One of this great conference's organizers, Community Marketing Inc. (CMI), followed Barrios this morning. Known for their Gay and Lesbian Indices, leading materials that provide essential information about the LGBT community. In addition to typical stats on our community's buying power, loyalty and the like, they provided qualitative results from their focus groups. 

They opened up the session talking about Inreach — the need to market and look inside at your company or target market before marketing outwardly. With that, the went through 30 minutes of important statistical and qualitative affirmation of what we've been seeing in the LGBT market. The information from their study of 50,000 self-identifying LGBT individuals is overwhelming and I can't wait to get home and download the full presentation. In the meantime, below are the highlights from this morning's discussion:

Basic Stats

• The largest portion of their respondents (41.1%) live in urban areas, giving marketers easier access through media and local events to reach our community
• LGBT and loyalty is common knowledge among marketers. The most recent study found that 51 percent are loyal to brands that are committed and engaged with them, as well as willing to try new brands (the concept of early adoption)
• Almost all – 95 percent – favor cause marketing
• The LGBT community is well-educated – nearly 70 percent have a bachelors degree or higher – and were largely unaffected by the recession, with 82 percent employed.

LGBT in Business

Our community works hard — to serve employers and additionally in the movement for equality. This year, CMI's study found out that nearly half (45%) of survey respondents were owners or officers of their companies. With that purchasing power, 60 percent of these individuals noted they were influenced to purchase from other LBGT businesses or those that support their community. We focus so much on the Out Front Blog on business-to-consumer communications, but these stats show the importance of remembering to market to other businesses your company's commitment to LGBT equality.

Focus Group Highlights

If I say "LGBT communications" do you think of shirtless, muscled guy with immense sex appeal? If you do, you're not alone. But these images, though fading thankfully out of all LGBT ads, only touch one letter of LGBT (and actually only one segment of the G, to be honest). CMI's biggest point they drove home over and over is — LGBT is diversity. We represent a complete slice of the world's diversity in age, gender, ethnicity and culture. There's many opportunities (and some challenges) when targeting us with communications.  Below are some notes from their discussions with the under represented "letters" and segments:

• Lesbians are largely tired and even angry of being left out of "gay" advertising that's largely male-dominated. Marketers must remember to market them as women first. Imagery is crucial, too. Check out a future post on new terms to learn the evils of "hetero-cropping" and its use in advertising to lesbian.
• Gay parents are growing in recognition, given recent legislation. In Chicago, we've seen a gay couple on the cover of Chicago Parent and the famous Food Network Hearty Boys reached out to former governor Mark Huckabee and his abrasive comments about gay adoption with an invitation to experience their family dinners. Of the survey respondents, 5 percent were gay percent and 20 percent were lesbian parents. Market these individuals through direct media such as Gay Parent and Proud Parenting.
• The under 30 focus groups really resonated with me. We're ethnically diverse, as opposed to our largely out white predecessors. LGBT millennials differ by location, are less influenced by LGBT media and look for integration of LGBT content. We don't need a separate gay advertising, show or channel — we want to see ourselves in everyday media and marketing. And we want to see all the colorful faces of our community, too.
• Out Front's Erin Grohs recently talked about the plight of LGBT individuals older than 55. CMI covered this demographic as well. They're turned off by ads that focus on youth and sexuality, but rather prefer accurate images of older LGBT couples and individuals. They also prefer gay-exclusive locations and channels — a stark difference from the following generation.

CMI didn't stop there and also covered other slices of our community including ethnic, personal identities (circuit, bears, etc.), professional organizations, bisexual, transgender. 

For communicators, this information echoes more general trends we're seeing — mass advertisements and communications won't achieve the same results if you directly speak to the age, ethnicity, and interests of your target consumer.