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Constructing the Dream
Consumer
The Evolution of the Gay Market
John Edward Campbell
Annenberg School for
Communication
University of Pennsylvania
The Emergence of the Gay Market
Introduction
The Emergence of the Gay Market
Introduction
Will discuss the genesis of the “gay market”
as well as the construction of the gay male
“dream consumer”
The role of surveillance in segmenting this
marketing and the fragmenting of this
market into evermore specific consumer
identities
This segmentation is apparent in the newly
formed gay male “bear” market.
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
A shift in the industry from mass marketing and
homogenous advertising to niche marketing and
individualized advertising.
Peppers and Rogers (1997) assert that “some
customers are simply more valuable than others”
(p. 32) and corporations can increase profits by
“treating different customers differently” (p. 53.)
Jon Goss (1995) observes that target marketing
was “not practicable on a large scale until the
1970s, when theoretical, technological, and
institutional innovations permitted the
accumulation and management of electronic
databases on consumer behavior” (p. 173).
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
Gay marketing has a recent history.
Reg Whitaker (1999) gay marketing “could
only happen once gays and lesbians
began to come out of the closet and selfconscious gay and lesbian lifestyles and
cultures began to appear in a fashion
clearly visible to the straight world” (p.
148).
The history of gay marketing more complex
than Whitaker suggests.
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
The gay media can trace its roots back to a lesbian
bar in Los Angeles in 1947 with the distribution of
Vice Versa, the first underground gay newspaper.
In the 1980s, a group of aspiring gay publications
began working with gay marketing firms to entice
major advertisers to court the “gay market.”
In 1988, Simmons Market Research Bureau
conducted first marketing survey of gay consumers,
reporting an average per capita income of $36,800
and a significantly larger proportion of gays and
lesbians holding professional positions.
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
In 1990, Overlooked Opinions conducts survey by
mailing out questionnaires to those reading gay
publications.
Based on 1,357 responses, Overlooked Opinions
determined that 34% of gay households had
incomes over $50,000.
Using the classic one-in-ten gay/straight ratio
extrapolated from Alfred Kinsey’s work, they
estimated the wealth of the gay community to be
$514 billion annually.
Compounding this is the stereotypical image of gay
households as DINKS (Double Income, No Kids).
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
Hazel Kahan and David Mulryan (1995) argue that
“because these consumers are disenfrachised
from mainstream society, they are open to
overtures from marketers” (p. 40).
Image of gay affluence has proven politically
damaging.
In Colorado in 1992, champions of antigay ballot
initiative Amendment 2 used the Overlooked
Opinions survey findings to fuel hatred of gays
and lesbians (Hardistry and Gluckman, 1997)
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
By the mid-1990s, this construct of the “gay market”
was in place and the race was on to court these
economically affluent but politically impotent
“dream consumers.”
Major corporations start sponsoring gay social events
like the 1994 Gay Games in New York City.
The explosion of corporate advertising in gay lifestyle
publications fosters the production of several new
upscale “glossy” magazines, like Out and Genre.
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
Flaw in the logic of target marketing: the reduction
of people to a singular axis of identity
By doing such, this marketing practice calls into
existence the very thing it sets out to find.
Katherine Sender (2004): “the gay community, on
a national scale at least, is not a preexisting
entity that marketers simply need to appeal to,
but is a construction, an imagined community
formed not only through political activism but
through an increasingly sophisticated,
commercial supported, national media” (p. 5).
Targeting the Closet:
Surveillance and the Emergence of Gay Marketing
Alexandra Chasin (2000): “[T]he national U.S. gay
community came into being through the imagined
comradeship of gay men and lesbians reading an
increasingly commercial gay press. In that press,
gay men and lesbians read for news of the growth
of the movement, they read for news of
consumption opportunities that reinforced their
belonging in the community, and they read
vernacular language that helped delineate the
boundaries of the community” (p. 92).
Today this gay media is undergoing
significant consolidation
in ownership.
Dream Consumer in Cyberspace:
PlanetOut.com and Gay.com
These two online
portals primarily
speak to their patrons
through
advertisements,
whether those ads
are for their own
services (e.g.
personal ads) or
Fortune 500
corporations.
Dream Consumer in Cyberspace:
PlanetOut.com and Gay.com
z Two-month analysis of
360 ads on Gay.com
and 180 ads on
PlanetOut.com
z The majority of ads
were explicitly oriented
to gay and/or lesbian
consumers
z A smaller percentage of
ads (approximately
25%) had no reference
to sexual identity
Dream Consumer in Cyberspace:
PlanetOut.com and Gay.com
Lowell Selvin (2005): “Smart
corporations, smart ad
agencies, smart
moviemakers and smart
TV producers know” that
the most successful ads
are “tailored to the gay
and lesbians audience”
(p. B1).
Ads used an imaginary
composed primarily of
men who are both white
and young.
Dream Consumer in Cyberspace:
PlanetOut.com and Gay.com
Dream Consumer in Cyberspace:
PlanetOut.com and Gay.com
z PlanetOut Inc.
perpetuates the
essentialized image of
gays as prosperous
“dream consumers”
z PlanetOut Inc. constructs
a demographic profile of
members reinforcing this
image: 29% are 18 to 24
years old, 37% have
annual incomes over
$50K, 85% are male
Dream Consumer in Cyberspace:
PlanetOut.com and Gay.com
In their Sales Kit,
PlanetOut Inc.
proclaim their ability
to surveil, segment,
and target gay
consumers
The personal
information patrons
disclose plays a vital
role in their
“conversion” from
member to paying
customer
Constructing the Bear Consumer:
Segmenting the Gay Market
The “bear” phenomenon
started as a social
movement in Northern
California in the 1980s and
profilerated across North
America and Western
Europe through the Internet
during the 1990s.
The movement started when a
group of men would not
conform to the beauty
ideals of the gay male
mainstream.
Constructing the Bear Consumer:
Segmenting the Gay Market
The “bear” subculture spread
primarily through the
Internet and such online
sites as Bear411.com,
BigMuscleBears.com, and
BearWWW.com.
Annual social events – “bear
runs” – soon organized in
most major American cities.
Largest events attract
thousands of gay men from
across the country and the
world.
Constructing the Bear Consumer:
Segmenting the Gay Market
Constructing the Bear Consumer:
Segmenting the Gay Market
Concluding Thoughts
As evident in the emergence of the gay male
“bear” market, sexuality intersects not only
with race, gender, and class, but also with
body type in formulating identity.
Critics are concerned as to the impact of this
market segmentation on the political
organizing of marginalized communities.