How Can Turkish Brands Go Global?
Türkiye has spent decades exporting products, talent and culture, while leaving the deeper story largely untranslated. Its real competitive advantage may not lie in manufacturing alone, but in the ability to transform Istanbul’s hospitality, Anatolia’s craftsmanship and the country’s cultural confidence into brands the world genuinely desires.
by Youri Sawerschel and Bengül Melis Sawerschel
With its history, diverse cultures, unique geography, and strong exporting capacity, Türkiye has one of the richest cultures on earth. On paper, the country has all the ingredients it needs to create globally recognised and admired brands. In practice, however, the potential of Turkish brands remains largely untapped. The challenge is not resources themselves, but the capacity to transform them into brand value.
Strong brands are never born in a vacuum. They typically emerge from existing geographical and cultural qualities to establish their place in the market. Ferrari is not just a sportscar maker; it embodies Italian passion. Rolex is not merely a watchmaker; it draws on the Swiss reputation for precision. Hermès is not just about leather goods; it is the epitome of French craftsmanship and heritage.
But what about Turkish brands? Did any of them manage to reach the A League of global brands, becoming recognizable and respected not just regionally, but globally? In my view: not quite yet.
Awareness Isn’t the Same as Brand Equity
Some would argue that Turkish Airlines has achieved this status, having built genuine global recognition. Awareness, however, is not the same as brand equity. Turkish Airlines is known by many, but the associations it carries are not as specific or emotionally charged as Singapore Airlines on service, or Emirates on experience. It is recognized more as a network than as a brand with a point of view.
Three Reasons Global Brands Haven’t Emerged
The absence of truly global Turkish brands stems from three structural factors.
- First, Türkiye industrialised later than Western competitors and entered global markets primarily as a manufacturing base, exporting goods rather than stories.
- Second, with domestic consumption accounting for roughly 60% of GDP, most companies can thrive without ever facing the harder test of international brand competition.
- Third, and most under appreciated, is the macroeconomic environment.
Building a global brand requires patient multi-year investment in narrative and identity, none of which deliver immediate returns. In a decade of persistent currency depreciation, CFOs who prioritise shorter payback periods are not being short-sighted. They are being rational.
It is not that Turkish brands have done nothing. Their capacity to export is proven. But too often these efforts stop at the export level, failing to build a mental image that positions them beyond manufacturers and service providers. Drawing from the football world, we can map the Turkish brand landscape across four leagues, from the A League, home to global contenders with a clear and consistently executed story, to the D League, where companies export products under no name that matters.
Mapping the Turkish Brand Landscape: Four Leagues
- League A: Global Contender
- A distinctive story, consistently expressed across all markets. Known not just for what it sells, but for what it stands for. Desire is created before the product is seen.
Examples: Espressolab, Bluemint, Manu Atelier (Emerging)
- A distinctive story, consistently expressed across all markets. Known not just for what it sells, but for what it stands for. Desire is created before the product is seen.
- League B: Misaligned Potential
- League C: Emerging Challenger
- League D: Production Asset
Products reach international markets with no brand story attached. Known to buyers, unknown to consumers. Competing on price where they could compete on meaning.
- Examples: LC Waikiki, textile suppliers
Exporting Products Without Exporting the Brand
Brands like Mavi, NetWork, Istikbal and Arçelik have grown well beyond their borders, with presence as far as Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Yet none of them enjoy the recognition of Levi’s, Massimo Dutti, BoConcept or Electrolux respectively, despite comparable or superior product quality.
Turkish television tells a similar story. Turkish dramas now reach audiences from Brazil to the Balkans, making Türkiye one of the world’s largest exporters of scripted television. Yet the industry lacks what its peers have built over decades: a cultural label as catchy as K-pop, a mythology as powerful as Hollywood, or a genre identity as defined as Japanese anime.
Türkiye exports the content without exporting the brand.
A New Generation Leading the Way
And yet the picture is shifting. The last fifteen years have seen a new generation of Turkish brands that approached brand building with a global lens from the start.
EspressoLab, founded in Istanbul in 2014, now operates stores in 20 countries, from Germany to South Africa, with product, experience and brand execution on par with Blue Bottle or Arabica Coffee House. A polarising presence at home for reasons unrelated to coffee, it remains one of the most instructive examples of Turkish brand building done right.
Manu Atelier, a handbag label built on three generations of Istanbul leather craftsmanship, is worn by the likes of Gigi Hadid and the Princess of Wales, and is stocked at Selfridges, Harrods and Net-a-Porter. Bluemint, originally a men’s swimwear brand, has grown into a full lifestyle label with boutiques in Mykonos, St. Tropez, Capri, London and Doha. None of these brands hide their origins. They succeeded thanks to them.
The Case for Brand Over Scale
These newcomers are living proof of what branding can do. Strong brands command premium prices, reduce dependency on cost competition, and attract global attention with minimal physical presence.
Manu Atelier operates just one flagship store, in Istanbul, yet its bags are carried by royalty, worn by global celebrities, and stocked in the world’s most prestigious retailers. The store count is almost beside the point.
So what does it take to build a globally recognised, lasting brand?
Three Strategic Shifts Stand Out
1. From manufacturing to positioning
Owning customer attention is often more valuable than owning production capacity. Nike and IKEA do not manufacture their own products, yet they command strong brand premiums because they own a clear mental image in the minds of their customers. For Turkish brands, this means answering one question: what do we stand for, and in whose life do we play a role?
Paşabahçe is a striking illustration of a story waiting to be told. Founded in Istanbul in 1935, it is today the world’s second-largest manufacturer of glass household goods, with a scale most brands can only dream of. Yet internationally it remains largely invisible to the end consumer. Villeroy & Boch, by contrast, has become synonymous with European table culture and the art of fine dining. Paşabahçe, born in Istanbul, a city globally recognised for its extraordinary hospitality, has every ingredient to become the ambassador of the Turkish art of the table.
2. From instinct to codification
Turkish cuisine has a beloved concept: “göz kararı”, judgment by eye, the cook’s instinct that needs no measuring cup. It is a wonderful cultural trait. But brands are not recipes passed between generations. They require the opposite discipline: definition, codification, and consistency. Which colours, which materials, which tone of voice, which associations are permitted and which are not. Brands that mix signals confuse consumers. A brand rooted in Ottoman heritage cannot also borrow from Italian apothecary aesthetics and expect the market to follow. Aligning everything behind one idea is both a creative constraint and a condition for trust.
3. From imitation to identity
For decades, many Turkish brands have tried to look European, softening their origins and avoiding anything that might read as too local. The world has moved on. Korean, Brazilian and Japanese brands have demonstrated that cultural specificity is not a handicap but a competitive advantage. The appetite for the authentic and the non-Western is there already.
Türkiye has extraordinary raw material: Bodrum, Nişantaşı and Kapadokya already carry international cachet. Ottoman craftsmanship, Anatolian textiles, and a culinary culture that has conquered global cities are assets waiting to be claimed. Claiming them also means protecting them.
Türkiye’s inability to enforce brand identity is visible on every street corner: there are dozens of shops in Istanbul each calling themselves the original “Meşhur Sarıyer Börekçisi”, operated by different companies, with no common standard and no protected equity. Brand building without IP protection is akin to building a sand castle.
The Bigger Picture: Beyond Business
Brand strategy is not only a business question. Every Turkish brand that reaches global recognition shifts how Türkiye is perceived as a destination, a partner and a country. A strong brand for a Turkish hotel, a Turkish fashion label or a Turkish food producer does not only benefit the company behind it. It changes the frame through which Türkiye is read internationally, attracting investors, tourists, talent and trading partners.
The most common objections are familiar: branding is expensive, the process takes too long, it is easier to copy what works, and the domestic market is large enough.
Ready or Not: Türkiye’s Branding Moment
Each is understandable. None is a strategy. On investment specifically, brands that command a price premium in euros or dollars are partially insulated from currency risk in a way that price-competing exporters never will be. Branding is not a luxury for when conditions improve. It is a rational response to the conditions that exist.
The world is ready for Turkish brands. The only question is whether Turkish brands are ready for the world.
…
Explore Youri Sawerschel and Bengül Melis Sawerschel’s insights in the third issue of Centre Mag. Coming soon.
Youri Sawerschel is the owner of Creative Supply, a branding agency headquartered in Zurich. Youri has been creating, launching, and managing brands in Europe, China, and the Middle East for global organisations like Kempinski, UBS, ABB, and Marriott. Youri is also the author of dozens of articles on the topics of brand strategy, destination making, and hospitality concepts, and is a Senior Lecturer at CEIBS Shanghai, ESSEC Paris, EHL in Lausanne and Singapore, and at EPFL in Lausanne. Youri holds a Bachelor degree in International Hospitality Management from EHL in Lausanne (where he also co-founded the Young Hoteliers Summit), and graduated from the École des Arts Décoratifs in Geneva.
