ILoveGay.NET

by Alfred Verhoeven

There are quite a few abbreviations that you as a marketer will have to deal with. From AIDA to SMART, from the 4Ps to the 6Cs – and so on. Perhaps the most famous are B2C and B2B. I’ve always wondered why that first “B” is always used. Does the first letter sometimes refer to Non-Profit, Government, Charity? Who knows may say. Anyway, I recently introduced three new abbreviations: B2G, G2G, G2C. How do I think that applies? You can read more about this in this article.

Note: this is an overview with examples and references. I have included a number of links to relevant articles or websites if you would like to study a particular topic or brand in more detail.

B2G

In recent years I have conducted research into the activities of brands and organizations that target ‘the gay consumer’ (politically correct is LGBT consumer, but this does not always apply). My focus was mainly on the activities of mainstream companies, brands such as Absolut vodka, KLM, Uber and Booking.com. I have now called it B2G*.

I said LGBT is the more politically correct term in this regard but targeting four very different groups of people isn’t very efficient. Certainly not if 1 is fairly invisible and 1 is economically small. You actually only see in recent years that companies are opting for this. Often the goal is not so much to sell a product but to show diversity and support a group of partly wealthy and more brand loyal consumers who have been ignored for decades. Because it also happens ATL, you can also see it as a signal to society as a whole. This development is exactly what I have tried to formulate in my research: Representation -> visibility -> normalization -> tolerance -> acceptance -> respect.

* I found out that this is also used for Business-to-Government, but I’ve never encountered that in practice. Moreover, that is also referred to as Business-to-administration (B2A). As far as I’m concerned, they can use that term, then I claim B2G for my theme.

Back to the beginning

B2G marketing has actually only been around since the 90s. The very first TV commercial in the world showing L&G couples came from Dutch insurer Amev and dates back to 1992. It shows not 1 couple but 3! Only a year later it gets a successor, a – strange – Danish advertisement by the now renowned director Lars van Trier for the newspaper Politiken. A year later, IKEA comes to the US with the famous “Dining room table” ad. The latter is often referred to as the world’s first, but I think that is because Americans do not really look across the border, and their vision is often adopted by people ‘over the border’.

Marketing the rainbow

By the way, there are different ways in which you can focus on the rainbow family with your marketing:

* You focus on one or more letters represented by the rainbow (or, as I sometimes refer to them, the alphabet soup). For example, Subaru has been eyeing the L for years, but many more brands are focusing on the G (eg Doritos, but in an often condescending way, or macho brands like Budweiser). Various brands have also paid attention to the T (Pantene, H&M, Starbucks and Nike) in the context of inclusivity, more than for economic reasons. After all, this group makes up less than 0.5% of the population and is often socio-economically disadvantaged.

* You are addressing the entire LGBT+ community, being careful when using the abbreviation. There are regularly heated discussions about whether or not to be mentioned and therefore whether or not to belong. The same goes for the use of the rainbow flag: there are now more than 15 types of flags that represent all kinds of subgroups. The only real one, in my opinion, is the 6-colored flag that depicts 6 emotions and values. So not the “Progressive Pride” flag that was unfortunately chosen by Pride Amsterdam, and therefore also influenced the municipality of Amsterdam and many institutions, such as museums. Fine flag, but the flag does not represent the community.

* Using LGBT people as characters in your videos or commercials. That can be celebs, couples (because then you see it better) or stereotypes.

* BTL communication, so to a specific target group. Watch your language here! Humor is fun, but dangerous.

* Sponsoring events, from private fundraisers to huge Pride festivals. You then target the entire community.

* Launch your product. One of the “preconceptions” about gays is that they are trendsetters, and that’s true in a sense: my consumer research showed that straights see themselves as less trendsetter than gays, while gays (more than straights, by the way) see other gays as trendsetters. Absolut vodka had an early form of influencing when it launched the brand in the US in 1979 through gay consumers. This was very successful, and Absolut have been faithful allies ever since remained oot. That’s commendable. Around $100 million has since been spent on relevant sponsorship, marketing and advertising.

B2G: Trending in the Pride Month

The B2G phenomenon has meanwhile become a trend. Especially in the Pride Month (June, you can’t have missed it) not only are countless logos and favicons decorated with a rainbow, but many companies also release Pride capsules. This mainly concerns fashion brands such as adidas, Calvin Klein, Hilfiger, Benetton, Converse and Diesel.

A good example is Lego: in the image at the top of this page you can see the set “Everyone Is Awesome” that they released last year. The LEGO Group did not specify how much money from this set was donated to LGBT+ charities – beyond the usual 25% to the LEGO Foundation. But the company has partnered with Workplace Pride, Stonewall and Open for Business, and supports UK charity Diversity Role Models.

Disguised B2G

Clothing brands, especially when it comes to underwear and swimwear, often seize the opportunity to seduce the customer with ubersexy and almost naked models. Then it’s really not about convincing the ladies to buy those swimsuits for their men! Brands such as Versace, Armani but also Bikkembergs do this very strongly. A kind of B2G in disguise.

Special campaigns

In addition, cosmetic brands or chains sometimes have a special collection or campaign, such as Douglas (around Christmas) and Sephora. Large companies such as Unilever and P&G (in addition to Pantene also Head & Shoulders, etc.) are also fully participating in this. These collections are usually widely promoted with social campaigns, but also through OOH (Out Of Home advertising). It is often a bit of “look at me being inclusive”. However, there are often good intentions and elaborations behind it. In any case, I assume that in the first instance, although it is also looked at critically.

G2G

G2G is the business model of companies that are, as it is called in English, “LGBT owned and operated” (abbreviated here to LOO for convenience) and that mainly or exclusively focus on their ‘chosen family’, the other rainbows. This too began in the 1990s, when LGBT people began to stir not only to receive equal rights and recognition as human beings, but also to be recognized and valued as consumers. You will not know many of the G2G brands as a straight. Unless you occasionally secretly read a gay glossy or visit a forum or web portal that are not actually intended for you. Don’t be shy – you are (probably) welcome there and we could really use the support of Allies (the A in LGBTIQA+).

G2G companies target the LGBT consumer because:

* No one else does. An example is Atlantis Events, which has been organizing all-gay cruises since 1991. They were described in 2017 as “the most successful LGBT tour operator in the world”. Meanwhile, there are countless competitors, both B2G and G2G (see also: “The other kind of cruising”).

* It concerns a product that is apparently only or mainly appreciated by gays. Think of a Mr. B in Amsterdam. This store opened in 1994 in the Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam and sells a special collection of fetish articles, leather and rubber clothing. They now have stores in 4 countries and supply 500 retail customers worldwide. And there will already be straight people who find something to their liking there, but it remains mainly G2G.

* It is a brand that is particularly popular with these customers. This can also be the result of limited marketing budgets, involving word of mouth, influencers and role models (and sometimes sampling or try and buy). This mainly concerns clothing brands such as Aussiebum, 2^(x)ist and their offshoot C-in2, the ‘funderwear’ of Ginch Gonch. Although the latter went from G2G via B2G to B2C after the sale by the gay founder and then lost a lot of the fun. The Spanish brand ES also belongs to this category, just like Andrew Christian, a brand that has the gayest advertisements, despite the fact that they had a small flagship store in Amsterdam’s 9 Straatjes for some time. This NSFW commercial is still decent compared to others they’ve released. But in any case, the product also comes into the picture, and Mr. Christian himself. 

G2C

Finally, let’s talk about G2C, or LOO companies that focus on the broad consumer market. These are actually not part of my research, because I focus on the LGBT consumer. In my supplier survey, in which 1,100 providers participated at the time, I did ask whether a company was LOO in order to be able to classify it.

In the US there are approximately 1.4 million of these companies, responsible for annual sales of $1.7 trillion (that’s 11 zeros after the 7). Most of those will be G2C. A good example is Equality Vines, a wine company co-owned by Jim Obergefell. He is known for the case before the Supreme Court in the US that legalized ‘gay marriage’ in 2015.

Abercrombie and Fitch have also grown (after 100 years of malaise) because of the gays. In the 90s, 9 out of 10 American gays seemed to be walking in A&F. Once the brand was successful and opened flagship stores on 5th Avenue and the Champs Elysées, every John, Jack and Joe also started wearing polo shirts with a moose and the gays turned their backs on the brand. That happened before the company got into the scandals that led to the Netflix documentary White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch. More on this another time. But even though then-CEO Mike Jeffries was flamboyantly gay, I don’t consider it G2C. A&F is a publicly traded company and not LOO.

Fashion designers like Jean-Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein have long since lost ownership of their businesses, or even their brands. Moreover, a gay CEO or founder does not automatically make a company G2C. So Apple, Qantas, Macy’s, Geffen Records and Dreamworks don’t fall into this category either.

Conclusion

The list of marketing abbreviations continues to grow and so do the activities in Marketing the Rainbow. In my dissertation, in addition to the formula Representation -> visibility -> normalization -> tolerance -> acceptance -> respect, I also defined the three new abbreviations that I discussed in this article: B2G, G2G and G2C. Use it to your advantage!

Alfred Verhoeven is a marketer and is in the final phase of his PhD research Marketing the Rainbow. He previously wrote for ILOVEGAY about The Men from Atlantis, The other kind of cruising, Booking.com, Home Deco, Haters and trolls: the ‘letter to the editor’ of the 21st century, 5 Bizarre LGBT Videos, TRANSparency, Transgender persons as a target group, Matchmaking, 5 videos that went viral, From Representation To Respect, Cultural sensitivities and social involvement in marketing, 4 reasons to practice diversity and The Rules of Market Segmentation.