Posted on: Tuesday, April 30, 2002

EDITORIAL
Tough road ahead for Hawai'i biz campaign

A campaign by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to promote enterprise in the Islands has a feel-good slogan: "Hawai'i is the one place on Earth to do business where life and aloha are part of the bottom line."

Sounds great, right? But if we're trying to market Hawai'i as a cross between Hong Kong, the Silicon Valley and Bali, shouldn't that message be going out to the Mainland and overseas rather than being confined to the Islands?

The print and television advertising campaign, estimated to exceed $500,000, is designed to promote local brands, and features successful local businesses such as Science and Technology International, wet suit manufacturer Xcel and the Oceanic Institute in Waimanalo.

Before they can take the show on the road, however, promoters need Hawai'i residents to buy into the brand. The theory is that you have to convince your own entrepreneurs and consumers they're in a great place to do business before you can tell the world.

"If we have a recognizable brand ... investments will come here because people will see us as a place where critical business takes place," says Sharon Narimatsu, deputy director of DBEDT, which has spent $90,000 on the effort.

The thing is, anyone who's been here a while knows that Hawai'i has not been overly business-friendly, thanks in part to "price of paradise" taxes and dense bureaucracy.

Of course, we would love to see businesses sprout or relocate here, lured by the promise of lunchtime surfing and laptops on the beach. The key to making this work is to ensure that any entrepreneurs drawn to the Aloha State by the "Business in Hawai'i"campaign won't be too disappointed. That will take more than marketing.