By Rab Bruce’s Spider

People and nations boycott goods and services for a variety of reasons. At a personal level, it is often due to a bad customer service experience or dissatisfaction with the product concerned but it can also result from a loss of faith in the provider of the goods or services as witnessed by the fall in sales of Volkswagen cars following the emissions scandal. However, boycotts can also be based on political differences, as when people who lived through the Second World War refused to purchase Japanese goods as a matter of principle, or when South African goods were boycotted during the apartheid era, or the current boycotting of Israeli goods by some people because of that country’s treatment of the Palestinians. Boycotting is a perfectly legitimate stance to adopt but, as so often in post-IndieRef Scotland, a mooted boycott of Tunnock’s Teacakes is causing a furore on social media, with Yessers insisting they won’t purchase any more of these chocolate-covered marshmallow biscuits and Yoons deriding Yessers for being petty and childish.

But let’s take a look at what is going on here. Tunnock’s Teacakes have been part of Scottish culture for generations and were even featured as such in the opening ceremony to the Commonwealth Games last year. As with most businesses, though, Tunnock’s are looking to increase their sales and, from a purely commercial perspective, their decision to market the teacakes as a great British Teacake is understandable even if it does risk damaging their sales in Scotland and perhaps even in the Republic of Ireland where branding anything as British is as good as ensuring its failure.

The thing is, though, that it is only the sales aimed at England and Wales which are being re-branded. The packaging in Scotland will remain as it has always been and this raises a question as to what all the fuss is about. Using slightly different branding in different countries is hardly exceptional business practice, so Tunnock’s perhaps have a point.

The re-branding itself seems to consist of removing the Lion Rampant from the packaging and advertising the Teacakes as British which, of course, they are.

But there are a couple of things to consider here. Perhaps Tunnock’s have carried out some detailed market research which suggests that, all anecdotal evidence notwithstanding, the majority of English consumers equate the Lion Rampant with Scotland and would therefore be unlikely to purchase the teacakes since they are not branded as British. This seems unlikely on two counts because the Lion Rampant on the Tunnock’s boxes was hardly the main feature of the packaging and the connection to Scotland is probably lost on a great many people outside Scotland. But, assuming people in England did claim to recognise it and therefore stated they would be less likely to purchase the teacakes, that in itself suggests a boycott of sorts based on racial discrimination which is, if social media comments are to be taken at face value, deemed perfectly acceptable while the statements by Scots who do not wish to associate themselves with the British State that they will no longer buy Tunnock’s teacakes are deemed misguided and childish.

The larger question, though, is why Tunnock’s believe that British branding is required when other Scottish foodstuffs such as beef, salmon and whisky sell perfectly well in England.

And this is where we arrive at the nub of the problem. It has far less to do with the decision to re-brand the product south of the Border than it has to do with the way the announcement has been handled. Tunnock’s could, for example, have said, "We are a Scottish Company and will remain so. Our product in Scotland is not being changed in any way but we are seeking to increase our sales in other parts of the UK and market research suggests that the best way to do this is to brand the product slightly differently."

Instead, what they have said, is, "We are British. We can’t advertise the teacakes as Scottish because that is promoting Scotland". Indeed, there does not seem to have been any market research undertaken, simply a marketing decision based on a pro-British stance among the Company’s Directors who, it should not be forghotten, advocated a No vote in the IndieRef. In other words, they have made no secret of the fact that they believe the Scottish brand is tainted in the rest of the UK and have decided to proclaim themselves part of the Union. They are, of course, perfectly entitled to do this but they must have known that proclaiming this decision in such a public way would not go down well with the many Scots who want nothing to do with the British State. This, it seems, does not concern them and, on commercial grounds they may be correct since England provides by far the largest market in the UK and an increase in sales may well outweigh any potential slump in Scottish sales.

So, good luck to Tunnock’s in their commercial enterprise because they employ around 500 people and nobody wants to see yet more jobs lost but the Unionists complaining about the calls for a boycott really ought to get their logic circuits engaged. As several people have pointed out, why is it deemed acceptable for organisation such as Royal Bank of Scotland and standard Life to threaten to boycott Scotland if we had voted Yes but it is bigotry for Yessers to boycott the products of a company with whose political stance they fundamentally disagree? Doesn’t that same rule mean that Unionists who refuse to buy The National newspaper are petty and childish for boycotting a pro-Indie publication? Of course it doesn’t. It’s about choice and letting a Company know when you are not satisfied with the way they are going about their business.

As for me, I love Tunnock’s teacakes but I won’t be eating any more because I’m back on a diet. And if I do fancy a teacake, other brands are available.