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CASE STUDY
Marketing to gay men and lesbians
Before developing a marketing concept and a related
campaign, fundamental questions need to be addressed. In
the case of gay marketing, some specific considerations
should be made which include (Fett, 1998):
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Strategic positioning: Are homosexual market segments
fully integrated into the overall marketing strategy, or
defined as one specific, separate target group?
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Strategic approach: Are homosexual issues addressed
explicitly, implicitly, in a coded way, or not at all?
If gay men and lesbians were a fully integrated facet of a
company’s marketing, they would appear ‘every now and
then’ in the market communication, and gay/lesbian media
or other communication platforms would be regularly used –
among other media. This strategy seems to be applied by
some of the big fashion or food brands that have never
launched specific gay campaigns (e.g. Prada in the United
States, Silk Cut in the UK, Sony in The Netherlands). The
problem with this strategy is that gays and lesbians might
not realize that they are in fact appreciated as customers –
they might even see themselves limited to be ‘cash-cows’.
Integration might also happen in ‘invisible’ ways so that it is
again not perceived.
In the travel industry, most activities targeted at gay men
and lesbians are explicitly set up for gay and lesbian
customers. It is necessary to show clearly that a tourism
product is aimed at the homosexual market – a necessity
that brands in other sectors might not face.
On the market side, our own internal market research has
identified two big themes for strategic gay marketing in this
respect. Many gay or lesbian consumers would like to see
companies acknowledge homosexuals as one ‘normal’ part
of reality – something natural and casual, integrated in dayto-day marketing and business. At the same time, gay men
and lesbians demand open, clear and credible moves from
companies trying to woo the gay community, meaning clearcut gay/lesbian profiles, messages and activities.
We feel that in most cases, specific activities will be
needed in the beginning of any gay marketing work while
the ultimate objectives might be that gay men and lesbians
become an integral yet visible part of most if not all marketing activities.
Gay and lesbian issues can be addressed along a continuum from open or explicit to invisible or neutral. Some of the
common explicit approaches are the use of pictures with
same-sex couples or simply using expressions like ‘gay destination’ or ‘gay-friendly hotel’. Successful coded approaches
often include the use of the rainbow (flag or colours) as the
most important symbol of gay/lesbian solidarity or wordplays that have different meanings in a gay context than in
the mainstream. The approach may also be neutral by
avoiding any reference to lifestyle or sexual orientation. In
such cases, the context (e.g. advertisement in a gay newspaper) will have to make sure the audience understands the
implicit message that the offer is actually meant to appeal to
homosexuals as well.
Integrated or specific positioning and explicit, coded or
neutral approaches may be combined to different strategic
gay marketing settings.
Having described the strategic range for basic gay/
lesbian marketing approaches, we may now proceed to
present concrete building-blocks for gay marketing
campaigns in order to describe relevant marketing contexts.
These strategic directions will set the scene in which a
marketing concept can be developed. Specialists have used
models of three, four or five ‘Ps’ for many years (see Kotler
and Bliemel, 1995; Chrétien, 2000). Applied to gay marketing in the travel industry, the framework describes a wide
field of possible options and alternative approaches:
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product strategy: using standard products or designing
specific products for gay/lesbian consumers;
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price strategy: fixing low, standard or high prices;
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promotion (market communication): advertising or
‘below-the-line’ communication (i.e. all forms of
communication other than traditional advertising), in
homosexual or in mixed (mainstream) contexts;
●
place (sales): using established (mainstream) or gay/
lesbian-specific sales channels;
●
people (mainly for the service industry): using gay/
lesbian or mixed staff.
Product strategy
This part of a marketing strategy describes the features a
product uses to attract customers from a market segment.
We want to discuss three possibilities with regard to the gay
market:
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standard products
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special products for gay/lesbian consumers
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variations of standard products.
Standard products, i.e. identical products for mainstream
and gay and lesbian markets, are used when the product
itself is highly complex. Air transportation or car rentals as
well as hotel rooms are such products that can hardly be
changed to meet the specific needs of a target group
(pricing is not included in this consideration).
On the other hand, tour operators have created a large
variety of special products for gay men and lesbians
(Mackovich, 1998). Travel packages to Sydney Mardi Gras
or lesbian cruises are but two examples from the field.
Special products will only be profitable if their creation is not
too expensive and enough profit can be generated. In the
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case of gay or lesbian cruises, tour operators have sometimes faced difficulties with destinations they integrated in
their tour. Gay cruise ships were booed and harassed when
docking at the Bahamas, and passengers not allowed to
disembark at Cayman Islands in 1997 (Newman, 1998)
and in Turkey in 2000. Special homosexual tourism products
are certainly not an obvious option for everyone.
Some products can be changed in order to respond to
some specific needs of gay men and lesbians. Examples of
such variations can be found at tourist boards: the British
Tourist Authority installed a toll-free gay/lesbian visitors’ line
through which travellers will reach the ‘normal’ call centre,
but where the agent answering will be aware of the nature
of the enquiry. Some tourist boards provide gay/lesbian
welcome packages, which contain some specific information
about homosexual infrastructure or events in addition to
general information.
A German hotel chain is planning to launch special rooms
for female guests – in co-operation with a women’s magazine.
Beyond stereotypes, standard rooms will be complemented
with selected features that women travelling alone might prefer
over the standard features usually targeted at male guests.
Price strategy
This part of a marketing concept describes the price level for
the products offered. The range for possible pricing covers
not only ‘normal or standard’ prices but also lower or higher
ones. A special model is the ‘charity-related’ pricing.
Standard prices are probably the most common strategy if
the product or the promotion already relates to a target
group, or if price changes are difficult to make. Lower prices
will be used in highly competitive contexts, where many
products are interchangeable (car rental, some transportation, some accommodation). Such may include promotional
offers on special occasions. For example, Lufthansa USA
offered discounts on standard airfares for participants of the
gay and lesbian soccer world championship (Cologne,
October 2000). Higher prices are often hidden behind variations of standard products through which companies try to
increase their margin.
A common mechanism in the gay/lesbian market is the
charity-related price model. The idea of this is that part of
the revenue generated in the community (usually a fixed sum
or a fixed percentage) is given back to some non-profitmaking organization. Most famous is probably the Rainbow
Card, a credit card by VISA targeted mainly at gay men and
lesbians in the United States or the similar Red Ribbon
International VISA card in the UK.
Promotion strategy (communication)
As described above, the gay and lesbian market provides
different sub-segments with regard to self-identification and
lifestyle, resulting in differing possibilities to access the
respective group.
The vast majority of gay media, gay events and other
gay-specific communication platforms provide access to
those homosexuals who choose to live as part of the ‘gay
community’. Many other gay or lesbian consumers do not
read specific publications or make any use of gay infrastructure. This part of the market can mainly be reached
through mainstream communication. In both contexts, the
different strategic approaches as described above may be
applied. In addition, the range of possible communication
tools is just as broad in gay and lesbian as it is in non-gay
or mixed areas. Obviously, one-to-one marketing such as
direct mail won’t make much sense to a mixed group if the
offer is targeted at gay men and lesbians.
Advertising
Advertising to gay men and lesbians leads to similar results
as in the mainstream: awareness for a brand or product
rises. However, the context in which an ad is placed may
change the impact it has. Many advertisements in gay media
do not show gay-specific pictures, nor do they use explicit
gay language. Obviously, the fact that a ‘normal’ ad
appears in a homosexual magazine sends an implicitly progay message (Levin, 1993). On the other hand, advertisement to gay men or lesbians in non-gay or mixed media
needs to be explicit about some gay message or at least
coded for a gay clientele in order to be meaningful to the
target group. Some brands placed gay advertisements in the
New York Times and similar media in order to reach gay
men and lesbians beyond the community. Such advertisements might be too explicit for the mainstream audience,
though, as was the case for a Virgin Vodka television advertisement showing a gay couple kissing (Snowdon, 1996).
In the United States there are even specialized media for
travel-related issues, such as Our World or Gay Travel News.
These provide specific advertisement opportunities in the
field of gay tourism.
Printed material
In order to communicate on below-the-line platforms, some
kind of promotional material is needed. Naturally, most
companies opt for brochures or posters highlighting their
selling points. Destinations and tour operators use brochures
to disseminate the complex information about their products
and services. Airlines, hotel chains and car rental companies
focus more on brand marketing, involving less information
but more emotional messages (flyers, stickers, badges). The
pioneers from the field – Amsterdam, Miami, Australia,
American Airlines – focused strongly on marketing to a travel
industry audience (journalists, travel agents, tour operators,
see Drummond, 1995). The objective must have been to
reach multipliers and to generate sales.
The past three years saw the development of a new
dimension in gay tourism marketing (mainly in the United
States), led by the British Tourist Authority campaign,
followed by Quebec/Montréal, Palm Springs and later
France. It wasn’t until these campaigns were initiated that
full-colour brochures for end-consumers were produced.
While the gay-specific perspective dominated earlier
marketing efforts, often supported by gay/lesbian business
guilds, the new style focused on all the major attractions a
destination had to offer, presented in a gay context.
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Public relations
In the light of past discrimination, gay men and lesbians
tend to be reserved about, if not critical towards, external
partners. They are, just as many other ‘target groups’, reluctant to see themselves as ‘cash-cows’ for big companies
who might not care about the specifics of gay lives. At the
same time, gay men and lesbians seem to trust other homosexuals more than ‘externals’. Therefore, it is important for
any gay marketing campaign that one intense communication stream is targeted at gay and lesbian multipliers, especially the media. In some cases the value of an eight-line
article might be greater than that of a full-page advertisement. The first international invitation for journalists to
Miami Beach was even reported in Newsweek magazine
(Drummond, 1995).
Sponsoring
Traditional sponsoring may be the most effective way to
show a company cares about issues that are important to
gay men and lesbians. One important ‘side effect’ is that
consumers usually don’t perceive this as a (direct) marketing
activity. The most important opportunities for sponsoring are
gay/lesbian non-profit-making organizations or big events.
Main sponsors usually receive special exposure and exclusive access to members or participants in defined contexts.
One of the biggest sponsorships in recent years was KLM’s
support for the Gay Games in Amsterdam, 1998. All the
large Gay Pride events in the United States, Great Britain
and Germany offer sponsoring co-operation for companies.
Event marketing
Closely linked to event sponsoring are other forms of event
marketing that may be applied in a gay context. One of the
common tools is presence at events with some form of
stand, booth or tabletop display. More promotional are flags
or the active distribution of information (flyers, postcards) or
give-aways. In the United States, specific events (Expos) for
gay and lesbian tourism take place each year. Many companies exhibit at these events, reaching consumers who are
specifically interested in travel-related information. In
Germany, most Gay Pride events offer companies a stand
on the festival ground where information or give-aways can
be spread, raffles or contests can be organized or recruiting
contacts can be made. For the travel industry, events also
serve as tourism products – for transportation companies,
tour operators, agents and suppliers (hotel, car rental
companies) alike. But also the city or region where the event
takes place might be extremely interested in attracting such
events: the fourth Gay Games in 1994 were said to have
brought $100 million into New York’s economy (Tilsner,
1994). In 2001 Montreal is one of the very active bidding
cities for the Gay Games 2006.
Promotion (sampling)
Active distribution may take place not only on events but
also on ‘the scene’, where give-aways or information can be
spread (contests, raffles). In the case of spirits or cigarettes,
free samples are frequently offered. Give-aways often carry
the logo of the respective brand or the URL of a related
Internet site.
Direct mail
Another form of one-to-one marketing is direct mailing,
which features mainly in the United States, where relevant
databases are available, as well as a range of services
through which direct marketing can be rolled out. These
mechanisms would be regarded as highly unusual in most
parts of Europe, where the use of a private address in a gay
context would cause irritation on the consumer’s side. Even
in the United States, it seems to be effective, if not appropriate, to use community-based services to access gay men
and lesbians directly. One professional service is Our Tribe
promotion packs where almost any company can insert one
of their special offers. Most of the cards provide directresponse opportunity. In Germany, direct mail can be
organized in co-operation with mail-order companies that
will piggyback promotional information in selected contexts.
Co-op marketing
In the context of gay marketing campaigns, co-operating
with ‘internal’ community organizations or companies
should always be considered. The external partner benefits
from the credibility and contacts of the insider, while the
community partner benefits from the power and reputation
the mainstream brand brings to the party. Preferred co-op
partners are tour operators, as their business is moving
beyond image-building to generating revenue. (See
Cogswell, 1996, for an example of co-operation between a
large wholesaler and a gay tour company.)
A not-so-usual co-operation took place in the late 1990s
in Germany, where the Stena Line, offering transportation
between the European mainland and Great Britain and
Scandinavia respectively, offered same-day return tickets at
a discount rate. All of the revenue was donated to an AIDSprevention organization, while profit was made from the
money the travellers spent on board the ferries. The project
received a lot of publicity at almost no cost. A similar initiative is the special flights the German airline LTU offers on
World AIDS Day. Tickets are 100 Euro. Passengers are given
a two-hour flight from and to Düsseldorf with entertainment
on board. Another form of co-operation may be organized
with associations. Special membership rates can be offered,
as a hotel chain and a car rental company does for
members of the Völklinger Kreis (German gay managers’
association).
Internet marketing
Some research results suggest that gay men and lesbians
have a high affinity for the Internet (Community Marketing,
1999). Even the famous Gay Days at Disneyland have their
roots in the Worldwide Web. Currently, a lot of information is
spread and collected via the Internet and a number of
marketing opportunities can be found for the travel industry
in particular. Quite a few portals, e-zines or other websites
specialize in tourism issues, and an increasing number of
companies install special sections or specific websites for
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their gay marketing activities. The latest and most innovative
venture is www.gayjet.com where information and booking
are actually linked.
Place strategy (sales)
In the context of gay marketing, two major sales strategies
can be applied. One is focusing on the gay community and
its tour operators, travel agents and direct marketing opportunities. The second option is to use established mainstream
structures in order to reach gay and lesbian consumers who
do not use community-based services.
Considering the overall structure of the target group as
described above, both sales strategies must be used in order
to cover the larger part of the market. But most current activities focus on internal community places to sell their products, which is consistent with the fact that most
communication is targeted at the community part of the
market segment. Again, it has been the British Tourist
Authority, who piloted a new style: in their mainstream catalogue for Germany, two pages on gay and lesbian Britain
were included in 2000 and 2001. This way, homosexual
clients who did not read the gay press were made aware of
BTA’s diversified customer focus and mainstream travellers
were pointed to the fact that Britain is a destination that
welcomes different kinds of visitors. This has increased the
credibility of gay marketing activities significantly and has
added integrated aspects to a specific campaign.
People strategy
For almost any company, the ‘face to the customer’ is of vital
importance. But the gay tourism arena seems to be
somehow special, as the global network of experts and
multipliers is tightly knit, for example in special interest associations such as the International Gay and Lesbian Travel
Association. Naturally, the people involved in a marketing
project will have to be part of the roll-out plan. In contrast to
the more comprehensive diversity scene, gay marketing in
the US travel industry is almost exclusively dominated by gay
men and lesbians (Roth, 1995). This results in many excellent personal links that can easily be set up between gay
representatives from ‘mainstream companies’ and their
community partners. The downside can be that companies
are accused of tokenism, and there are risks that gay men or
lesbians in charge bias their work according to their own
experience or preferences.
In Europe, the professionals working on gay marketing
tend to come from various backgrounds. This might be
due in part to the fact that the operations in different
European countries are not as big in terms of staff
numbers as they are in the United States, so that gay men
or lesbians are often not ‘available’ to deal with gay
issues. We want to argue that from a diversity standpoint,
mixed teams should in general be preferred over homogeneous ones. Moreover, the message of inclusiveness and
integration will be stronger and clearer if gay and straight
representatives from a company welcome gay customers
on board a plane, in a hotel or to a destination. Our work
with travel industry companies included workshops with
front-end employees (directly serving customers) from call
centres and tourist information. This way, the respective
companies ensure that their employees are aware of
various differences between customers and this is not
limited to sexual-orientation issues, but includes different
lifestyles, gender-specific questions, ethnicity, religion and
other dimensions of diversity.
Stuber, ‘Tourism Marketing aimed at Gay Men and Lesbians’,
in Clift, Luongo & Callister (2002: pp. 102–18) Gay Tourism
(London: Thomson). Reproduced with permission.