Redefining A Turkish Identity

By Mehmet Saraç, Ph.D.

We all know the importance of the package, especially in fast-paced consumed goods. A successful packaging may be much more effective advertisement than many expensive campaigns on TV or on other published media. The reason of this lies primarily in two facts: First, the package remains as an advertisement tool on the shelf from placement until consumption. Second, this "media" is the closest one both to the product and consumer, and therefore, is the most concrete advertisement, indicating the quality of the product. In this regard, package signals the quality of the brand or the product to the consumer.

As the results of fast-development process, young population and global impacts, two fast-rising phenomena have emerged in Turkey: The power of branding and widespread retail stores. These two have also boosted each other. In such an environment, if a firm does not allocate enough effort and investment into package design, all other marketing elements may well fail to produce any success.

Branding is also closely related to the package design, as the brand is concretized through packaging. Brand is represented by the packaging at the point of sale. Therefore, the process of branding and packaging design are closely interrelated.

Packaging in Turkey

Today a Carrefour store in Turkey sells some 25,000 products, nearly the same volume as most other European countries. The importance of the packaging is obvious in this "time of truth." It is the "dress" of the product that will make the customer buy it. The question is how the firms choose their dresses. The answer involves the marketing strategy, art of design, and semiotics.

The most rapid development in packaging trend in Turkey is experienced in food and cleaning products industry. While packaging design is as a disctinct business in most developed Western countries, it is still a subfunction of marketing departments of firms or advertising agencies in Turkey. Therefore, there are only a few packaging design agencies. The trend, however, is towards carrying out the branding and packaging design functions together under one agency.

The package consumption per capita in Turkey has rapidly increased since the 1980s. While the increase in per capita income has played a role, the primary reason for this consequence is the boom in the retail industry—namely, rapid increase in the number of supermarket and hypermarket chains. However, the package consumption per capita is still below than the other developed economies.

The variety in the materials used in packaging has also developed throughout the time. Until 1960, the primary packaging materials in Turkey were paper, carton, cellophane, glass, and wood. The manner was then so different than today, because wooden boxes and jute sacks were used in export, and all other kinds of packaging were seen as luxury materials that would cause extra costs. Beginning in the 1970s, the importance of packaging was beginning to be understood, especially by the exporters. There were many packaging institutes already in those periods. The efforts regarding the packaging in Turkey were started by establishing The Packaging Research Center in 1977.

Today total number of companies in the packaging industry in Turkey exceeds 5,000. According to the official records, there are more than 1,000 plants around the nation, employing 250,000 people.

Retail chains and private label

As a result of rapid transformation process in Turkish economy through 1980s, the retail sector has experienced a significant development. While the global retail chains began to dominate the market, the traditional grocery stores had to close down or to make transition to modern market system to survive.

The development of retail stores indeed boosted the importance of packaging in several ways. Unlike the traditional groceries, these huge markets are able to contain more brands in higher volumes. Second, they display the products in such a way that the consumer is much more attracted to shop. Consumers are free to walk around the shelves, touch each product, and make decision without any intermediary. Thus, now it is only the package of the product that "talks" to the customer.

The development in the retail sector caused another phonemenon to emerge: Private Label (PL). Actually, this way of production had long been known as "fason" in Turkish (contract production), especially in textile industry. Firms would have their brands produced through certain manufacturers along with or instead of their own production. What makes PL a brand new industry are two facts. First, this time it is extended to new sectors such as food, cosmetics, cleaning products, and electronics. Second, the retail stores widely use this means of production and distribution. The primary advantage of PL products of retail chains is that the lower prices, as they do not bear the advertisement costs.

Today the market size of PL in Turkey is 260 million USD, according to the Retailing Institute data. While the market growth continues, the grwoth rate has begun to decrease. It was 42.8% in 2001 and 2002, while it decreased to 39% in 2003. This slow down is explained by the better economic conditions, less new openings in retail stores, worsened image of PL products, and new strategies developed by the brand products.

Turkish package designers look to bold and vibrant colors to grab attention on shelf as the popularity of "hypermarkets" grows.

Indeed, the brand products have developed new strategies against the rising trend of PL products. For instance, the brand products are able to hire valuable spots in each store to promote their products, the retail stores have no such advantage. In addition, brand manufacturers effectively use the packaging advantage as they invest in it more than retail stores. PL products should take the branding and packaging more seriously and allocate more budgets to them.

Design on the package

Packaging design have two basic components: The shape or the three-dimensional design of the package and the graphic design on it. These two are of course complementary and interrelated processes. Graphic design provides numerous possibilities in expressing the identity and specifications of the product. It contains the following messages conveyed to the consumer: brand identity, product name, product description, taste or type specification, promised utility, sales information, promotional message, guide to use, references to other products, nutrition facts in food products, warnings in medical products, dimensions, and contents.

According to industrial designers, the graphic design addresses the emotional aspect, or subconscious, of the consumer rather than providing information. The style in the logo and the text, symbols, icons, colors, textures, photographs, and illustrations all constitute emotional dimensions. In fact, this is the subject of a science called "semiotic." Today many global giants such as Glaxo Wellcome, Unilever, British Telecom (BT), General Motors, American Express, Mars, Guinness, Pedigree, Barclays, Walkers, and Coca Cola focus on the application of semiotics into marketing communication.

In fact, a good designer means a good semiotist at the same time. He or she knows very well the codes of the culture, unwritten rules, recent applications and trends of the design world. A good designer also knows when to obey the codes or break the rules and collapse the taboos.

Obvious changes and developments in the package design trends in Turkey occured towards the end of 1980s. Along with the change in Turkish economy and collapse of the authoritarian regimes all over the word in those years, the logo culture has also changed. The hard, strict logos have been replaced by soft, warmer designs. The most distinctive example is Arçelik, the biggest electronic and home appliances manufacturer in Turkey.

The recent trends in package design in Turkey can be summarized as follows:

• Transparent packaging has been widely preferred.
• The aseptic packaging, once used in beverages, is being used in solid foods as well.
• There is a tendency towards softer lines both in the shape and logotypes.
• The use of the "bag in box" increases.
• Firms have begun to use more recycled materials in packaging. For instance, the use of the starch-based plastic dissolving 95% in the soil have increased.

The question of whether an genuine Turkish design identity exists has been entertained among the professionals and academic circles. This problem is of course related to the Turkish identity as a sociological problem of the Turkish Republic. In order to develop a distinct Turkish design identity, Turkish designers need to take their references from their own culture. However, the Turkish society has tried to go away from its own culture for 200 years.

Indeed, Turkish designers have been significantly influenced by the western sources. Therefore, it is essential to build a modern but genuine Turkish identity based on the national values. Then we may talk about a pure, genuine Turkish packaging design.

Emerging proof systems

As a result of the increasing importance of the packaging design in the marketing strategy, a new business has emerged in packaging industry called "packaging proof" or "mock-up." These systems provide a unique advantage both to manufacturers and design agencies operating especially in fast-paced consumed goods such as food, beverage, cosmetics, and cleaning products.

This proof system enables the manufacturer or the agency to see the package that looks exactly the same as the printed and used one in the final production. Conventional proof systems were too far from providing the post-production look of the package because they were so limited that you were not able to produce package mock ups for instance with transparent, gold, silver, hologram, or shrink sleeve application. What makes this new system superior to traditional methods is not only applying a new technology but also utilizing the valuable experience in the packaging design through a contemporary and effective service manner.

Dr. Mehmet Saraç is a professor in Bogazici University's Department of Management, and a consultant to FCC Advertising & Packaging Ltd. in Istanbul. He can be reached at +90 216 545 47 00, info@fccproof.com, or saracm@superonline.com