Panel Pride: Market Research, Advertising, and the Queer Community

June is Pride Month, federally recognized since 1999 to commemorate and recognize LGBTQ communities throughout the United States and beyond. While it is both a celebration of identity and an observance of loss and hardship, Pride also acknowledges how the queer community has made its mark on society, government, and the world. Market research is no different- in fact, as an industry at the intersection of psychology, marketing, and technology, market research has historically paid great mind to the LGBTQ community, and has affected and been affected by it more than most.

Early Queer Market Research

For much of the 20th century, LGBTQ communities were not advertised to. Stigma surrounding homosexuality and transgenderism prevented most companies from openly, if at all, trying to reach queer communities through advertising. In fact, it was more common for marketing efforts to disparage or demonize the queer community. The rare LGBTQ promotions were more akin to propaganda, PR, and awareness campaigns by and for queer groups rather than corporate advertising. 

Market research was much the same. Heterosexuality was the assumed norm, and thus questions of sexuality and gender identity rarely made it into surveys or polls. Only a few attempts were made to understand homosexuality, such as qualitative research conducted by sexologists Havelock Ellis and Magnus Hirschfeld. The Kinsey Reports, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), are regarded as one of the first proper research studies of sexuality, as well as one of the most influential scientific research studies of the 20th century. 

In these, 18,000 anonymous, personal interviews were conducted to determine what percentage of men and women had some sort of homosexual experience. Utilizing the Kinsey Scale, Kinsey determined that roughly 10% of males and 6% of females were strictly homosexual. He is also one of the first to describe homosexuality as a spectrum rather than a black-and-white identity, declaring that “Only the human mind invents categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeon-holes. The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.”

The 80s, 90s, and 00s

Various events in the latter half of the 20th century started to bring the LGBTQ community into the public eye. The Stonewall Riot, Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day, the HIV Epidemic, and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were hugely influential in bringing the struggles of the LGBTQ community to light. As public perception of the queer community grew, advertising to this community started to become more prevalent. At the time, they were subtle, such as Subaru’s “It’s Not a Choice” campaign targeting lesbian household leaders, or IKEA’s television ad depicting a gay couple.  

Market research started to pay more attention to the queer community, too. More research was conducted to better understand homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism. The Kinsey Reports, initially critiqued as having sample bias, were reexamined and findings changed; the percentage of strictly homosexual men lowered from 10% to 2%-4%, and for females from 6% to 1%-2% (as of 2011). A shift from in-person interviews to phone and online surveys helped increase sample diversity and size, allowing for a more accurate view into sexuality on average. 

In specifically market research, questions were brought up regarding the importance of the queer consumer. In 2004, Bob Witeck and Wes Combs wrote a paper asking how research on homosexual consumers could be conducted. They criticized early research for “over-emphasizing the highly visible gay white urban male” by only interviewing ‘out’ gay populations at queer-centric events.They acknowledged the difficulty and cost of finding these hard-to-reach populations, and championed the use of online surveys over phone and written interviews that preserved anonymity to let gay and lesbian respondents be more comfortable and open with their answers. By the end of the paper, they predicted that an explosion of LGBTQ acceptance was on the rise- and they were correct.

Why Queer Advertising Matters

The 2020s saw the explosion that Witeck and Combs predicted. Companies, from Target to Levi’s to JP Morgan and Chase to Lockheed Martin, have declared their support for the LGBTQ community through queer-centric products, sponsoring Pride and other LGBTQ events, and logo changes during the month of June. It’s no surprise why this explosion occurred. Since 2020, 371 million people globally identify as part of the LGBTQ community, with a purchasing power of $3.9 trillion. The real number of LGBTQ consumers is likely even higher than that. Thus, not advertising to this group is a huge loss of potential profit and positive perception.

Advertising to the LGBTQ community offers benefits besides just profit. It can foster trust among a small but loyal segment of the population. This trust translates to brand loyalty and sometimes even advocacy among LGBTQ consumers and their allies. Similarly, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to align themselves with political and social movements. Research shows that Gen Z, a rapidly growing segment of the economy, places a significant amount of importance on brand values. If a brand does not share their social values, they will be less likely to purchase. 

However, advertising to the queer community is not as simple as putting a rainbow on a logo for Pride: companies have to stand by these values, too. Shallow or disingenuous attempts to connect with the queer community, nicknamed “rainbow capitalism”, often has more negative effects on brand reputation than saying nothing at all. To advertise to the LGBTQ community is to stand by them even when doing so may not be as profitable or popular, just like the first advertising pioneers of the 1980s and 90s.

LGBTQ market research is just as important as advertising. Understanding the LGBTQ experience allows for a richer understanding of not just a segment of the market, but the population as a whole. Doing so in turn can help researchers reveal gaps in the market that they or their clients can fill. However, like advertising, it is important that market research of the queer community is done with respect and grace. Avoiding stereotypes, accepting cultural differences, and getting a true representative sample of LGBTQ respondents will lead to better insights, and in turn, better research.