26.03.2021 Ankara
TOBB and Visa launched a new campaign to support small businesses to continue their activities during the pandemic. The campaign, which comes to life with the slogan “Big Difference with a Purchase,” invites consumers to meet their needs from small businesses.
The
Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) and Visa announced
the launch of the “Big Difference with a Purchase,” campaign to support small
businesses that make up 99% of SMEs, the backbone of the economy, during the
pandemic. The goal of the campaign is to appeal to consumers across the
country, encouraging everyone to meet their needs from local small businesses
in the area where they live.
- Pandemic and changing conditions
affect small businesses
While
small businesses all over the world and in Turkey tried to continue their
activities under the new conditions created by the pandemic, they also faced
the obligation to move their activities online and accept digital payments. A
Survey of SMEs in Europe by Visa reveals that 65% of small businesses are
concerned about the future of their companies.
- Small businesses have a big place
in the life of the consumer
According
to another study by Visa, consumers welcome and support the call to do their
shopping from small businesses in their neighborhoods in order to raise
awareness. Respondents said they tend to view small business employees in their
neighborhoods as friends or family members, while shopping at these businesses
further connects them to the area where they live.
- “Let's support small businesses
with our shopping”
Emphasizing
that SMEs are the backbone of the country's economy, the Union of Chambers and
Commodity Exchanges of Turkey President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said, in
regards to the campaign, “Small businesses were the most affected by the
pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, they have either been closed or
unable to operate at full capacity. This led to their inability to cover their
costs, difficulty accessing financing, and disruptions in their supply chains.
Now we are seeing a revival in the economy with a period of controlled
normalization. The most important source of this revival is consumer spending.
I believe that if we channel these expenditures correctly, we will achieve the
economic recovery much faster. Small businesses play a big role here, too.
Small businesses, SMEs are the backbone of our country's economy, the lifeblood
of employment. Therefore, our support to small businesses as consumers during
this revival will enable the economy to recover faster, small businesses to
resume their activities from where they left off, and supply and value chains
to function in a healthy way again. In this context, as TOBB and Visa, we have started
the “Big Difference with a Purchase” campaign. With this campaign, we want to
emphasize that consumers can support small businesses with their purchases, and
we want to state that a purchase is very important for small businesses. We
want the voices of small businesses to never dim, their place in our lives not
to be lost, and we invite everyone to support this campaign.”
- “Don't let the voice of small
businesses be silenced”
Commenting
on the “Big Difference with a Purchase,” campaign, Visa Turkey General Manager
Merve Tezel said, “Small businesses enrich our economic life as well as our
social life. As Visa, we attach great
importance to the ability of these enterprises to continue their activities in
a healthy way in our country as well as in the world. From the beginning of the
pandemic, we continued to help small businesses move their business online and
support them to accept electronic payments with our I Can Manage My Business
project. Now, we aim to raise awareness about the benefits of shopping from
small businesses to our economy and society by launching Visa's 'Big Difference
with a Purchase' campaign in Europe for 3 years in cooperation with TOBB. With this call, we say that 'the voices of
small businesses should never end, their place in our lives should never be
lost.'”
- Real owners and employees of
enterprises starred in the campaign film
Visa
has also launched a commercial to bring its “Big Difference with a Purchase”
call to a wider audience. Starring real small business owners and employees
rather than professional actors, the film echoes the working voices of various
businesses such as grocery stores, tailors, florists, coffee shops, shoe
shiners, food vendors, which we all know well.