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6. COMMUNICATING SCOTLAND - A CASE STUDY OF FTWISS
6.1 The case study is about the effectiveness of FTWiSS as a communication tool. It looks at how FTWiSS has been communicated through "message platforms" around the world and compares it to other themes and ideas of Scotland, eg as a place to do business. It concludes by reflecting on the opportunity to learn from the FTWiSS experience when developing future message platforms about Scotland internationally.
Message Platforms - Scotland as a Place to Live, Work, Study, Do Business and Visit
6.2 Qualitative research was carried out with a range of audiences in China and the USA with a view to testing particular message platforms about Scotland. The research looked to explore responses to marketing materials, packaged as message platforms, designed by Scotland's International Image team to promote and position Scotland abroad. These message platforms - made up of themes, images and supporting facts about Scotland - were tested in a mixture of in-depth interviews and focus groups with students and academics. In relation to these particular groups, individuals were specifically introduced to and prompted on FTWiSS as part of communication materials around Scotland as a great place to study.
6.3 In the USA, qualitative research with academics led a number of participants to wonder why they had not heard of FTWiSS before and many stressed how important it was for them to know about it and for students to be told. 42 Both the student and academic focus groups and interviews showed that FTWiSS was a motivational incentive about Scotland which could act as a way of bringing the marketing materials and message platforms to life. Instead of just telling people that Scotland was a great place to live, work and study, FTWiSS gave people a reason to believe that this was true and, perhaps more importantly, understand how coming to Scotland to learn could help them achieve their aspirations and goals.
6.4 That is not to say that the communication materials and process did not matter. The research on the message platforms in both China and the USA illustrated how important the right communication tools, used by the right people and targeted at particular groups, were in raising awareness of Scotland and FTWiSS. 43 For instance, students in China suggested that they wanted to hear and see more practical information and not just be shown an image of Scotland and told it has great universities: they asked for the "names of famous universities" and institutions' "research achievements". 44 This, working alongside the FTWiSS incentive, would be an important part of the decision making process for them.
6.5 Compared to the influence of FTWiSS, many of the other message platforms tested - which included themes, images and facts about Scotland as a place to do business and to live and work - could be described as incomplete. Many of them were too general or did not inspire or give target groups, like business people, enough of a reason to act on any interest in, or awareness of, Scotland they might have. Even for those who knew Scotland and were generally positive about it as a place, their awareness did not seem to inform their behaviour or affect any prospective notion of using Scotland as a business location, or seeing it as the kind of place where you could live and work. 45
FTWiSS: a Complete Message Platform
Figure 1: A "Complete" Message Platform
6.6 The FTWiSS proposition appeared to influence people to see Scotland in a different light and make them more open to the idea of studying in the country. As Figure 1 illustrates, the FTWiSS acted as an "incentive", allowing people to get a complete picture of what Scotland had to offer them. While the message platforms being tested in China, Germany and the USA offered "content" based around images, facts and statements about Scotland that could be used by particular "senders", eg a university representative, to be communicated to target audiences/"receivers", such as overseas students, the evidence suggested that these 3 aspects alone might not be enough. While the information and communication on offer could give people a different way of thinking about Scotland, it did not necessarily make them any more likely to "engage" with Scotland. The FTWiSS proposition therefore acted as an incentive and a way of entering into a dialogue with prospective students about the benefits to them of studying in Scotland.
6.7 Message platforms, effectively designed and moulded to target audiences, are essential in letting other people find out about a place and are one small way of managing reputation and brand. But as the FTWiSS example shows, without substance, ie an "idea/incentive", the message platform remains incomplete. People need an incentive, an idea, a reason to change and/or act on their perceptions of a place; and, in the case of FTWiSS, it performs as an incentive which appears to offer the individual something that will benefit them personally.
Competitive Identity and Public Diplomacy
6.8 This analysis lends itself to the concept of Competitive Identity, developed by Simon Anholt, which sets out how important it is for a country, in its attempt to implement a nation brand strategy, not to tell people what they should think about a place on the basis of empty sloganeering. Ideas and the effective implementation of those ideas are absolutely critical. 46 This was a warning which came through for Scotland in relation to past attempts to claim itself as the "best small country in the world", a notion that did not resonate well. 47
6.9 Equally, in public diplomacy terms, FTWiSS could be seen as an example of effective mutuality. 48 Theories of public diplomacy have increasingly been looking to detail the process of influence between nations, particularly at the individual level, and the need for: a "shift of focus to communicating rather than selling results from the desire to achieve a genuinely balanced relationship emphasising mutuality and mutual understanding". 49 Those representing Scotland, whether that be on behalf of government or a university etc, can therefore use FTWiSS to open up a dialogue about Scotland and what it has to offer others; possibly change attitudes and perceptions; and influence decisions made by others about Scotland.
6.10 In saying all of this, the effective implementation of FTWiSS does not stop with the approval of a student's application. It is a scheme which expects international graduates to look for and find work in Scotland and, at the end of the 2 years, either decide to stay on or, if they leave, at the very least take away a lifelong affinity of Scotland with them. It could be argued that it is this stage which is the "real" impact, or the desired outcome, of FTWiSS and shows whether it has been a success or not (this will be discussed further in Chapter 10).
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