Having set out with a strong and assertive 2023 vision, Turkey invites its own people to become aware of their potential while putting forward a new offer for the world with its brand country concept of "Discover the Potential". This project reminds the world how valuable achieving together is, aiming at telling the whole world not only about Turkey, but also the story of the civilization from which it originated. It has been expressed for a long time by both domestic and foreign investors that Turkey needs a brand new story. That’s why the “Turkey Brand” which has been introduced recently constitutes a meaningful milestone step in initiating a new story. This project, which tells the world the story of not only Turkey, but also a civilization, says a lot to those aspiring to discover Turkey’s potential about the wealth of discovery and its contributions. For the project to work, Turkish people need to realize their own potential and believe in their strength first. OUR BRAND, TURKEY Work on the “Turkey Brand” started with the coordination of Ministry of Economy and Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), and was completed in the previous months. It can be concluded that the starting point of the project is to regenerate the “Made in Turkey” perception in a stronger way that raises awareness and represent the strength of the Turkish industry in a more solid shape. The project has been under development for about one and half years and has been executed collaboratively by Ministry of Economy in particular, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Turkey’s leading holdings and companies, and professional organizations such as TOBB, TÜSİAD, MÜSİAD, TÜMSİAD, ASKON, TYD, TURSAB, YASED, The Council of Shopping Centers & Retailers, the Turkish Association of Advertising Agencies, and the Turkish Public Relations Association etc. The motto and the logo were chosen as a result of suggestions from a team of 150 people consisting of a range from business people to advertisers, designers, artists and academicians. The logo was designed by Saffron Brand Consultant. The logo and the motto were unveiled in the launching ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as well as Nihat Zeybekçi, Minister of Economy, and Ömer Çelik, Minister of Culture and Tourism. The motto “Turkey Discover the Potential” was chosen to represent the new Turkish identity abroad, and the logo was developed from inspiration from eight different patterns that Turkish people used in different fields such as rug weaving, architecture and handicrafts in the history. ONCE AGAIN AND AGAIN The fact that the developing countries which had been considered lifesavers as a result of the global economic crisis in 2008 had suddenly become the target of international capital movements with the influence of the concerns that the monetary expansion would draw to a close in 2013 indicated that a new period would begin. This indication told us every country would need to review and revise its own story, and abandon its stories completely, if necessary, in order to generate a new one. So, it was time for Turkey to create a new story as well. One of the first components of Turkey’s story became the “Turkey Brand”. Actually, it is not the first time that Turkey has been involved in such efforts. Having realized the TURQUALITY Project which is a state-funded branding program, a first in the world, in 2003, Turkey is now taking substantive milestone steps as part of the efforts to position Turkey as a brand. This new effort with a brand new logo and a motto aims at telling a story which has a highly robust background in an original and contemporary language. DISCOVER (YOUR) POTENTIAL Turkey is trying to tell the whole world its story once again with this project. Mehmet Büyükekşi, Chairman of Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM), states that this effort is definitely not ‘propaganda made by Turks for Turks’. The word ‘discover’ in the motto also proves that is not propaganda. Here the whole world is invited to rediscover a civilization which has already existed but been forgotten for a long time. Of course we cannot segregate the people of this civilization while inviting the whole world. The discoverer will have added value, enriched with its discoveries, discovered itself and everybody will have achieved together at the end of this discovery. This is exactly what is meant: a civilization which is sincere, genuine, attached strictly to its roots, and forward looking. The long-term objective of this project which positions Turkey as a brand is to bring Turkey a sustainable reputation. Thus, it sets out with an assertion of carrying the substantial heritage of a civilization including the Middle East, The Balkans and The Caucasians as well to the future. It also gives the counterparty the responsibility to make its own discovery. It explains that a civilization which is rich with its own differences, genuine and sincere will enrich the world trade and the whole world will discover its own potential as long as it meets this unique civilization. TURKEY’S BRAND VALUE IS INCREASING RAPIDLY Everyone may have this question in mind: “What is Turkey’s brand value at present?”. According to the results of the ‘Brand Countries’ research introduced by Brand Finance at the end of 2013, Turkey ranked the 19th country brand of the world with its brand value of $688 billion. Although Turkey preserved its rank compared to its position in 2012, it managed to increase its brand value by 41 percent, which was $487 billion a year ago. Achieving this, Turkey became the third country that increased its brand value most following Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Thus, the rating of Turkey’s brand value increased from A to A+ as well. Turkey managed to become the fifth most rapidly rising country by the investments bunlait received while its growth rate in services ranked amongst the top ten countries. It also became the fifth most rapidly developing country in the field of tourism performance and achieved the increase in its brand value with the developments it made particularly in the field of tourism, goods and services, investments and human resources. WE HAVE A LOT TO SAY Here is the case... When we take a look at this list, we see that it is quite possible for Turkey to rank amongst the top 10 countries with the highest brand value if it works hard. Because Turkey has more than just one story to tell the world thanks to its location and the civilization it belongs to. Because its lands spread its arms wide to include the Eastern society with Asia and the Middle East on one hand, and European civilizations with The Balkans and Mediterranean geography on the other hand. This can be observed in Turkey’s colorful identity as well. Unfortunately, we were not able to make this colorful identity go beyond being a cultural figure to date. However, we can manage to become a richer country which spreads over a much wider geography and most of all prosper in terms of human resources when we realize this potential in the fields of art, music, sports and economy. That’s why the Turkey Brand says a lot more than being just a logo or motto or tries to achieve this objective at least. The first thing we need to do is to turn and look at ourselves one more time in order to succeed in telling our story. We definitely need to remind ourselves what we have already forgotten and bring our legacy together with the whole world again. That’s the only way that we can create new stories and make our story be embraced by the whole world. A THREE-STAGE PROJECT The approach of the project is quite meaningful and robust. Will it be that easy when it comes to the implementation stage? We understand from the speech given by Mehmet Büyükekşi, Chairman of TİM, in the launching ceremony that there is a strategy on this issue as well. First, we must say that public sector, private sector and nongovernmental organizations showed a strong will to collaborate consistently in this issue. The first objective of this effort is to explain the project to Turkey. We cannot say our project will achieve good results even if our invitation to the world is accepted. For this reason, the project needs to turn out something more than that which is known and embraced by only 150-200 people. Everybody in Turkey needs to be aware of this potential and readily present Turkey’s strengths to the whole world. For sure, this should not be limited to only the people living in Turkey. More than 5 million Turkish people currently live abroad and it will certainly accelerate the process to include them into the project. We learn from the speech given by Mehmet Büyükekşi, Chairman of TİM, that although there is not a detailed action plan, a Road Show preparation about this issue now exists. Here comes the most challenging stage: introducing ourselves to the whole world. It is quite obvious that just a motto and a logo will not be enough in order to succeed in this stage. The first thing to do is to take the steps together. The initial action plan requires all the exporting companies simultaneously starting to use the logo and the motto, which are the common language of our initiative. In parallel, a promotion campaign will be launched over the whole global market, particularly in target markets. We observe that both stages have been put into practice step by step since the very first day the project was introduced. A more specific emphasis on using new generation communication methods will be required to be made as Mehmet Büyükekşi, Chairman of TİM, mentioned in the launching ceremony of the project. This requires to develop a new point of view regarding the media. Nobody can deny the economic reflections of the influence made by the Turkish TV series broadcasted in Middle East and The Balkans. You can easily conclude this from any piece of dialogue you engage in with the tourists coming from these regions as most of them would make a connection with you through a TV series topic. On the other hand, social media needs to be restructured and used in a way that reinforces the Turkey brand. Appropriate use of social media, which is considered a new kind of ‘from mouth to mouth’ communication method, can open the doors of a huge promotion channel, influence of which is bigger than its power. It is better to remember the magical power of sport, which we have forgotten for a long time. Note how, for example, Galatasaray, winner of the UEFA Cup in 2000 or Turkish National Team which ranked the 3rd in 2002 FIFA World Cup could manage to create a communication influence. It is not acceptable for such a huge economy like the football industry to make only a small contribution to the country. We definitely need to put the sustainable sports achievements on the agenda and efficiently make use of the strength of the geography where we live. These are all given as examples. We must find more effective ways of expressing ourselves and, what is more, create spectacular stories which will make the whole world excited about discovering us. Everyone who listens to the story of Turkey must wish to be a part of this one day. We have a great amount of materials and methods to achieve this. Our major capital is the skills and experience that we have. With this project, to focus, which is the only weakness of ours, will no longer be a problem, and turn into a kind of motivation factor.