Guys, I’m wondering... I don’t live in Turkey but is there any campaigns by the government or by the different chambers of producers and industrialists to promote “Made in Turkey” as a brand? Turkey needs economic freedom and to be easy to do business there but also needs to help to promote all local products and producers.
Turkey is really a country that produces many things but many people prefer to buy imported products instead of a local ones even if they are cheaper and not with a lesser quality than the foreign product. Turkish producers in many cases lack the funds, the experience and the know how about promoting their products which means that in many cases foreign brands have the edge over them in popularizing their products. For example Adidas spends billions on promoting their products every year... they also save billions with producing in Bangladesh and Indonesia but you get the idea- marketing is important.
The government in a partnership with the industrial organizations should start a viral and total campaign which asks the people to prefer products “Made in Turkey” - it’s good for the economy, good for the country, good for them too. That way more money will stay inside the country, less imports will be made, local producers will have more work, more people will get hired, wages will grow more easily, the internal marker will grow which can help it to grow outside too.
Some might say that such a campaing can’t really help us with the foreign trade deficit but you should know that even if a billion dollars more stay inside the country, if those billion dollars help the business of another 1000 companies- it can bring a lot to many people, to whole cities and communities and to Turkey in the long run. There is a thing in Economics called Money Multiplier- when a sum of money can multiply in the following years especially if invested right. You need money to make more money. The money we save by buying Turkish products instead of foreign ones will multiply in the future which means an economic growth. All money spent on foreign products are a missed opportunity for a Turkish company to be the next big thing... which in this globalized world matters a lot.
A “Made in Turkey” campaing can be made easily. Make it trendy on Facebook and Twitter. If all kinds of bullshit can be viral there why not something useful too, just needs some backing up by Erdogan, by popular singers, actors and etc to influence people with a tweet, photo a video or two. It needs a small add to be played on every commercial brake of the Media groups who are behind this campaign and posters all around Turkey and if the Government is serious about it it can have a success and backing for sure.
Such a small thing can help the economy and the currency much more than asking people to change their dollar deposits in liras or other such stuff.