Archive for April, 2007

The Expanding List of “Gay” Destinations

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J0401992We’ve had two theme weeks so far in the short history of this blog: a week-long focus on 25 years of HIV/AIDS in November/December and a week-long focus on coming out in the sporting world in February. With the advent (finally!) of spring weather, this week we’re going to focus on LGBT travel and tourism.   

We’ve written a great deal on travel and tourism trends in our community already, but we wanted to take a fresh look at the topic given the increasing interest of marketers in our community (and our own interest in the topic). In our posts this week, we’ll talk about destinations, marketing to gays and lesbians for travel and related issues.

Regular readers know that I spend a fair amount of time thinking about travel and tourism: it helps when your hobby dovetails with your work!  I read a lot of magazines (Out Traveler, Passport, Travel & Leisure), check out travel blogs (I’m a big fan of Today in the Sky on USA Today.com) and generally try to follow the industry. One article that caught my eye earlier this month was part of the impetus for this theme week: the Press of Atlantic City, N.J ran a story on the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Bureau’s renewed interest in reaching out to gay and lesbian travelers.   

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| April 30th, 2007 2 Comments »
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Where We Are: The Geography of Our Community

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J0403352Eddy yesterday wrote about ways to figure out how many of us there are in Britain and the United States. As he pointed out, the numbers of LGBT people vary depending on who you ask and how you count us. 

We are often asked where our community is as well. Are there “gay cities” that should be the focus of marketers primary attention? Do some markets make more sense for reaching gay and lesbian consumers than others? These are good questions.  However, as with the issue of how many of us there are, there are many different answers about where we are, too.

In general, the best cities to target to reach gays and lesbians depend on what you’re trying to communicate or the specific market segment you’re trying to reach. For pet food manufacturers for example, some cities are better than others because there are more gay men and lesbians with dogs and/or cats living in those markets. For health product manufacturers, other cities might be better based on the predominance of gay and lesbian smokers in a market or those interested in weight loss or other over the counter products. So, there is no simple answer. It depends on multiple factors.

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| April 27th, 2007 No Comments »
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6%, 8%, 10%???

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It is a question often posed by gay and straight people alike, but one which we rarely get a satisfactory answer. But the answer has major implications for the commercial, social, and political power of the gay and lesbian community.

It is of course perhaps the most simple of them all. How many gay, lesbian, and bisexual people are there in Britain, in the United States, and in fact the world. There have been plenty of figures banded around over the years, with the consensus being that the proportion is about 6-10% of the population – although this clearly depends on how open people are about their sexuality.

The magic figure of 10% is conveniently used by many of us, particularly urban dwellers like myself as we see it as a fair estimation and an easy figure to use. It also makes us fell like a significant section of the population, and in fact estimates in cities can often exceed this marker. I think I may feel a little disappointed if the actual percentage was below this, and would probably explain it away by claiming that it did not include the large number of people “in the closet”. We are happy to be a minority, but we always like to think of ourselves as a powerful often unrecognised minority both politically and commercially.

I think this is still true, but for ourselves as gay and lesbian people, and indeed for those communicating with this market it would be useful to get an accurate estimate of the proportion of the populus who define themselves as gay, lesbian, or another sexual orientation.

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| April 26th, 2007 No Comments »

The View … Not so Rosie

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J0341475_2It’s official. Rosie is leaving The View. 

The announcement of her June departure, following a breakdown in contract negotiations with ABC, comes after months of turmoil and speculation about her future on the show. Rumors of her demise started almost as soon as she took over as co-host – and overtook the show itself – almost a year ago.

In the past year, Rosie had put her brand and the show with a marked impact. Aside from the addition of distracting musical production numbers and always-appreciated audience give-aways, Rosie most importantly, for ABC and its advertising revenues, helped increase ratings for the aging gabfest. 

February sweeps ratings were up 15 percent in key female demographics from the same sweeps period last year.

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| April 25th, 2007 1 Comment »
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Word of Mouth Marketing

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J0423020The gay and lesbian community is recognized for its communications habits: we learn more from word of mouth than from almost any other form of communication. That means we talk, text message, forward emails, make phone calls and share information between and among each other on a regular basis. It’s how we learn about our community and the world around us.  It’s the office water cooler writ large. It’s part of who we are and how we relate to each other.

Word of mouth is a hard thing to manage and an even harder thing to contain. That’s why it is so powerful. As communicators, we think about this all time in developing programs to reach various aspects of our community. And as client counselors, we deal with the fallout of such communication when word spreads about what a client is or isn’t doing on an issue or challenge facing the community.

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| April 24th, 2007 2 Comments »
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