Why marketg targeted at gay and lbian nsumers often miss s mark | Marketg Mag

Contents:

• WHY MARKETG TARGETED AT GAY AND LBIAN NSUMERS OFTEN MISS S MARK
• GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT
• THE 10 BEST AMSTERDAM GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS AMSTERDAM
• GAY THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT? - AMSTERDAM FOM
• NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER

WHY MARKETG TARGETED AT GAY AND LBIAN NSUMERS OFTEN MISS S MARK

Dpe the fact that an overwhelmg majory of Amerins support same-sex marriage, acrdg to Gallup — and rabow-studd advertisg is mon — marketg mpaigns featurg queer people are still provokg ’s look at how we arrived early years: 1970 to 1990Major rporatns’ earlit efforts to urt queer nsumers happened after the 1969 Stonewall uprisg and the first Pri march 1970, a major turng pot the visibily of LGBTQ+ people and the early years of the morn gay rights me the spirs. But s n was short-lived, as the ad was subjected to backlash, provokg lls for boytts and bomb threats agast Ikea sire to urt queer nsumers while avoidg public blowback led to a stra of advertisg known as “gay vague, ” g subtle elements that would register wh LGBTQ+ people while flyg over the heads of heterosexual dienc.

The ads would often feature people of the same sex domtic ntexts whout specifyg the nature of their market rearch revealed that lbians ma up a pillar of Suba’s ctomer base, the Japane pany leaned to the “gay vague” approach. One mid-1990s prt mpaign featured Subas wh license plat such as “XENALVR” (an alln to “Xena: Warrr Prcs, ” a show loved by some lbians) and “PTOWNIE” (a reference to Provcetown, Mass., a popular queer vatn spot) classic “gay vague” mercial om German tomaker Volkswagen buted durg the g-out episo of “Ellen” 1997. While queer viewers terpreted the men as a uple, straight viewers saw them as iends or Volkswagen didn’t tend for the ad to pict a gay uple, the pany’s rponse was unique bee “they said they didn’t md if people read that way, ” said Michael Wilke, a former Ad Age reporter and founr of AdRpect, a nonprof archive of queer reprentatn advertisg.

“That was a real swch for advertisers, ” Wilke 1999, Print Bill Clton clared June as Gay and Lbian Pri Month, a gture that ultimately hered a new era queer rise of the rabow: 2000 to 2014The 2000s marked a turng pot cultural attus toward queer people.

GAY WATER, A NEW NNED CKTAIL, WANTS TO BE THE ANTI-BUD LIGHT

In 2011, the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which had banned gay and lbian service members om the armed forc, was this perd, more rporatns started rg about and terg to queer people their ranks and beyond.

THE 10 BEST AMSTERDAM GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS AMSTERDAM

” The ad was among the first to e “hband” rather than “boyiend” reference to a gay this era, pani were still ncerned about the risk vers reward of urtg queer nsumers, acrdg to Bob Weck, print of Weck Communitns and an LGBTQ+ marketg expert. “One qutn that arose over and over om some people was, ‘How many straight people do you lose if you ga a gay ctomer? ”In the lead-up to Pri this year, retailers such as Kohl’s, Walmart, Nike, PetSmart and the North Face have also received blowback om the far right for stockg ems that extol equal rights and acceptance for gay, lbian and transgenr people.

GAY THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT? - AMSTERDAM FOM

Buy now om Amazon | Barn & Noble | IndieBound | Apple BooksIf you're gog to go where the money is—to pursue the greatt spendg power—you'll be jog an ever-creasg number of pani (still somewhat quietly) reachg out specifilly to lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and queer nsumers. If, for your own nonbs reasons, you have no tert or willgns to liberately and specifilly market to affluent gays and lbians, jt know 's a bad bs cisn and, if you're nng a bs which there are shareholrs other than yourself, a fislly irrponsible cisn.

NEW ‘GAY WATER’ LOOKS TO AVOID BUD LIGHT DISASTER

To the ntrary, they nsistently reward those marketers who make a special pot of signg unique advertisg to appear the publitns only they read and creatg pecially gay-iendly sal and bs environments.

Quick Market Facts Rearch verifi that 80% of gay people have above the natnal average; 40% earn more than $100, 000.