Renaming cities these days has become quite a trend. The people in power think it is as easy as right-clicking on the city, selecting the “Rename” option and ‘Voila’ – we have a new city! Wish it were that easy to rebrand a place. Advertisers across the world would be showering gazillion blessings on the inventor of the “Right Click”. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in real life. Renaming a city is one thing, and rebranding a whole nation is a different ballgame altogether. Turkey went through one such major transformation by renaming itself Türkiye. As poetic as the name sounds, the reason for adding extra letters to the name and an umlaut has a different story. This article talks about how challenging it is, as advertisers, to rebrand a nation.
The Background Story
With the United Nations (UN) recognizing the new name, Türkiye has a very interesting story to tell as to why it had to be rechristened. Though Türkiye got its independence in 1923, the country was referred to as Turkey & Ottoman State, Turquia and Turkey. Eventually, the Anglicized version (Turkey) remained predominant while the citizens continued to refer to it as Türkiye.
Adding to the confusion, Google wasn’t much of any help when people searched for Turkey. The images of a large bird served as a delicacy during Thanksgiving in North America popped up the most. Further, the word “Turkey” was trivialized in the Cambridge dictionary and defined as “a stupid person” or “something that fails badly”.
The Indian Scenario
In a country that thrives on diversity, the name of a place is surrounded by geopolitical and nationalistic controversies. There are no common grounds where we can find truce. One such instance was when a large water body surrounding the Indian Peninsula was named as “Indian Ocean”. This name annoyed Pakistanis in particular and they proposed many names on the international forum to rename it. Their suggestions – Indo-Pak Ocean, Eastern Ocean, Afro-Asian Ocean, Muslim Ocean, but guess which one made the cut.
After the British vacated the country, Jinnah was infuriated with the fact that the name our country went ahead with was “India” instead of Hindustan as compared to Pakistan, which they went ahead with.
Cut to – the present day
The “Rename” culture has widely spread in the real estate industry where they consider it is “intelligent” to rename a particular locale according to the target audience’s taste and preferences. Prefixes like ‘New’, ‘Annexe’, ‘Upper’ are thrown around in pitch presentations and they eventually change the game.
The Global Impact
Fun Fact: Vilnius – the capital of Lithuania, has been marketing itself as “The G-spot of Europe” since 2018.
Sometimes, even a simple idea can make the right kind of noise. The reason Vilnius chose to market itself as the G-spot of Europe is quite astonishing. According to the local tourism board, they claim that Vilnius is something similar to the G-spot. Nobody knows where it is, but when they find the place – it really feels amazing! Nobody can argue with that analogy (you see what we did there, right?) As an advertiser, this is what we love; the challenges of rebranding, we mean!
At 3 Dots Design Pvt. Ltd., we have successfully worked on a plethora of brands and rebranded their identities by adding more purpose to their design, aesthetics and content. Being one of the best ad agencies in Pune, we have always kept our focus on enhancing the brand value of our clients and we continue to do so with effective, creative and strategic communications. If you wish to know more about who we are or what we do, please visit www.3dotsdesign.in or get in touch with us at contact@3dotsdesign.in to take your brand to the next level.