Marketing: In Every Dream Home A Heartache

Stonewall has just published a new workplace guide, Marketing: How To Market To Gay Consumers.
You can download a PDF here.
Blurb: "The seventh, on marketing to gay consumers, looks at how organisations can successfully adapt their marketing initiatives to target lesbian, gay and bisexual consumers. The guide features good practice examples of successful marketing campaigns and also recommendations on how to get it right once you've decided to produce a campaign. The guide was launched in October 2010."
And launched incredibly quietly for some reason.
Ben Summerskill writes in the introduction; "When businesses get this right, they don't only secure consumer loyalty from millions of gay people and their friends and families but also from millions more consumers who sense that the relaxed inclusion of gay people in advertising or marketing strategies is a telling sign of a 21st-Century product or service."
The guide begins by asking; 'Why implement marketing strategies that target gay people?'
Simples! "Gay consumers make up a powerful and lucrative consumer group, estimated to be worth £70-81 billion in Britain alone."
Curiously, no reference is given for this ludicrous figure.
They also quote an equally ludicrous figure that there are an estimated 3.7million lesbian and gay people in the UK.
The £70-81 billion figure means they would be worth £20,000 each - which is nice.
Anyway, the guide is packed with good advice, such as; "Targeting lesbians with imagery featuring gay male couples may not be effective."
The guide also recommends "Initiatives to engage with lesbian, gay and bisexual communities".
One example given is American Express supporting the Stonewall Brighton Equality Walk; "Aligning their brand with a reputable organisation like Stonewall allowed American Express to reach an extensive existing network of gay people and gay consumers."
The guide warns; "Respond robustly to any negative reactions to maintain the loyalty of gay consumers."
Perhaps this could have been illustrated with a mention of the biggest gay PR fuck-up of the year; Stonewall's refusal to come out for gay marriage.

There is a breathtakingly dumb article spurred by this in Marketing Week, 'Pink Pound's Value Rises In Mainstream Markets'.
Best bit: "Kim Watson, managing director for media and marketing at gay media owner MPG, claims that many brands have yet to acknowledge the benefits of gay-friendly communication. The pink press might seem like an obvious route to getting a message out to the gay community, but Watson says many brands are shying away from MPG titles, despite them having a combined circulation of about 500,000 a month."
GT and Diva have a combined circulation of 500,000 a month!!!?
But then what is marketing if it's not telling lies for a living?