Idea marketing in forestry: some implications from the Turkish forestry experience

Marketing has been defined as business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer. Earlier definitions tended to describe marketing in strictly economic terms. However, in later definitions marketing deals not only with business activities but also with transactions, which are exchanges of values between two parties. Marketed products or goods in recent marketing definitions are things that have value to people that may include consumers, users or clients. On the other hand, forestry product mix has also evolved in time. In this study, forestry values, both marketable and non-marketable, have been examined for the forestry sector according to recent marketing definitions. Forestry values such as resource sustainability, ecological and social responsibilities have been argued as marketable ideas. Turkish forestry is introduced briefly. The importance of idea marketing is explained and some results of marketing being restricted only to economic goods are introduced using examples from Turkish forestry.