Relations of Brand and Politics in Turkey: Suggestions for Future Studies and Applications

Abstract

Turkey, including a municipal and a presidential election only in 2014, has went through 2 general elections, two municipal elections and two presidential elections in the last 10 years and counting down on another general elections in 2015. Tensions, fierce discussions and uncertainties in the political arena, prominent during vigorous and contentious election processes, divide the electorate between two main segments of Conservative Democrats and Secular Republicans with their own sub-groups. Those conditions obviously affect consumers like anyone else. Today, a consumer is not only an individual who benefits from the products and services provided. As a consequence of sharpened political fault lines and social polarization, rising economical welfare due to the growth of the middle class and rise of the social media due to the proliferation of the Internet, consumers of today are transformed into a constituency who perceive the corporations as political players and desire to grab the power and to peruse the brands as a means to express their own identities. In Turkey, under the circumstances described above, the brands have to determine their attitude and course of action very cautiously as soon as a new political etat des affaires emerge. Since the consumers perceive the brands as a vehicle to reflect their identity and being, they tend to be driven into polarization, express radical reactions and their attitudes and criticisms could get rough easily towards the brand. Vast majority yearn for and award neutral and unbiased brands that could haul them to the new situation. These expectations have pressured most corporate and brand managers for their way of action under the existing political situation and forced them to find methods to remove that restraint. Literature review show there are three possible approaches of attitudes and conducts the managers could adopt on "corporation/brand-politics": (1) "affirmation," (2) "neutrality" and (3) "opposition." Managerial responses and current attitudes of opposing corporate and brand managers in the face of the current events as a new political situation arise, were evaluated. Corporate and brand managers have to understand current and potential customers' political behavior, attitudes and tendencies correctly, and have to analyze well the positive and negative possible outcomes of any of those three methods above and develop appropriate marketing and reputation management strategies. Otherwise, they will not be able to prevent the potential risk and negative consequences. In this context, the above-mentioned three executive responses are studied conceptually and theoretically. This study is an explanatory approach including the conceptual discussion on Brand-Politics. It aims to establish the subject matter and action path to prepare for future research, applications and comprehensive analyses and to provide further suggestions and a conceptual and theoretical scope. In an effort to establish within the conceptual scope, a) the conceptual foundations for brand-politics relationship; b) the methods for brand managers to tackle the problem; and finally c) the most possible feasible path; suggestions were aimed to be clarified in this study (by utilizing the existing albeit limited research available in literature). In the section where the findings are discussed, it has been suggested that corporate and brand managers, when they face the consumer, should not act on their own political standing or bias to benefit their long-term relation with the customers and the "sustainable brand image" they would create. In the context of three general executive attitudes possible, neutrality would be the most appropriate. In the relation between corporation (brand) and politics (ideology), to remain neutral and impartial would be the most suitable approach. Instead of a risky discourse and action in brand communications, marketing management should be able to see that non-discriminatory, funny, merry, free and all-embracing language is the most favorable and should be able to establish a mutual, circular, uninterrupted and interactive communications strategy using open, honest, and assuring content. Accordingly, the main suggestion: "In a market where political polarization and tension is high and political bearings span a comparatively wide range, and where there is mass production and mass consumption like Turkey, corporate and brand managers should adopt a stance which would not allow the rise of current polarization" has been presented, supported by other subsuggestions.