A TRAINING manual leaked to the Sunday Herald reveals how the SNP plans to use American marketing techniques to sell Scottish independence to sceptical voters.

Its "independence ambassador" scheme, which was tested on 50 volunteers in Glasgow last month, is now a central plank of the campaign for a Yes vote in 2014.

Used to sell cars, clothing and cola in the US, the idea behind such ambassador schemes is simple: consumers put the greatest trust in comments from ordinary people they know, either face-to-face or online.

This word-of-mouth recommendation is generally made by those who love a product and then evangelise to everyone they know about it.

In a previous age, they would probably have been called blethers or bores, but because of their value to advertisers, these days they are feted as "brand advocates" or ambassadors.

Examples include "Fiesta agents", who promote the Ford Fiesta in the US, and "Walmart Moms" who blog about their favourite supermarket chain. Maker's Mark bourbon has an ambassador programme, as do Michelin tyres, the Toyota Prius, and Mountain Khakis, an outdoor clothing line that runs a "Bad Ass-ador program".

Yes Scotland aims to have 1000 "independence ambassadors" by the end of the year, and 10,000 by decision day, with volunteers attending "Yes schools" to learn about positive messages.

But while the idea has worked for Ford and Toyota, is it a good fit for independence? Can an import from US commercial marketing be applied to a divisive political issue in Scotland? Some in the SNP fear not, and worry that a simplistic push for a Yes vote means more complex political arguments will get left behind.

The manual for the Glasgow session drew on research by a business academic specialising in "eWOM", or electronic word-of-mouth, and "market maven and buzz agent communication behaviours".

Indeed, large chunks of the manual seem to have been taken verbatim from a US web report, with "brand advocates" simply replaced by "independence ambassadors" in the SNP rewrite, leading to such ungainly pronouncements as "independence ambassadors blend the strengths of a connector and a maven".

While the manual defines ambassadors as "members officially commissioned to speak on behalf of the SNP", the US website defines brand advocates as "any customer ... officially commissioned to speak on behalf of your brand without compensation".

In a section lifted from the Washington-based New Organizing Institute, which helps people become "the leader you were meant to be", the manual also describes how to build relationships with voters during one-to-one, house and team meetings.

Ambassadors are advised to share life stories, spend a maximum of two minutes saying why they would vote Yes, and follow "the path to meaningful commitments", whose stages are "Connection, Context, Commitment, Catapult".

Overall, the manual is heavy on jargon and sales patter, but almost devoid of politics. The SNP hierarchy has taken its messages to heart. The big question is whether voters buy it too.