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The manyshades of pinkGays refuse to conform to one-dimensionalidentities BY NINA PENTEADO

Passive, middle-of the-road,mass market segments nolonger exist. More thanever before, Canadianconsumption patterns are

reflecting changes not only in popu-lation demographics, but also changesin real attitudes often exclusive tovocal and dynamic niche groups.

Canadian shoppers do not singlemindedly make lifestyle purchasingdecisions that override community-specific cultural differences, or "sex-ual boundaries." Brands like theToronto Blue Jays. A&P. Absolut\odka, Labatt Blue and Moison

' Canadian have done extremely wellby specifically targeting the gay com-munity, while others that have neg-lected to do so have not fared nearlyas well.

Purchasing decisions are notmade in a vacuum. A gay profes-sional will probably choose a prod-uct or service by a company that exer-cises gay-positive corporate citizen-ship, or if its advertising is specifical-ly targeting the gay community. Pur-chasing decisions, therefore,absolutely do go beyond mainstreamlifestyle aspirations.

Over the years, multiculturalismhas adapted itself to include "diversi-ty." Groups are differentiated not onlyby ethnicity, country of origin andlanguage, but by sexual orientationas well. Toronto is a city with a pop-ulation of more than 2.5 million peo-ple, where more than 200 languagesare spoken, and where more than 200cultural groups, including the gaycommunity, coexist. Multicultural-ism is a dynamic and ongoingprocess, so marketing to multicultural

that have gay and lesbian positive cor-porate policies.

Toronto's gay and lesbian culturalfabric today is a reflection of its polit-ical history. In 1973, for example, theCity of Toronto officially includedsexual orientation in its anti-discrim-ination policies, and the AmericanPsychiatric and Psychological .Asso-ciation thankfully deemed homosex-uals quite sane. Toronto's Gay PrideParade brings in S60 million to S80million gay and straight dollars annu-ally, and should not be underesti-mated or misunderstood. It was andstill is very much a march rooted inthe communities' history.

In 2001. Statistics Canada esti-mated that b.l>c of the population ishomosexual. Yet, only a small per-centage of the homosexual popula-tion is "self-identifying" or "out." .Assizeable as the community may be, itis not a monolithic purchasing pow-erhouse. Often, the gay communityis referred to as gay, lesbian, bisexualand trans-gendered, and it is multi-cultural to boot. Diversification with-in this group has resulted in the for-mation of groups such as GAT, GayAsians of Toronto.

More mainstream marketers arebeginning to understand that com-munity segments have their own per-sonalities and purchasing character-istics. This is especially the case withbrand managers who are trying todrive up sales by leveraging theirproducts against "community-specif-ic lifestyles." The macho beer busi-ness, for example, has invested a lotof cash in local gay sponsorships withvery handsome returns.

So the questions remain: Are

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communities also requires a dynam-ic approach.

The process of understanding com-munity segments by engaging them,or what I like to call a "metropologi-cal" approach, is critical. Not unlikemulticulturalism, metropology rec-ognizes and positively accepts groupswith community-specific characteris-tics and cultural beliefs, but it does soprimarily to affect the bottomline.Toronto's gay and lesbian com-munity is a politicized demographic.Corporate sponsorship opportunitiesat Toronto's annual summer GayPride parade, or Toronto's AIDS Com-mittee-organized event, FashionCares, do not come easy. They areoften exclusively offered to companies

NINA PENTEADO is president of BeeCause, aToronto research company specializing in nichesegments.

Canadians reach* tor gay-tjigtitdadvertising on a national sc ;

think so. Are creatively challengedcreative directors the problem? Idon't think so. Are some of the morerisk-phobic brand managers, who arestill focusing on uni-dimensionalapproaches the issue here? We do notknow. As of yet, no major marketingperson has really boldly jumped outof the mainstream marketing closetto find out.

"Brand breakthrough" within thisvalued consumer segment can easi-ly turn into "brand breakdown." Gen-uinely tuning in to the gay commu-nities' attitudes and opinions, andlooking beyond homogenous lifestylemarketing tactics and strategies, areimportant steps to take if a marketerwants to create a lasting and mean-ingful marketing presence in thisvaluable community. d

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