Marketing to LGBT Consumers: Is the Gay Market Worth the Hype and How Can We Reach Them?
Marketing to LGBT Consumers: Is the Gay Market Worth the Hype and if so How Best to Reach
As a gay man who began the journey of self-identifying as such in 1993, I have observed over the past two decades a seismic shift in how the marketplace approaches gay consumers. At first blush, given the historical marginalization of homosexuals, I ask myself what makes the gay market (the preferred term used by the marketing industry to reference what call LGBT or GLBT representing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered) attractive to firms? And, if the gay market is indeed a smart pursuit for organizations, how best it be approached?
Stereotypes abound within both the homosexual and heterosexual communities about the economic capacity and impact of the gay market—beliefs such as: gays have higher incomes than the average straight population and gays are innovators and trend leaders. Are these valid assumptions or rather ideas propagated in large part by gays themselves to shake the stigma associated with their sexual orientation? The reality is that unlike other demographic groups, it is difficult to get unbiased statistical data on gays. According to GLAAD, “due to politics, the closet and noncommittal interest, solid information on gays and lesbians is in short supply and they have remained difficult to survey. (The U.S. Census says it cannot ask about sexuality until Congress recognizes gays as a federally protected minority.)” 1 As such there are no exact counts, yet various studies (Kinsey, Simmons, NORC) estimate the U.S. gay market to be between 15 million and 21 million consumers and averaging just over 18 million.2
While initial efforts to reach a target gay audience began sporadically in the 1970s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s caused marketers to back away from gay specific marketing, as if in fact avoiding the plague. It was not until the 1990s that firms began to “come out” and get beyond the concerns of estranging heterosexual
As a gay man who began the journey of self-identifying as such in 1993, I have observed over the past two decades a seismic shift in how the marketplace approaches gay consumers. At first blush, given the historical marginalization of homosexuals, I ask myself what makes the gay market (the preferred term used by the marketing industry to reference what call LGBT or GLBT representing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered) attractive to firms? And, if the gay market is indeed a smart pursuit for organizations, how best it be approached?
Stereotypes abound within both the homosexual and heterosexual communities about the economic capacity and impact of the gay market—beliefs such as: gays have higher incomes than the average straight population and gays are innovators and trend leaders. Are these valid assumptions or rather ideas propagated in large part by gays themselves to shake the stigma associated with their sexual orientation? The reality is that unlike other demographic groups, it is difficult to get unbiased statistical data on gays. According to GLAAD, “due to politics, the closet and noncommittal interest, solid information on gays and lesbians is in short supply and they have remained difficult to survey. (The U.S. Census says it cannot ask about sexuality until Congress recognizes gays as a federally protected minority.)” 1 As such there are no exact counts, yet various studies (Kinsey, Simmons, NORC) estimate the U.S. gay market to be between 15 million and 21 million consumers and averaging just over 18 million.2
While initial efforts to reach a target gay audience began sporadically in the 1970s, the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s caused marketers to back away from gay specific marketing, as if in fact avoiding the plague. It was not until the 1990s that firms began to “come out” and get beyond the concerns of estranging heterosexual