Ethnic Technologies: Celebrating LGBT Pride Month

With marriage equality being at the forefront of national conversations, as well as the popularity and acceptance of celebrities such as NFL player, Michael Sam, current Apple, Inc. CEO, Tim Cook and Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black), the first openly transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the acting category, brands are starting to become more inclusive of LGBT individuals in their advertising. Not to mention, the overall LGBT buying power of $830 billion*, which marketers surely want to tap into.

Also, with the increased use of social media as a way for individuals and brands to communicate, many companies are using this as a “springboard” into engaging the community, with ads featuring same gender couples, or subtle imagery, such as banners stating their support for marriage equality.

However, many marketers have failed to recognize that the LGBT community is as diverse as the American landscape and need to have that represented in today’s advertising.

“The African American / Black LGBT Community Survey®”, conducted by Community Marketing, Inc. found that only 3% of participants felt that corporate America does a good job reaching out to the African American LGBT community. The report also noted, African American LGBTs are dedicated customers of a variety of top service brands, such as financial services however, these companies have not taken a “substantial market lead at this time.”

Additionally, African American, Latino and Asian American LGBTs reported that they feel more positively towards companies that outreach to their specific communities, but felt that corporate America is not doing a good job of reaching out to LGBT communities of color. Companies that have adopted an acceptance and pro-LGBT policies and practices, such as Target and Starbucks, rank as some of the top brands in the LGBT community.**

To fully claim a stake of the $830 billion, brands and agencies should take a page from their multicultural marketing plans and create ads that resonate and represent the various groups that encompass the LGBT community.

E-Tech

Our flagship product, E-Tech, appends the following elements to our clients’ customer data: Ethnicity, Ethnic Group, Language Preference, Religion and Hispanic Country of Origin. E-Tech also incorporates Enhanced Neighborhood Analytics (ENA) technology, our granular geographic data system. Once E-Tech has analyzed all the available name intelligence and all of the geographic information, it uses our proprietary, culturally sensitive, expert system logic to predict the ethnicity and other demographics for each individual record. E-Tech can identify more than 180 specific ethnicities within 16 general ethnic groups.

For more information, contact:
Yartish Bullock

Sr. Account Executive

Ethnic Technologies

Phone: 866-333-8324 ext. 116

Ybullock@ethnictechnologies.com

www.ethnictechnologies.com

* Witeck Communications

** Community Marketing, Inc. 8th Annual LGBT Community Survey®