Bryant's association with the Turkish company (half
government owned) would not help Turkey's denial campaign. He went
even further, falling into the ludicrous "Turkey is a key ally"
argument trap, and defending Obama's refusal to carry out his pledge
to properly recognize the genocide. I wonder if Hutchinson would
have made similar arguments about the anti-South-African Apartheid
divestment campaign of the 1980's.
This kind of more subtle psychology- and marketing-based approach
seems to have been under way since Jan. 12, 2004 under the
auspices of Turkey's Ministry of Economy through a program dubbed
"Turquality"--clever, isn't it, the association of a "positive"
(quality) with Turkey? Check out the website www.turquality.com,
available in Turkish and English.
This all matters because: Imagine you have a positive opinion of
someone, let's say a good friend or sibling. If another person comes
along, even a trusted one, who gives you negative information about
the friend/sibling, you will probably not accept it as true or valid.
The new "information" conflicts with your positive "frame" of the
friend/sibling. This is the kind of positive image Turkey seeks to
build so that when someone criticizes its human rights record, its
occupation of Cyprus, its support of Islamic extremists, or genocide
denial, the person hearing the critique, because of a preexisting
positive frame of Turkey, will disregard the "bad" news.
I learned of Turquality from a friend who is a distributor being
wooed by some Turkish producers. According to this source, Turks
have fairly strong business/marketing/distribution operations in
other parts of the U.S., such as New York, Ohio, Texas, and Chicago,
and are now targeting Los Angeles. The same source also told me that
part of Turquality is a program that will match, dollar-for-dollar,
the money a Turkish company spends on marketing! I could not find
this on the website, but that does not mean it is untrue.
Turquality seems like very serious business. An unsurprising cast of
American consulting firms (Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, Ernst &
Young, KPMG, Mc Kinsey, Price Waterhouse Coopers), projected to grow in
number, is already involved. Already, 100 companies and 111 brands are
part of this program, presumably partaking of the roadmap development,
vision seminar, and executive development activities.
Turquality, as described on its website, "is an ambitious project
associated with bringing "Turkey" and "Quality" concepts together. It
was initiated by the Turkish government, Ministry of Economy, Turkish
Exporters' Assembly (TIM), and the Istanbul Textile and Apparel
Exporters' Association (ITKIB). ... It is basically an accreditation
system." The objectives are listed as:
- support companies in their brand-building efforts via helping them
to develop essential capabilities, competences, skills, and resources;
- undertake PR activities abroad for creating and enhancing awareness
on Turkish brands;
- create awareness on the internationally accepted values like quality
and novelty;
- ease access to the market intelligence in order to help companies
brand-positioning;
- act as an incubator and catalyzer for selected Turkish brands
This is the kind of effort that makes businessmen salivate. It can
also have serious ramifications for Armenians in our battle against the
Turkish government. We should be alert to this program and do whatever
is possible to mitigate its political/public relations side effects.
http://armenianweekly.com/2015/03/05/commercial-front/