Thoughts on Rebranding a Modern Government Fisheries Program

State and federal government fisheries programs have seen tremendous diminishment and change.  Times are tough all over and shrinking budgets make it challenging for government fisheries programs to meet core function in addition to addressing new initiatives such as invasive species and climate change.  The concept of volitional growth of a government fisheries program is now an ill-fated concept.   Agency cultural, environmental and budgetary shifts make it difficult to stay afloat and relevant in a sea of competitive government trends and conflicting social values and there is even more pressure into the future.  Efforts to modernize government fisheries programs to maintain relevance and maximize recognition have had limited success.  Increasingly bold and aggressive marketing and branding skills and effort is now essential to being competitive in modern society and government initiative priorities.  I will present an overview of a concerted effort being used by the BLM Fisheries program to apply social psychology and commercial marketing and branding techniques to create more compelling, modern and competitive value propositions to influence fisheries funding decisions and agency initiatives.