The Scottish Government

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Supporting facts

5.1 A series of facts were developed that could be used to support the overarching themes in communications and promotions about Scotland. Three separate overlapping sets of facts were developed, and were targeted at:

• the general public, primarily relating to visiting Scotland;
• students and academics, with some information specifically relating to education; and
• business people, with some information specifically relating to business and the economy.

5.2 The reactions of each of the audiences to the facts and their views on how they supported or changed ideas about the overarching themes are considered below and the supporting facts are presented in full in Appendix 2.

Students

5.3 Students were surprised by the bulk of the facts. For the majority, their base level of awareness of Scotland was extremely low, and so a lot of the facts were new information.

5.4 The facts that were interesting and compelling were ones that enhanced students' understanding and challenged their perceptions of Scotland. Adding the facts to the themes meant that students started to consider Scotland more as a place where they could study and at the same time lead an active social life, a very important consideration for them.

5.5 Before they saw the facts, students often rejected the theme of Scotland being a country of ideas, innovation and progress. The facts identifying inventions and innovations coming out of Scotland raised their understanding and they were more accepting of the theme, despite being unsure about some of the detail of the facts.

5.6 Facts that worked particularly well for the students included those:

• giving information on the number of overseas students studying in Scotland:

"40,000 students would be the one that would influence me the most just because it gives Scotland some credibility that so many people from so many different countries are doing it. It's not like an idea that is totally out there studying in Scotland."
Student focus group (North Carolina)

• highlighting the Fresh Talent initiative:

"If I decide to stay and live there after studying it sounds like a great thing."
Student focus group (California)

• identifying Scotland's contributions to the world including international festivals.

5.7 The inclusion of seafood and whisky as contributions to the world confirmed students' stereotypical images of Scotland. The inclusion of international festivals suggested the possibilities of lively and interesting social activities.

5.8 Facts that had some interest but were less motivational for students included:

• the list of inventions, which were of great interest, but also met with great suspicion that Scotland was claiming other countries' inventions as their own;
• information about Dundee University's courses and research in computer games, which were of interest in themselves to students, but they did not see any applicability to their area of study; and
• the fact highlighting commercialisation of university research including personalised drugs, which generated some discussion about what personalised drugs were, but otherwise was not usually applicable to their study.

5.9 While students were interested, but sceptical about the inventions which came out of Scotland such as the iPod, and 3D computer games, they did suggest there should be more emphasis on modern inventions in the facts and less on what they considered to be the older more outdated technology such as fax machines.

5.10 Facts that were rejected by students were those:

• where students did not understand the terminology or acronyms used such as OECD¹ (comparison of life science graduates per capita) or 5-star ratings (for quality of university research); and
• where endorsement was through a publication, which students did not know about. Additionally, students suspected the accolade could have arisen as part of a paid placement or other marketing device.

5.11 The majority of student respondents were not from a life sciences background, and so found the emphasis on life sciences in a number of the facts distracting and off-putting. They also disliked a number of the facts which they felt overemphasised academic or innovative achievements. Such statements were considered boastful and further evidence of Scotland 'trying too hard'. Students were often unsure of the validity of some of the claims, and because their knowledge was so scant, they tended to dismiss some of the statements as a result.

Academics

5.12 Like the students, these facts were new information to the majority of the academics, particularly those which focused on Scotland's educational excellence.

5.13 Facts which were particularly motivational for academics were:

• the numbers of overseas students;
• the quality of research in Scottish universities, which they felt was important to communicate to their students;
• Scottish inventions, in particular the modern ones which communicate that Scotland is not a backward country;
• Dundee University's courses and research in computer games, which they thought were interesting courses and would be of interest to students; and
• the Fresh Talent initiative which was important to know of and tell students about.

5.14 Academics thought it was important to know these facts in their role as advisers to students. Often they wanted more information about the facts to present to students. For example, they were interested to learn more detail about the numbers of students studying abroad, including what qualifications they received and the length of time they spent studying abroad. In particular they wanted to find out more about the Fresh Talent initiative. A number wondered why they had not heard of this initiative before.

5.15 No facts were rejected outright, though there were some that were not immediately of interest or appealing in the interview. These included:

• the comparative number of life science graduates;
• the recognition of two universities as the two premier European Life Sciences institutions by the Scientist magazine;
• the commercialisation of research including personalised drugs; and
• Scotland's contributions to the world.

5.16 There was surprise around a number of the facts presented, particularly those which documented Scotland's contribution to the world. Often academics wanted a greater depth of information to back up the claims, though on the whole they were less sceptical about them than students. In general there was acceptance of the facts, though a little surprise for example that Penicillin and the fax machine were Scottish inventions.

5.17 They stressed the need to give students lifestyle facts, like mentioning the international festivals, and providing more about the nightlife, the clubs and societies they can be part of. These can be used as a hook to draw in students who would then go on to consider specific courses.

General Public

5.18 The majority of the facts were felt to fit comfortably with their knowledge of Scotland as a land of unspoilt wilderness, history and golf courses.

5.19 Facts that particularly appealed included:

• Scotland having some of the largest areas of unspoilt wilderness in Europe, with supporting information;
• Scotland as the birthplace of golf, with information about golf courses;
• the blend of old and new available in Scotland; and
• the 5,000 years of architecture up to the cutting edge design of the new Scottish Parliament.

5.20 The blend of 'old' and 'new', especially combining ancient buildings and modern architecture strongly appealed. They likened this to places like Rome, which some respondents had visited.

5.21 Ones that had less appeal to the general public were:

• information about writers, as many respondents did not know who the writers were, especially the living writers.
• information about marine life; respondents generally appeared to have little concept of wildlife tourism and questioned whether the marine life would be packaged and brought to them.
• information about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which provoked a mixed response. The number of performers appealed to the younger group but was off-putting to older respondents.

Business People

5.22 Awareness among business people of Scotland as a place to do business was low. Where people did have any knowledge, it was usually in relation to visiting. This meant most of those interviewed were surprised by the facts.

5.23 Facts that were more compelling included those:

• listing Scottish inventions, though there was some questioning of the individual inventions as respondents believed they were invented elsewhere;
• highlighting opportunities for work/life balance and highlighting the number of golf courses. The latter was of particular interest to some;
• demonstrating the international connections and overseas representation; and
• identifying Scotland as one of Europe's leading destinations for foreign direct investment.

5.24 Facts that had less appeal included those:

• giving information about particular industries, including computer manufacture, finance, life sciences, creative industries, food and computer games. These only appealed if they related to the particular industry in which the respondent was involved;
• which did not immediately get to the point and were frustrating for time-poor business people. They wanted simple, easy to read and relevant information.

5.25 Where facts did not relate to their own industry, or did not get to the point in the first sentence they would be ignored and even discarded. For example, two of the facts started with the general sentence 'Scotland's reputation for … continues to drive its economy'. This introductory sentence was considered irrelevant. Business people reacted better if the fact was presented first without the preamble.

Respondent Expectations

5.26 After discussing the facts, respondents were asked to think about what additional or different facts they would have liked to have seen presented about Scotland. Given the low level of awareness among all groups of respondents, people expected to see simple straightforward information. Basic information was needed to raise understanding from its very low current level.

5.27 Many of the facts suggested highlighted Scotland's similarities to America. For example:

• Students and the general public expected information about Scotland as an English speaking country to be highlighted, particularly in relation to the ease of assimilating and undertaking independent travel.
• Academics stressed the need to tell students simple things like where Scotland was on the map, and how close it was to other European cities and how to connect with them.
• Business people suggested emphasis should be placed on Scotland as a democracy, similar to the United States and on the skilled workforce and availability of technical expertise.

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