Marketing and branding problems of geographically marked products

Geographical indication being one of the industrial property rights has functions such as being contributor to rural development, providing competitive power to small scale producers/merchants. Today, while the improvement of technology and the globalization of commerce result in product diversity, yet it should be bear in mind that, in return, poor quality and genetically modified products have emerged, posing a long-term threat to human health. Consumers with an high level of knowledge always seek for information about the products they consume. For this reason, Geographical Indication (GI) registration comes out as consumers seek reliable and quality products and want to have information about the region and under which conditions the product is grown. Geographical indication being one of the industrial property rights has functions such as being contributor to rural development, providing competitive power to small scale producers/merchants, protecting local and cultural diversity and producing the product with traditional methods resulting from years of experience. Thanks to the geographical indication, the consumer have an idea about where, in which region, how and when the product was produced. There are special standards for a product to receive GI registration and these standards are implemented in many countries. It is evidently seen that the number of geographical indication registrations and applications are surging every year. It is thought that Turkey can host many more GI products thanks to its climatic diversity, its characteristics, soil structure, geographical location and cultural accumulation. The ultimate aim of the research is to reveal the current situation of the institutions and organizations that have registered GI in Turkey, and identify the marketing and branding problems of geographically indicated products and offer them solutions in this context. In this context, a questionnaire was applied to 218 institutions and organizations with Geographical Indication registration, data collected and the data obtained were analyzed. The ultimate aim of the research is to reveal the current situation of the institutions and organizations that have registered GI in Turkey, to identify the marketing and branding problems of geographically indicated products and to offer solutions to them in this context. Within this frame, a questionnaire was applied to 218 institutions and organizations with Geographical Indication registration, data gathered and obtained were analyzed. According to the research results; This is due to the fact that the branding problems and the lack of proper marketing in order to take place both in the market and in the international markets, as outlined in terms of marking and evaluating the institution and purchase signs here, are revealed here.