Maine Uses CBSM to Address s-p-r-a-w-l

The Maine State Planning Office has been testing concept messages that seek to influence the decision making process of potential movers. In recent years, Maine service centers have seen a population decline, while neighboring suburbs and rural areas have experienced sprawling development. The intent of the campaign is to bring to the fore the personal benefits of in-town living. This campaign seeks to increase the type of market pressure that would encourage new development that makes more efficient use of infrastructure, land, and other natural resources. This task has proven an interesting challenge, especially given the fact that the home-buying decision is very complicated, and thus, not particularly well suited to a social marketing campaign. Nonetheless, we believe that the social marketing approach can have some direct impact on behaviors and attitudes of our target audience(s), as well as achieving some positive spill-over effects in our density-phobic society. We would love to get your feedback on our concepts, which have been tested and refined in our local focus groups. We have set up a micro-site to further test these concepts, and will continue to build content, and share ideas. Please go to www.buildabettermaine.org . Under "Forum", view the concepts and enter our online focus group, or post reactions right on the site, or even better, give us your creative ideas for a convincing message. I can also be reached through the contact info. below.

Patrick Wright

NOAA Coastal Associate
State Planning Office
38 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0038
207.287.8060
[email protected]