SCOTLAND “The Brave” must become Scotland “The Brand” to help preserve the Scottish economy after Brexit, Alex Salmond said on his RT show yesterday.
His views were echoed by SNP MP Douglas Chapman who told the former First Minister: “The range of Scottish food and drink is fantastic and the quality is beyond compare, I would suggest. The way Scotland is being promoted abroad really needs to get a shot in the arm because, post-Brexit, we need to be out there selling Scottish goods across the globe as never before while also retaining our European markets which are exceptionally strong.
“It needs to be really pragmatic because what we should be about is making sure we have a strong successful Scottish economy and the heart of that can be the fantastic produce that comes from Scotland.”
In an edition all about the importance of Scotland’s branding, farmers leader Jim Fairlie told Salmond of the success of Scotch Beef and said: “Brands work. We have been accused through this whole process in which [Scotland] the brand has been diluted.
“If you want to open a burger stall and put a great big yellow ‘M’ over the top of it, the response will be furious, quick and decisive because the brand matters.
“So whether it is the Scotch brand, the Jim Fairlie brand, or whatever your brand is, if you get your brand right it is the most crucial thing you can have tour business. We should jealously protect Scotland the Brand.”
The National’s Save Our Scotland Brand campaign featured, with journalist Martin Hannan describing how this newspaper responded to its readers complaining that Union Flags were replacing Saltires on food and drink produce.
Hannan explained that The National perceived a threat to the promotion of Scottish produce as high-quality items and decided to show why Scottish branding was so important.
He said: “Polls and surveys have shown that Scotland’s food and drink are seen as very high quality and the problem with what we called ‘Union Jackery’ is that it diminishes the Scottishness of it and in turn that diminishes the attractiveness of Scottish food and drink.”
Professor Joe Goldblatt of Queen Margaret University told Salmond about the importance of Scotland’s tourism brand.
He said: “For a nation of only five million people to attract 25 million tourists annually (shows that) Scotland punches way above its weight in terms of the tourism agenda.”
Goldblatt pointed to the two years of Homecoming Scotland, and the 2014 Ryder Cup and Commonwealth Games, as examples of successful branding. He added: “Other nations have tried to emulate Scotland and not been successful, so one of our opportunities is to help develop tourism around the world based on the Scotland model.”
Salmond concluded: “Scotland The Brave is very important but so is Scotland The Brand.”
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