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Reports show that the GLBT community makes more money and consequently we spend more money.  No surprise. We also average fewer children than heterosexuals so we have more money to spend on ourselves.  Whether it is food, clothing, shelter, or fun, despite a bad economy, we spend money.  In fact, GLBT buying power is projected at $712 Billion in 2008.  (Ironically, that is almost as much as the Government is investing in fixing our economy.)

Add these factors to the belief that the GLBT community is one of the most loyal consumer groups and it should make us perfect customers to promote to for all goods and services of every national advertiser.  And yet, the total amount of national advertising spent on all gay media is, by all accounts, less than $20 million with a big percentage of this money spent by HIV drug manufacturers.  The rest is a varied assortment of national advertising from such categories as liquor, travel and entertainment, clothing and auto.

This $20 million sounds like a lot but it is paltry compared to our numbers. Based on the US Population of approximately 300 million people and if you assume that 10%-14% of us are in the GLBT community, this represents approximately $1 per GLBT person per year spent on national advertising.   A lesson you learn in your Marketing 101 class is that it is not unreasonable that a company would spend 5% of its revenue on marketing.  Considering that the GLBT community has $712 Billion to spend, it would not be unreasonable to compute that national advertiser should spend its 5% or $36 billion which is the equivalent of approximately $1,000 on reaching us to spend our hard earned money for us to be persuaded to buy $712,000,000,000 of their products.  They are spending less than $1! 


You have to ask yourselves why?  Is it because advertisers feel that by spending money in mainstream media, they are in effect getting the GLBT market?  Is it because national advertisers still fear the wrath of the religious right who might see their ads in our publications and feel that there might be a backlash against them.  Or are there other reasons? 

After 7 years of having an investment in the largest gay media publishing group in America, I still don’t know the answer.  All I know is that we need to try and change it.  We need to be more loyal to those national advertisers who support us in a big way.  You know who you are.  We know who you are.  We also need to understand the national advertisers who benefit from the GLBT green and don’t treat the lavender with the importance and respect that we deserve.  You know who you are or do you.  I think it is easy to quantify.  I feel that any major national company not spending at least $1 million in the national gay media on an annual basis is not treating our community with the respect and importance it deserves.  That represents less than $.05 per GLBT person. That is less than a nickel per person per year.  If we are not worth a nickel to a national advertiser, then we should not give them 2 cents.  Hopefully someone in their organization is reading this article and will do something about it.
 

http://www.avalonequity.com/

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