NPR's Pla Money podst looks at how Suba began marketg to the gay and lbian muny, and how helped turn around the pany the '90s.
Contents:
- HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY
- GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?
- THE ARE THE TOP 10 GAY AND LBIAN CARS
- ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?
- MARKETING: SUBA EXPANDS S ASSOCIATN WH GAY, LBIAN GROUPS
- GAY-FRIENDLY AUTO BRAND PERCEPTN DO NOT MEAN GAYS, LBIANS WILL BUY
- THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
- GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
- MOSW: GAY MOSW
HOW SUBA SAVED SELF BY MARKETG TO THE GAY MUNY
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It was such an unual cisn—and such a succs—that helped ph gay and lbian advertisg om the g to the mastream.
GAY-FRIENDLY CARS: IS SUBA NUMBER ONE?
Apparently, we as a society are so wrapped up the ia of how "gay" objects, clothg styl, and activi are that we n't even leave tomobil out of ! Th, the guys at Car Talk, those te terers of r nversatn, have e up wh the: lists of the top 10 gay and lbian rs. Let's take a look,… * subaru gay *
Mastream movi and TV shows wh gay characters—like Will & Grace—were still a few years away, and few celebri were openly gay. When Ellen Degener beme a rare exceptn 1997, and her character the show Ellen me out as gay an episo of the s, many pani pulled their ads. When a 1994 IKEA ad featured a gay uple, the Amerin Fay Associatn, a nonprof, mounted boytts, and someone lled a (fake) bomb threat to an IKEA Poux explas, the attu of most bs toward LGBTQ advertisg was: “Why would you do somethg like that?
THE ARE THE TOP 10 GAY AND LBIAN CARS
A natnal survey by dit spe a perceptn of Suba as beg "gay-iendly," gays don't actually buy them. Whatever. We know stereotyp are always reflective of realy. Didn't you read yterday's Camaro review? * subaru gay *
Wrg The Huffgton Post, the reporter Ron Dicker ptured some of the cultural nfn that followed:When one Suba ad man … proposed the gay-targetg ads talks wh Japane executiv, the executiv hurriedly looked up “gay” their dictnari. While Bent, who is gay, didn’t reveal his sexual orientatn for fear of overshadowg the effort, he nohels rells holdg pany meetgs wh nam along the l of “Who Are Gays and Lbians? Suba of Ameri knew had to support s gay and lbian employe if wanted to appeal to lbian ctomers, so they schled a meetg wh a senr Japane executive to make the se for domtic-partnership benefs.
In rponse to the ads, Suba received letters om a grassroots group that acced the rmaker of promotg homosexualy.
ARE SUBAS REALLY GAY RS?
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Like nerds who grow up to nont their bulli, Suba executiv me to realize that the people opposg the acknowledgment of gays and lbians were not as imposg as they of the reasons that, the days, the rmaker’s role cultivatg s lbian-iendly image is ls well known is that so many straight people were bld to the subtext of the s first Suba ads, Mulryan/Nash hired women to portray lbian upl.
MARKETING: SUBA EXPANDS S ASSOCIATN WH GAY, LBIAN GROUPS
Explore gay Mosw wh Mr Hudson. The bt of Mosw for the discerng gay man. Where to sleep, eat, drk, shop and play. * subaru gay *
”The light among niche dience groups “dg” the hts Suba ads surprised the marketg team—and the se of s gay-iendly ads, so did straight dienc’ ignorance. While many gay and lbian nsumers loved the shout-outs the license plat, straight people would only notice featur like a bike rack.
Poux, who helped e up wh the license-plate ia, says he held foc groups wh straight dienc where he’d show ads featurg gay upl.
Even after an hour of talkg about gay issu, they’d thk a man was shoppg wh his articl at the time, Suba executiv said they felt uncerta about the “trigue” created by the perceptn of “secret dg.
GAY-FRIENDLY AUTO BRAND PERCEPTN DO NOT MEAN GAYS, LBIANS WILL BUY
As more pani began marketg to LGBTQ dienc, such dg—which fell unr the tegory of the new marketg term “gay vague”—beme a way for pani to reach queer dienc wh mimal risk of a nservative said, Suba did not hi s support of gay and lbian ctomers. While Volkswagen played y about whether an ad perceived as gay-iendly really portrayed a gay uple, Suba sponsored events like gay-pri paras, partnered wh the Rabow Card, a cred rd that stead of sh back offered donatns to gay and lbian , and hired Marta Navratilova, a former tennis pro and a lbian, to appear Suba ads.
She had been outed agast her will, and while she spoke hontly about her sexual orientatn, she had lamented that gay athlet had “to hi the closet to sell [themselv] to Madison Avenue. ” For her to bee the face of a r pany durg her retirement, says the Rabow Card -creator Pam Derrian, was a betiful, full-circle ’s gay-and-lbian–foced marketg mpaign was a h, and the pany’s efforts ntue today. In foc groups and onle polls, gay and lbian nsumers nsistently choose Suba vehicl as their favore rs or Suba as the most gay-iendly brand.
Every year, Tim Bent says, the LGBTQ anizatns were the top five terms of rs was not the first pany to create advertisements for gay and lbian nsumers, but was the first major pany the Uned Stat to do so transparently and nsistently. By the early 2000s, marketers were wrg articl that lled gays and lbians an “unrserved market” and “perfect nsumers.
THE 5 BEST MOSW GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS MOSW
The perceptn of the gay market as a gold me relied on the misperceptn that all gay people were well-off and part of dual-earner hoeholds whout children. A number of amics cricized rporate Ameri’s embrace of the LGBTQ muny: While pani wanted the profs that me om marketg a gay sense of style, they foced on upper-class and whe gay inti—rarely gay people of lor or those unable to afford medil treatment for HIV/ acrdg to Derrian, that perspective unrtimat the telligence of LGBTQ nsumers. Moreover, Derrian, like many LGBTQ people who see a pany pchg to the gay market, vetted firms terted sponsorg the Rabow Card by lookg to the polici they had for their employe, like benefs for same-sex partners.
GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI
This led to a trend of pani makg their ternal polici more gay-iendly when they wanted to advertise to gay ctomers.
MOSW: GAY MOSW
When Ford created gay-iendly ads, revised s polici for s more than 100, 000 a sense, all Suba did was notice a group of ctomers who often felt unwele and visible, and create ads for them.
Apparently, as the pany was tryg to figure out who was buyg s rs, the marketg folks disvered that gay and lbian people were a large segment – along wh all those outdoorsy typ. The disvery led to subtle advertisg directed specifilly at what we now refer to as the LGBT muny, which turn led to more sal to gay and lbian nsumers. A new survey (of 3, 685 rponnts) by and Senei reveals that 67 percent of both gay male and lbian r buyers nsir "very or somewhat important" for to pani to exhib a "gay-iendly" reputatn (when 's fed by whether the pany offers domtic partner benefs to s employe).
Suba's woog of the gay and lbian dience seems to be workg--at least on one level--bee was the overwhelmg favore (chosen by 45 percent of rponnts, wh Volkswagen and Ford a distant send and third) as the most gay-iendly r pany.