SALİM KADIBEŞEGİL

Temel Aksoy’s book was finally published. I have been waiting for it to come out for many years. I’ve already read the book entitled Myths and Truth: How to do Marketing twice, and it deserves to be read for the third time.

Before I express my detailed thoughts on its contents, I’d like to say that the book can be evaluated as a first-class work when we consider the subjects that are generally neglected such as design, visual qualities, readability and connection between references and contents.

When I think about the contents of the book, I would like to congratulate Temel Aksoy from the bottom of my heart. I have a few reasons for congratulating him:

• For introducing us to such comprehensive contents after many years of experience in the world of marketing,
• for revealing clearly that following so-called “marketing gurus” throw us a curve, an idea that I have been trying to defend for years although I could not make my voice heard,
• and most importantly, for confessing sincerely that he used to defend “the false facts” defined as marketing myths.

The book appeals to the entire world of marketing. It serves as a different tool for enlightenment in today’s world where recognised concepts such as the trio of mission, vision and values, the brand value offer, brand positioning, segmentation, brand loyalty, lovemarks, 360-degree communication, engagement and the nature of research are associated with marketing myths.

Temel Aksoy does not take just a single step but a few steps forward and defines marketing, whose meaning has always been a subject of much debate,  as “science”. He explains the laws of marketing which consist of ten articles by giving examples. He says “Be realistic and free your minds from myths!”. I find this approach very important. 

Jack Trout, the father of differentiation, came to Istanbul for a conference 15 years ago. He gave an exclusive presentation to a small group and talked about his recognised approach to “differentiation” the evening before the conference. At the end of his presentation, I brought up social responsibility, an issue which had just started becoming popular in those days, and asked him whether we had any responsibility towards our society and the planet we lived on before the differentiation of brands. He said sardonically and sarcastically “These are nonsense. What really matters is that a product should differentiate in competition through its attributes.” I remember Jack Trout whenever I watch an advertisement about the corporate social responsibility practices of a brand even after all that time.

1980s saw the rise of brand gurus. They became famous and made a lot of money, but more importantly they “brainwashed” us! Temel Aksoy’s book is important for this reason. It should be read and used as a reference book.

On the other hand, life is not just about “marketing”. As Temel Aksoy reveals in his book, we can manage brands based on the new rules and include marketing in competition within the scope of the laws he defines. We might succeed in one dimension, but being a member of the consumer society is not good news for our children and for the planet that we are going to leave to them.

In Turkey, each baby is born with a debt of $ 5873 imposed on it by the consumer society where it is not even considered an individual.

Each object that we consume by constantly getting into future debt through effective marketing management does nothing but steal someone else’s vital values in our world where seven billion people live.

We have an agenda of climate change, epidemics, consumption of potable water sources and desertification of agricultural fields.

It does not really matter whether we do marketing on the basis of some laws in a world where the number of people who left their homes and chose to live as refugees equals to Turkey’s population and where 300 children die of starvation every hour!