Mainers Believe in Maine. Most Won’t Say So Out Loud.
The gap between what residents think and what they recommend is an opportunity most businesses are missing.
There’s a finding in our newest Maine Insights Lab report that’s easy to pass, and it shouldn’t be.
When we asked Mainers whether the state is a great place to start and grow a business, half strongly agreed. That’s a vote of confidence in our state and its people. But when we asked the next question, the one that actually predicts behavior, only 35% said they’d actively recommend Maine as a place to start or grow a business. The rest (that 65%) either stay neutral or, unfortunately, in about a third of cases, would actively talk someone out of it.
That gap, between believing Maine is a good place to build a business and being willing to recommend it as one, shapes how you recruit, sell, and grow here.
Some of the explanation is in the mindsets. The hesitation is concentrated among Disparagers, the largest of the three attitudinal segments we track, who are the most skeptical about Maine’s trajectory and the most likely to steer someone away. Proud Mainers make up most of the enthusiastic recommenders. So part of what looks like confidence is really a split: a third of the state is actively recommending, a third stays neutral, and a third would push back.
But the more useful read isn’t about who’s skeptical. It’s about the large group in the middle who believe Maine is a good place to build something and simply don’t volunteer it. Most Mainers feel this more than they say it. They’ll agree when asked, but few bring it up on their own, leaving the belief sitting unused.
Here’s why that matters for a business and not just for the state’s economic development office. If you’re recruiting talent to Maine, hiring locally, or selling to Maine customers, you are relying, whether you’ve named it or not, on how people talk about the region and the businesses in it. Word of mouth is the most trusted channel in this market, and it’s the one Mainers use least when it comes to Maine itself.
What’s missing is usually specificity. People don’t recommend abstractions. They recommend the thing they can point to: the company that kept jobs here through a hard year, the employer that promoted from within, the business that reinvested locally instead of extracting and leaving. A business that offers concrete, credible proof points does two things at once. It earns the trust that drives purchase decisions, and it gives customers and employees the exact language they need to make the case to others.
So the opportunity isn’t to convince Mainers that Maine is a good place to do business. Half of them already believe it. The opportunity is to give the quiet believers something specific enough to say out loud, attached to your name.
The full report digs into who recommends Maine, who doesn’t, and where the Maine-based preference is strongest, broken out by mindset, category, and age. I think it’s definitely worth a look if you’d rather give your customers a reason to speak up than wait for them to.