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white paper

T his was not an abstract discus-sion. Brand managers were not con-

vinced that their gay and lesbian niche marketing efforts were paying off – either financially or societally. What had been a very low cost, easy to reach, identifiable segment had dispersed into the greater (and more welcoming) society. Gaybour-hoods are morphing into gentrified, ex-pensive hoods for thirty something tren-doids; a reliable, focused, print media landscape all but melted into the frag-mented and unpredictable online world; and, the final blow, children of the new millenium hardly see a difference be-tween straight and gay.

However, we are beginning to see a stir-ring of an entirely different, and quite frankly much more laudable manifesta-tion of inclusiveness in marketing. It was obvious all along that to the degree that

marketers were not prepared to adapt their product or service to fit uniquely and relevantly into the existential life-style of gay and lesbian people, they would inevitably fail.

In the last week I have seen two entirely different organizations address these is-sues in courageous, but strategically in-telligent ways.

T he first is a gay ad for Harrahs New Orleans. The ad itself, which is at-

tached, is a dismal piece of creative – no idea, no art direction, no nothing! In fact, creatively, the ad is typical of brands that were not quite convinced that connecting to LGBT consumers would be worth the cost of a well designed ad (i.e. most ad-vertisers in the pre-recession era). But it’s not the ad that’s important – it’s where the ad appeared: the December

The Death of LGBT (LGBTTIQQ2SA*)Marketing is Fabulously Exaggerated

I n the wake of the recent economic downtown (recession) serious questions were asked about the future of gay marketing. Clearly as brands and

marketers tightened their belts, the first item to receive the chop, was the LGBT segment “experiment.” The big question is, will these small niche-segment endeavors be revived at the end of the troubles, or will they simply disappear into the black hole of “been there, done that”?

SUMMARY Brand

managers were not convinced that their gay and lesbian niche marketing efforts were paying off – either financially or societally.

The guts to insert an unambiguously gay ad into an unambiguously straight publication, is, in some respects, the canary in the coalmine.

The second exciting development is the unlikely launch of a purpose designed LGBTQA store brand by Canadian telecom company

* Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning, 2 Spirited, Allies

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issue of Toronto Life Magazine. This pub-lication is unarguably the premier Life-style magazine in Toronto, with a claimed readership of 750,000 upscale Toronto-nians.

The fact that Harrahs invested in this publication as a connection to affluent gay Torontonians is probably a no brainer (if they read anything, they read Toronto Life). The guts to insert an unambigu-ously gay ad into an unambiguously straight publication, is, in some respects, the canary in the coalmine.

T he second exciting development is the unlikely launch of a purpose de-

signed LGBTQA (their designation) store brand by Canadian telecom company, Te-lus. The brand, called CAYA (“Come As You Are” – hello!), opened its flagship store in Vancouver last week. “Caya is a store inspired by and built for Canada’s vibrant LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer + Allies) commu-nity,” says their website. And they “…don’t just offer our customers the latest in technology, mobile products, entertain-ment and accessories—we do it with style and a commitment to community.”

It’s a mobile phone store, for heaven’s sake.

But they have understood that, even though there is no intrinsic difference in the thing they sell that suggests a special LGBT approach to selling it, there is an extremely important difference in the way the thing and the brand are experienced by LGBT people that related specifically to their gayness and the way they view and experience the world.

Not only has Telus launched a flagship store, they are in the process of building a second store — also in Vancouver.

This is the thinking we have been advo-cating for many years. Gay and lesbian people are different because they are gay and lesbian, not because they are richer (they’re not), more educated (most are

“ ...there is an

extremely important

difference in the way the

thing and the brand are

experienced by LGBT people ”

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not), more fashion conscious or more sex obsessed. And if you start from this sim-ple truism, exciting approaches to the market place will reveal themselves.

We have often used the example of retail banking. On the surface gays don’t bank differently from straights. But, under the surface, the story is very different – the structure of financial service products does not fit the way gay men handle their financial affairs, for instance. A smart bank would move beyond the pa-tronizing support of community events and equally patronizing ad in local gay publications, and develop a banking ex-perience that actually offers the service and product mix that would actually dove-tail with their lives. Instead, the most innovative thinking we have seen in To-ronto is a bank that opened a branch in the (dying) gay village to cater to LGBT customers by opening on Sundays (because, apparently gay people bank on

Sundays more than straight people).

B ack to the question: did the reces-sion kill gay marketing? Yes and no.

With any luck it killed the strategically il-literate, creatively absurd, patronizing ap-proach to the market that relied on stereotypes to try to capture attention, for no apparent commercial reason. But, and I’m taking a flyer here, it has allowed truly innovative, courageous, meaningful and strategically sound marketing to emerge.

Which is, as they say, a beautiful thing.

“ But, and I’m taking

a flyer here, it has allowed

truly innovative,

courageous, meaningful

and strategically

sound marketing to

emerge.“

Laurence Bernstein is the founder and managing partner of Protean Strate-

gies/The Bay Charles Consulting Group Limited. He has been a leading pro-

ponent of the “new order of differentiation” and has written and lectured on

the subject of experiential branding and intrinsic/extrinsic research meth-

odologies in Canada, the US and China.

Since 2000 Laurence and Protean Strategies have been involved in helping

brands connect with LGBT customers in Canada, US and Europe. He is a

noted speaker on the subject and has written and published numerous arti-

cles about diversity and the LGBT marketplace

Laurence attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg

and Cornell University in Ithaca , New York

For more information on connecting with gay and lesbian consumers includ-ing additional white papers, please visit our website of call us at 1 416 967-3337 extension 101

www.proteanstrategies.com