Better branding | A new initiative shifts the economic focus to what Maine does well
“Charting the Course” is written by GrowSmart Maine, a Portland nonprofit that promotes and encourages new ways of thinking about Maine’s future.
One of the major themes of GrowSmart Maine’s “Charting Maine’s Future” report was the relationship between Maine’s economy and the Maine “brand” — the positive values people all over the globe associate with our state’s wild landscapes and our small, friendly communities.
All kinds of businesses — not just L.L. Bean, but also hunting camps, boat builders, bed and breakfasts, wedding caterers, furniture makers, horror novelists and thousands of others — have been making hay from the Maine brand for decades. This romantic idea of Maine also helps attract talented workers and businesses who bring their talents and incomes into our economy.
In hindsight, it seems obvious that this “brand” of ours is a valuable asset. But for the latter half of the 20th century, advocates for economic growth were frequently fighting against, instead of working with, advocates for Maine’s landscapes and communities.
Today, there’s a growing consensus that Maine’s economy and the quality of our environment and communities are mutually dependent. Even in this decade’s most contentious development fight — the debate over Plum Creek’s plan for the Moosehead region — both sides agreed that the unique and wild character of the North Woods should be protected.
Local roots
Still, even as most businesses have become savvy to the value of respecting and preserving Maine’s quality places, the state’s public economic development agencies have been slow to embrace the idea. Economic development plans have long been fixated on the state’s shortcomings, and on fulfilling perceived needs in order to “catch up” with economic fads that were happening elsewhere. Building industrial parks and offering tax incentives to big employers certainly helped attract jobs, but those efforts had little to do with Maine’s “quality of place.”
Another problem with Maine’s past economic development efforts was the fact that most of them sprang out of Augusta. When the Brookings Institution analyzed the state’s economic development strategies from recent decades, they found lots of ambitious visions that changed every four to eight years with every new administration. The top-down nature of these visions, and their inconsistency, sandbagged their efficacy.
Today, though, there’s an exciting new approach to economic development taking hold across the state. Maine’s six regional economic development districts are now undertaking a new initiative, called Mobilize Maine, focused on engaging local leaders to identify their region’s most promising economic advantages, and what can be done to build on them.
Instead of a top-down approach, Mobilize Maine seeks to create a grassroots, bottom-up strategy, by engaging local business leaders. And instead of focusing on shortcomings and needs, Mobilize Maine seeks to create an “asset-based” economic development strategy that will build on our existing strengths.
Role model
We know that this asset-based development strategy works, thanks to the pioneering experience of Bangor’s sister city, Saint John, N.B. A little over a decade ago, the city just across the border established a new economic development initiative, called Enterprise Saint John, which models many of the ideas that Mobilize Maine hopes to emulate. An August editorial in the Bangor Daily News quoted Enterprise Saint John Chairman Bob Manning: “Just over a decade ago we recognized that we had a problem. Our undiversified economy was suffering, our reputation was poor, and we were failing to retain our skilled labor, our youth and attract new residents to our region.”
These problems will probably sound familiar to Mainers. But the new Enterprise Saint John organization successfully fought these trends by bringing together various economic advocates and communities to work towards common goals. Its marketing efforts have narrowed to recruit talented people and promote entrepreneurship, instead of trying to land big employers. A key to this strategy has been making Saint John an attractive place for people to live, raise families and build careers.
The focus on recruiting individual workers is significant. A call center can shut down anytime, but talented workers who are invested in this special place won’t leave so easily.
The Mobilize Maine effort begins this winter, with grassroots conversations and collaborations focused on identifying regional assets and strategies to build on them. Learn more about Mobilize Maine, or get involved, at www.mainebusinessworks.org. Learn about Enterprise Saint John at www.enterprisesj.com.
Christian MilNeil can be reached at christian@growsmartmaine.org.
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