From Local Hero to Global Brand
Why Design and Communication Matter
I should probably have written this article in Turkish, but I chose English for a reason. The audience I aim to reach in Turkey is unlikely to read it anyway. They will look for solutions elsewhere. And to be honest, I am not the only one raising these issues—though apart from a few exceptions, I rarely see anyone addressing them.
Turkey is a global leader in certain agricultural products. Take hazelnuts, for example. Turkey produces 70% of the world’s supply, yet the market is controlled by Germany and Italy (Ferrero). Even though higher-quality products exist in Turkey, no strong local brand emerges to challenge Nutella on the global stage. Another example is olive oil. My personal connection with olive oil began after I got married. My family grows hazelnuts, so for us, olive oil was just something you picked up from the supermarket among the standard brands. But for my wife’s family, olive oil holds the same place as hazelnuts do for mine. Over the past 15 years, I’ve learned a lot about this market simply by observing.
In Turkish supermarkets, olive oil products fall into two main categories. The first is mass-market brands in sleek PET bottles, offering a somewhat consistent taste and standard. The second is local boutique brands that push for higher quality. But here’s the catch: Turkey has been in an economic crisis for years, and cost control is everything. That’s why packaging hasn’t changed much in decades. Economy products still come in tin cans, while gift-like products are sold in cylindrical glass bottles. Labels may change, but bottles rarely do.
I can’t say how much effort local producers put into exports, or whether they try to make a presence in Turkey’s high-end supermarkets. What I do know is that most designs have been painfully dull for years. Nearly all of my own client work comes from abroad; I actively avoid the Turkish market—though that’s a story for another day. Earlier this year, a major olive packaging company decided to sell its export products under its own brand domestically. They shared their competitors’ packaging as well as their own. The gap was about 20 years. With designs like these, they hoped to compete with Greek, Spanish, and Italian brands. I explained as calmly as I could that their entire visual identity—starting with their website—looked amateur. Unsurprisingly, things didn’t move forward. In Turkey, design is still too often seen as an “expense.”
But there are exceptions. One new brand caught my attention this year, first introduced to me by my brother. When I visited Ayvalık, I immediately noticed their bottles on the shelves and even saw their billboard ads around town. They slightly reworked the traditional cylindrical bottle design, kept the large formats in tin, but completely differentiated themselves through packaging, product presentation, and label design. Their products instantly stood out. My only criticism was their website: the main visual had such low resolution that it appeared blurry as soon as the page loaded.
Another example I stumbled upon was in a fish market in Istanbul: Yudum. I had never seen these bottles on supermarket shelves before, but here was a brand usually known for mass-market products, launching a premium line in elegant bottles targeting the upper segment.
This brings me to the second part of this article: my market visits with my wife. While my main area of work is beverage visuals, I always pay attention to olive oil when scanning the shelves. And what I see is worth sharing.
There’s a common belief in Turkey: “As long as the product is good, the rest is easy.” But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Put a high-quality product into a cheap PET bottle and expect to sell it at the same price and with the same perceived value? Impossible. The irony is that producers themselves don’t behave this way when buying products, yet they expect consumers to. As a result, even well-known regional brands struggle to expand beyond their local markets, let alone internationally.
During our trip to Paris, France, I took the opportunity to explore local grocery stores and observe how different brands position themselves in a foreign market. As I wandered through the aisles, I noted a rich variety of brands, many of which originate from Greece and Italy, showcasing their unique products and branding strategies. Interestingly, however, I noticed that there was not a single brand from Turkey on the shelves. This observation led me to wonder about the underlying reasons for this absence. Could it be related to trade relationships, branding strategies, or perhaps economic factors? This experience sparked my curiosity and prompted me to dig deeper into the factors influencing brand presence in international retail spaces.
The reality is this: design is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. In today’s world, most purchase decisions are made in seconds, and they reward appearance over taste. Bottle shape, label color, typography—every detail influences the perceived value of a product. “Quality speaks for itself” may be true in production, but in marketing, it has never been enough. Consumers decide with their eyes first.
Design is not just a wrapper; it is the most powerful tool for telling a brand’s story. Good design creates trust, distinction, and desire in the consumer’s mind. Bad design reduces even the best product to mediocrity. And design is only the beginning—the way you present it, the channels you use, and the language you speak are equally important. The journey starts with packaging but continues through social media visuals, websites, billboards, and even how the product looks standing next to competitors on the shelf.
In short, product + design + communication is the trinity that carries a brand forward. If one link is missing, the chain breaks. Turkey has world-class products that could easily win awards, but the chain that carries them to the world stage remains incomplete.
Perhaps this is the real problem: in Turkey, we still view hazelnuts and olive oil as “agricultural products,” while the world buys them as “branded products.” And the first step in branding is strong design backed by effective communication.
To sum it up: A good product may make you a hero locally, but only good design and strong communication can make you a global brand.
