Courage needed for strong brands, says Hürriyet Chairwoman
ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency
Hürriyet Chairwoman Vuslat Doğan Sabancı speaks at Brand Week meeting. DHA photo
Courage and distinctiveness are key factors for becoming a powerful brand, Hürriyet newspaper chairwoman Vuslat Doğan Sabancı said during the opening ceremony of Brand Week Istanbul yesterday.“How brave are you? Can you prefer a different way rather than the normal one? When you choose it, can you go on steadily without questioning yourself? If you say ‘yes’ loudly, you are much closer to [becoming] a powerful brand,” she said.
Doğan Sabancı recalled the success stories of global companies such as Google, whose founders locked themselves in a garage for many months, Samsung that used to be a fruit-vegetable exporter company and entered into the technology sector, Starbucks and Apple. She said all those companies displayed bravery as well as resistance against the routine, not repeating the same and avoiding imitations.
She said if many brands disappeared in the past, it showed there must be other factors: vision, strategy and working with the right team, which was the most important for her. Being a leader was also necessary for surviving in the long-term. “You have to be ahead if you want to be a strong brand and leader in the framework of both technologies and trends,” she said.
Doğan Sabancı stated that as Hürriyet had been the most powerful newspaper brand in Turkey for 65 years, its business field was changing and developing, reminding that hurriyet.com enabled publishing and broadcasting to take place 24 hours a day.
She noted that as their business field changed, their audience’s demands also changed. “We have a new digital project. We have created a platform to write Turkey’s ‘Hürriyet Şarkısı’ (Freedom Song),” she said, adding that they took the audience’s demands into account while creating the platform. The audience are able to express themselves by writing a definition of freedom on this interactive platform, Hürriyet Benim (Freedom is mine). The video clip can be watched on www.hurriyetbenim.com.
Economic Dependence Blocks Freedom
ISTANBULMajor parts newspapers in Turkey do not have economic independence and it prevents freedom of the press, Doğan Holding Honorary Chairman Aydın Doğan said yesterday.
The publications that survive with the support of “the bosses” are forced to shut down, Doğan said at the meeting introducing Hürriyet’s new campaign, Hürriyet Benim (Freedom is Mine), at the Hürriyet World building in Istanbul. “Hürriyet is one of the rare publications that have economic independence,” he added.
Doğan also stated impartiality, which is one of the most discussed topics, is not an absolute concept. Hürriyet is on the side of certain values, he said. “We defend our country’s independence, national interests, The Republic’s principles, democratic rule of law for the identity of the country, civil peace, human rights and freedoms,” he said.
