In the early '90s, hearing the call of consumer demand and cultural progression, progressive businesses awoke to a new reality; one that not only recognized the massive value of the gay marketplace, but also the powerful brand loyalty inherent to a historically ostracized consumer group: Gay consumers largely chose to do business with gay-owned or gay-positive businesses over others, even if they preferred the other’s product.
As someone who spent my otherwise misspent youth courting advertising dollars for a gay publication, I had many discussions about this strange new world with cautious yet curious ‘mainstream’ business giants, many of whom never imagined how powerful their stake in the gay market would become, simply by being one of the first to step in.
The marketing strategy was simple at the time: Play nice with gay consumers and they will respond in your favor, even if they actually prefer a competitor’s product! Mainstream big businesses loved the results and most gay consumers loved being played nice with.
With popular media outlets and businesses acknowledging gay consumer power, general cultural perception was broadened, which in turn led to stronger political influence for the gay community across North America. With broader cultural perception and stronger political influence, gay consumer power grew even further… which led to the ‘Will & Grace’ (RIP) era — in case you hadn’t quite figured out how that one happened.
With that subjective interpretation of history as part of my reality, I’m not here to negate the value of the gay community’s loyalty to itself and its supporters. However, I do think it’s important to address the confusion many gay Internet business owners apparently now face as to where their loyalty should be placed, as well as what the expectation should realistically be of those supposedly loyal to you. There’s currently a disturbing imbalance of loyalties specific to gay-owned businesses which can only serve to slow potential success.
Now, let me acknowledge the marketing acumen of those ‘gay-positive’ companies who were smart enough to see the value of the online gay marketplace early on. They have my sincere respect and I mean them no ill-will. They understood exactly what was necessary to win the unwavering loyalty of gay webmasters and, having accomplished this within the early years of the online adult industry, stand to ‘own’ it for the foreseeable future, barring any unrelated disasters. They did it simply by playing nice with gay businesses, attending and supporting the right events, having nice reps and nurturing strategic relationships; not by necessarily having better products than their competitors.
Here’s where confusion has set in: Repeated behavior becomes a habit and the habits of a community become part of its culture. The awareness of Gay Brand Loyalty is now so deeply in-grained in gay culture that not only consumers but also gay business owners themselves appear to have forgotten the term was coined by marketing theorists. Many gay webmasters are now inclined to respond with unbridled and short-sighted loyalty to whomever strategically wraps themselves in the brightest rainbow flag, even at the expense of their own businesses and their own loyal consumers. Business leaders in one of society’s smartest and wealthiest demographics have at some point became a little dumber — and potentially a little poorer — by swallowing a now common marketing strategy of which they are undoubtedly aware; one that so recently gave them so much more power.
Where far too many gay webmasters are faltering is in reflecting their loyalty back to those who have strategically bought it, at the expense of those who will most benefit their bottom line. What may be the best, most profitable or most desired content, billing solution, or download option remains unavailable to a website’s consumers; or to webmasters themselves, as a result of an irrationally overvalued loyalty to businesses who’ve played nice and attended all the right parties.
Marketing theorists the world over agree that consumer loyalty is now our main priority; and in order to build and maintain consumer loyalty our own must be reflected. Gay consumers will generally be loyal to gay businesses, but in the multi-leveled complexity of online relationships many gay consumers are not seeing their loyalties returned because, for many webmasters, to do so would potentially jeopardize their currently misguided loyalties.
These things, as with most things, should reflect a sense of equilibrium and in the online gay marketplace Consumer Loyalty is the one great standard by which all others should be measured. The loving relationship you have with the good-looking marketing rep who just bought you a few drinks should never serve to upset either that balance or the one in your own bank account. I assure you, if Dykes on Bikes were a more desirable target group you wouldn’t even know that marketing rep’s name… and you’d probably be buying your own drinks.
Aly Drummond, a prominent and candid online adult industry veteran, is head of Webmaster Relations at online consumer guide, TheBestPorn.com. She can be reached at [email protected].
