POR-311-07
Contract #08170-070500/001/CY
Contract Award Date: 2007-12-20
Prepared for
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
Lester B. Pearson Building
125 Sussex Drive
2nd floor
Ottawa (Ontario) K1A 0G2
Kevin.Chappell@international.gc.ca
March 31, 2008
The Strategic Counsel is pleased to present International Promotion of Education in Canada (PCET) division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) with this report on findings from a series of focus groups testing four visual concepts developed to create an Education Brand for Canada.
Foreign students studying at Canadian educational institutions contribute greatly to the Canadian economy and to improved bilateral relations between Canada and their home countries. Given that Canada currently attracts just five percent of the total number of internationals students studying around the world, there is interest in increasing this percentage share.
Key to improving the numbers of foreign students studying in Canada is the development of the Education Brand for Canada, promoting Canada as a prime study destination. With this objective in mind, PCET has developed four concepts of the Brand visual identity. With this research, PCET wished to gauge reaction to the concepts from the target audience. As such, qualitative research was commissioned to:
The Strategic Counsel undertook a total of eight (8) focus groups, two in each of four centers across Canada between January 21st and 24th, 2008: Halifax, Vancouver, Montreal (in French) and Quebec City (in French). Each discussion lasted approximately 2 hours and was comprised of an appropriate mix of international students (10 per group).
In total, 92 students from the following regions of origin were recruited for the discussions:
The findings from qualitative research cannot be extrapolated to the broader target population with any degree of statistical validity. As such, this research does not present percentages or proportions, but seeks deeper understanding of participant opinions. This research is meant to provide guidance and suggest directions for improvement to the concepts and should not be read as a "representative survey" of international students in Canada.
Perceptions of Canada as a study destination largely correspond to some of the more traditional images associated with Canada. Participants thus viewed Canada has an open, multicultural country offering great opportunities for international students. In addition, participants commonly mentioned the great outdoors as a key Canadian attribute.
Canada was consistently compared to the United States as a study destination. Europe was also used as a basis for comparison, albeit to a lesser extent. Comparisons were generally favourable because Canada is perceived to be more open to diversity, to offer better long term prospects for work and immigration, as well as being more affordable and safer than the United States. While participants often viewed large U.S. schools as possessing more prestige than their Canadian counterparts, they thought that Canadian degrees enjoyed strong international recognition. This last point was seen as particularly important because many participants remained unsure of their next steps and needed the assurance that their degree would be recognized wherever they may go.
Overall, no concept emerged as a clear "winner" over the others. Rather, elements from each concept as well as possible combinations were identified as preferred visuals or content. The absence of a winning concept does not mean results of the discussions were unclear. To the contrary, participants helped identify multiple key features for each concept and provided clear paths for improvement. While the "Maps" concept appeared as somewhat more successful than others in the areas of clarity, emotional appeal, visual appeal and call to action, it lacked a crucial element: brand recognition.
The "Imagine" concept did very well in one of the key features of a successful brand: recognition. This quality was seen to be present in the logo and tagline as well as in the overall concept, including images and headers. Participants clearly recognised the logo as being Canadian because the bright red maple leaf represents Canada: " I see Canada. " It should be noted, however, that the hand-drawn maple leaf was often criticised for looking "childish". It also elicited positive emotions due to its colourful and emotionally charged messaging, giving a sense of the possibilities offered in Canada.
Nevertheless, the overall concept fell somewhat short on clarity of message and on credibility. The positive features were somewhat overshadowed by common criticisms pointing to a perceived lack of concreteness and seriousness. It is important to note that this seemingly negative outlook may well have been exacerbated by participants' initial confusion with the tagline and logo. The combination of the red maple leaf and the simple tagline "Imagine" left many participants confused over the message conveyed because they did not see the link with education (" What are we supposed to imagine? ") in the absence of a name that resonated with them. As such, the name edu-canada was not always recognised as relating to education. Since they were confused over what the initial message was, they were obviously looking for clear explanations in the rest of the images and headlines, something many felt was missing.
The "Empower" concept shared some of the positive attributes associated with the "Imagine" concept, strongly resonating with some participants for being youthful and lively, which some thought was very appealing for a campaign aimed at attracting foreign students.
The English tagline "Empower Your Future" was well received by many students in English groups who saw it as creating a sense of empowerment and possibilities for the future. Nevertheless it left many, especially in French groups, ambivalent over its overall appeal to them and to students in general. The logo and tagline did not resonate with most students for being "generic" and "boring",
Many elements in the overall concept were nevertheless easily recognisable as Canadian because of the bright red colour and the allusion to the great outdoors. Yet, the concept was also criticised for lacking seriousness and for being inconsistent overall. As such, the logo and the font used for the name were seen as bland, while two of the three pictures and the headers' style were most often seen as being too "out there". A few participants also raised concerns over possible clashes between the images presented in the ad and the more conservative culture prevalent in their home countries.
The "Infinite" concept was the least favoured among all four concepts. The most important problems raised by participants surrounded its very powerful individualistic imagery, which did not match the values of many participants and their views of what the student experience was all about. In addition, it was not clearly linked with Canada, with the Canadian experience and/or with the student experience.
The logo and tagline were not very well received overall, although the "infinite possibilities" tagline did elicit some positive comments among English participants for being inspirational and the logo was praised by a few for looking multicultural. The tagline was mostly deemed to be over-promising (especially among French-speaking participants) and not credible, while the logo was often seen as unfinished and unprofessional.
Despite some positive comments about the internal consistency of the theme developed in the concept and the motivational messaging, the images and headlines presented in this concept were the least preferred overall. The images of beautiful, confident looking young persons standing in front of a non-descript background, accompanied by powerful headlines about individual achievement seemed overbearing for many.
The "maps" concept was more successful than other concepts in terms of its credibility and overall appeal. As such, it appeared to have tapped into the all-important multicultural imagery and resonated with the experience of studying in Canada for participants.
The name "Study in Canada" was preferred over "edu-canada" and "educationcanada" for being clear and straight to the point. The logo was also seen as generally attractive, but it was not easily recognizable as Canadian. The tagline "Invest in your future" got mixed reviews, with most finding it credible but at the same time viewing it as too "financial" or "business", reminding them that school can be expensive.
The overall concept connected with participants' perceptions of Canada in part because it presented a group of people of different ethnic origins smiling together, underlining the multicultural as well as the social aspect of studying in Canada. The student experience was not viewed as a solitary exercise by participants and consequently, seeing more than one person on one image was very well-received. Another key positive attribute for this brand concept was the use of powerful emotional messaging that offered a sense of opportunities and proposed a great future, while at the same time not setting lofty individual goals, as was the case for the "Infinite" concept. The concept offered a way to achieve goals rather than the goals themselves, which participants seemed to appreciate more.
Despite these important positive aspects, this concept suffered from one important drawback: it lacked brand recognition. From the logo to the headlines, the concept was perceived to be lacking uniquely Canadian branding symbols, except for the Canadian map. However, the presence of the map was questioned by some because it contradicted the idea of absence of boundaries presented in the text and also because many doubted that students outside of Canada would necessarily recognized the map and especially the regional components.