September 08, 2015
MICHAEL DWYER/AP
Teenagers from around the Boston area march in the sixth annual Gay/Straight Youth Pride March in Boston, Saturday, May 20, 2000. Several thousand young people took part in the rally, demanding respect and declaring their sexuality their own business.
When the Supreme Court recognized the right to same-sex marriage in June, some people joked that the biggest beneficiary of the decision would be the wedding industry.
They may have been on to something. A new study from Nielsen Holdings N.V. found that LGBT households have real buying power, and marketers may want to pay attention.
The report found that LGBT households go shopping 10 percent more than average, and spend seven percent more. The results were based on a survey of households with at least one member who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
LGBT shopping preferences are also different from the average consumer. For example, LGBT households are 55 percent more likely to shop at a liquor store and 72 percent more likely to visit a bookstore than the average U.S. household.
But they're less likely than the average household to visit, say, dollar stores and department stores.
The music industry should also take note: LGBT households are 23 percent more likely to attend music festivals and 26 percent more likely to subscribe to a streaming music service.
Corporations have already started to jump on the LGBT bandwagon. After the Supreme Court's landmark ruling, for example, dozens of major brands declared their support for marriage equality.
However, does being gay really make someone more interested in wine, books and music festivals, or are these results more of a reflection of the urban environments where LGBT folks tend to live?
David Paisley, director of a San Francisco research company that looks at LGBT marketing trends, pointed out to Philly.com that LGBT people are more likely to live in big cities where people, in general, tend to have different tastes and higher incomes than the rest of America.
"What gives them purchasing power is the communities they live in," Paisley said. "We move to places where we are safe and accepted, like San Francisco and Center City Philadelphia, New York, or college towns or places like New Hope in Bucks County. Places where LGBTs and everyone else has better incomes."
Whether it's because of where they live or who they are, LGBT households are a powerful marketing demographic. More companies may soon start looking for the mythical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
