I mentioned last week that Ben and I were presenting a session on gay and lesbian communications at this week’s PRSA International Conference in Salt Lake City earlier this week. This being the first session of its kind for the organization, we were pleasantly surprised by workshop attendees who were not only interested in the topic but genuinely championing LGBT-targeted outreach within their companies.
A poll of the session participants’ industries showed they largely represented what we’ve noted as the emerging areas of gay and lesbian marketing: financial services, consumer marketing, travel and tourism as well as health care.
All were curious about not only the best ways to reach our market but, more importantly, about how best to present the case to their management for reaching our community.
The case for executives clearly is showing the bottom line return-on-investment potential of this powerful, loyal and untapped consumer base. After all, our $641 billion buying power is larger than Hispanic-American or African-American audiences, according to current research.
Other than having top-down support for any LGBT marketing program, Ben and I also made the case that any company’s external communications efforts would be disingenuous – and even ineffective, with sophisticated LGBT consumers – if they did not also have internal LGBT-friendly policies, including domestic partner benefits and non-discriminatory hiring practices.
Today’s gay and lesbian consumers have any number or resources like the HRC Corporate Equality Index to research the companies that market to them. We want to know if a company is sincere. In fact, studies cited by HRC indicate that 77% of gay and lesbian consumers would switch brands to a company with a gay-positive stance.
So, while "sticking a toe in the water" is a good start toward including us in diversity marketing efforts, effectively reaching our community for the long term goes beyond getting buying an advertisement in the local gay publications or sponsoring a booth at this summer’s pride festival. LGBT marketing is a multi-layered process, ultimately diving into the sole of a company and the progressiveness of its entire corporate culture.
Based on the feedback, it appeared that the audience appreciated the insight. We look forward to PRSA continuing to focus on this increasingly important market for the PR industry.
SUBSCRIBE