Excerpts from our founder Oktay Duran's speech at the Brand Conference...
TO DRAW WATER FROM THE WELL, YOU WILL POUR A GLASS OF WATER INTO THE MOUTH OF THE PUMP.
Based on this experience, let's see how we can relate ART and BRAND to each other.
Let's start like this; let's divide art into two without any justification:
- TRADITIONAL ARTS
- CONTEMPORARY ARTS
Traditional arts are one of the strongest building mortars that keep us together as a nation, such as our common homeland, language and traditions.
Thanks to our traditional arts, we do not forget our past, we enlighten our present, and we expect them to keep us in unity and solidarity in our future.
However, contemporary art assumes an important role when it comes to revealing the pioneering, progressive and creative power of society. The contemporary artist does not accept anything as it is, but questions, scrutinises, surprises, pursues and pursues innovations.
Every time we look at a work of contemporary art, we are very likely to discover a different aspect of it and bring new interpretations to it.
Contemporary art transcends borders and communicates across geographies. It connects you to today's world and makes you part of a global common language.
Over time, as we spend time with contemporary art, we realise that we find ourselves in creative thinking habits. Regardless of our profession, we start to care about decorating our endeavours with differences.
Although I am not an engineer, scientific knowledge, facts and realities are my priority, but I learn from art that I should not test this knowledge and that I should develop new perspectives.
When we look at a work of art and say "I like it", which most probably means that it is either traditional or classical, this means that the image is already stored somewhere in our brain. Our brain has compared the image in memory with the image in front of us and directed us to like it.
But if we look at the work and say "I don't understand", that work has presented us with something new that is not stored in our brain. If we try to understand what the artist wants to tell us without worrying about what the artist wants to tell us, and if we can share this opinion without fear or hesitation, that moment has come.
CONTEMPORARY ART HAS BEGUN TO PAVE THE WAY FOR CREATIVE THINKING.
So, what will the ability to think creatively do for us? If you are a producer, there are two main ways to make money: either you will produce faster than all your competitors, that is, you will produce cheaply and get ahead in price competition, or you will create and produce what no one has done before and you will be the first to set your price.
If you choose the second way, the questioning, non-accepting difference of contemporary art will be your most effective guide.
AFTER THAT, IT'S JUST A MATTER OF TIME.
AT THIS STAGE, YOU WILL POUR A GLASS OF WATER INTO THE MOUTH OF THE PUMP TO DRAW WATER FROM THE WELL.
If you invest in art as much as a glass of water and take a step, art will repay you with the water it will pour from its well.
By the way, let no one tell me "we already support the arts". It is not the place of anyone other than the artist and the art academician to support art. Only if you invest in art, art will SUPPORT you.
THE TURN IS GRADUALLY COMING FOR THE BRAND TO GLORIFY ITS OWN VALUE WITH THE SUPPORT IT WILL RECEIVE FROM ART.
The works that are watched, evaluated and started to be purchased will first position you, then your institution and finally your country in a different place in the society, and will lead to the recognition of your "BRAND" value, which is the main topic of today.
Each BRAND value that we start to glorify will carry Turkey's BRAND value upwards, and Turkey's BRAND value, which has risen with this support, will come back and feed all BRANDS.
Today, Turkish Industry exports over 200 billion dollars of finished products every year. However, unfortunately, our average kg export price is below 1 $.
I am happy with the quality of the products we export and the services we provide as a country, because many countries that we call "developed" cannot offer better quality and service than us. However, the price of every product they sell is much higher than ours.
HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?
Because we have very limited symbol names to support Turkey's BRAND; and we do not provide enough support for them to become a world brand. When an Italian sells his product, he actually leans on the brand value of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Guiseppe Verdi. Likewise, France uses its Monet, Victor Hugo, Germany its Beethoven, Goethe, Kafka, Spain its Picasso, Miro, Cervantes, English Shakespeare.
However, aren't those countries the ones who have turned those names into BRANDs? In other words, raise an artist, turn his name into a WORLD BRAND, and then, when selling your goods, take shelter behind the BRAND values of those names to cover your shame.
Imagine a country from the Far East, whose always smiling and hard-working people were travelling to the technology fairs of developed countries in the 1970s, with cameras in their hands, recording everything they saw. When they returned to their countries, they produced similar products to every product they recorded on their cameras, and even developed better ones, not just imitating them.
After a while, this country became the pioneer of the concept of "Total Quality". But how? They could not put the price they deserved for the products they maximised their quality. When they could not find the reason for this in their marketing tactics, they started to search for other reasons.
Then they realised that they did not have symbolic names that the West could refer to. Therefore, no one could perceive that the products of that country could be good and correct products.
So, how could this perception be broken? The answer was very clear. To create a world brand by raising symbolic names in art, to increase the brand value of the country with their support, and then to add value to the value of all product brands of the country with a high brand value.
The day they realised this, they started to create global art brands by opening hundreds of museums, buying the works of thousands of European and American artists, and making financial contributions to art museums around the world.
They supported their talented architects, music masters and artists unlimitedly so that they could become the BRAND FACE of their countries in the world.
At that time, when they raised the prices of their electronic devices by 10 dollars and their cars by 100 dollars, the world markets accepted it as it was. Because that country now had a Yayoi Kusama and many other artists. The products of a nation that had raised Yayoi Kusama were accepted as correct and reasonably priced.
Another Asian country, which until yesterday marketed acceptable products with a price/quality ratio, has now started to take the Japanese model of 50 years ago as an example to get rid of the perception of cheapness while slightly improving the quality of its products. They have opened and are opening hundreds of contemporary/modern art museums. They support their artists unlimitedly.
Do you realise that you have started to digest the products of this country at more acceptable prices?
Do you think the Ai Weiwei Brand has no contribution to the creation of this perception?
What should we do as Turkey? We should work hard to introduce our brand values to the world. These brands will increase the value of Brand Turkey.
We, who are the sub-brands of a valuable Turkey Brand, will then not need to make much effort to explain ourselves to the world. Brand Turkey will already be carrying us everywhere.
No matter how much we invest in our Burhan Doğançay's, Leyla Gençer's, Fazıl Say's and today's young artists, it will not be more than a glass of water we will pour into the spout of the pump.
The view and dialogue on art cannot be a temporary whim and benefit. On the contrary, it must be embedded in your DNA, in your corporate culture, so that it will continue and be sustainable. In today's world, you must have a way of doing business in a multidisciplinary approach. The big companies in Western Europe and especially in North America provide innovative ideas through corporate organisations that bring together different disciplines. Innovative creative thinking is based on art and design. Specialisation in art and design is the most important privilege of today.