Guidelines for conducting marketing research with GLBT consumers

Starting the dialogue

Editor’s note: Deborah Gonderil is senior vice president at Synovate Diversity, a Miami-based research firm.

Statistics on the size and demographics of the GLBT (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender) population are sketchy and often developed by inference from data collected in traditional ways (e.g., a percentage of households of non-married adults of the same sex may be inferred to be homosexual). For many years, the estimate of 10 percent of the adult population was accepted as the incidence of the GLBT population, based on Alfred Kinsey’s research in the ’40s and ’50s. At this time, the more acceptable level is 5 percent to 7 percent, from a variety of studies conducted. This would represent 11 to 15 million people, a not inconsiderable market.

We have had an increasing number of requests for information on interviewing the GLBT population. Clients are considering the efficacy of targeting this niche market. Market research is being asked to develop answers to the following questions:

• Can mainstream advertising include messages and graphics which will appeal to both mainstream consumers and this niche?
• Can the market be motivated with advertising in gay-targeted media?
• What media and what messages are most effective in communicating product/service benefits to this market?
• Is it necessary to make any changes in media, marketing or advertising messages to this market?

Certainly, the answers will be different for each client.

These are the guidelines we give our internal and external clients for developing research programs.

1. Qualitative research is recommended as a starting point for hearing what this market has to say and to determine the extent to which information about the market should be quantified for your client. Qualitative facilities in major markets have experience in recruiting the market, we have found.

• We strongly do not recommend using as a moderator a person who is a member of the niche market, unless that person is also a highly qualified moderator.
• Qualified moderators are accustomed to conducting research on subjects with which they are not necessarily personally familiar.
• We recognize the special nature of this niche market – it not a question of the moderator simply not being a user of a product – but we take the position that a sensitive, aware moderator will be competent to conduct the GLBT groups/one-on-ones.

2. Quantitative research possibilities are limited to certain techniques.

• Mailing lists of GLBT populations are available to use as bases from which to draw sample.
• There are several GLBT Web sites that offer research services.
• If sample sizes are not too large, the focus research facilities’ databases can be used.
• Interviewing can be conducted in person – with permission – at venues frequented by GLBT populations. This could include clubs, restaurants, bars, beaches.
• Once identified, GLBT respondents may be interviewed in person or by telephone. If privacy or presentation of test materials is needed, a pre-recruit to a central location or a Winnebago may be used as the test venue.
• Random dialing is not to be considered, if the respondent must be qualified as GLBT in the phone call. The efficiency would be low and the reliability of getting a random sample of the GLBT population would be suspect.
• If the client wishes to identify GLBT participants in a mail survey (either panel or client sample), in which both GLBT and non-GLBT respondents will be included, a test/control audit should be made of the response rates that would be developed from the non-GLBT sample. There may be a serious depression of the response level with the categorizing question in the survey.
• With the increasing acceptance of the gay lifestyle and legislation protecting it, potential respondents may be more forthcoming in self-identifying. It may then become increasingly easier to conduct reliable quantitative research.

3. Guidelines to conducting groups

• In addition to standard demographic (age, income, education) and product usage considerations when developing recruiting criteria, there should be a consideration of whether the potential respondent has a life partner. We have found that presence of a partner (or not) drives decisions in such categories as travel and alcoholic beverage consumption.
• It is not recommended that gay and lesbian respondents be put in the same group. If you do so, you may get a more negative response from the lesbians, who often feel that their opinions and attitudes are less well-served than are those of the gay community.
• It is not necessary for the moderator to identify his/her sexual preference. But we would recommend that, if asked in a group, the moderator does identify as he/she wishes and then gets on with the discussion.
• It will be apparent to the focus group members that all members of the group are gay or lesbian. It is recommended that the moderator address that. Explain that the client wishes to know the responses and attitudes of people in the GLBT population. But stress that each person in the group is to speak for himself/herself and not for the entire GLBT population. There seems to be a tendency for this population, more than for others, to express their responses and attitudes in the context of representing the entire population.

4. Findings we can share

• In many ways, GLBT consumers respond to products and services no differently from others populations. They look for quality, value, convenience and service.
• They do respond positively to products/services that cater to their special interest, when appropriate. For example, they are very aware of travel destinations that are gay/lesbian-friendly. In that industry, the network of information, both online and word-of-mouth, is powerful.
• They will respond negatively to product/services offered by companies who are perceived as being anti-gay/lesbian. This information may be communicated through the networks mentioned above or in the general media (e.g., a newspaper/TV quote, a public stand on legislation or legislators negative to gay/lesbian interests).
• The gay (male) population is aware of the fact that they index high on disposable income. They think it reasonable that purveyors of high-end products/services target them in marketing and promotion.

Gays and lesbians want general market advertising to be more inclusive of what they feel is the true face of America. To the gay/lesbian communities, most general market advertising is non-representative of the American scene, because it traditionally excludes them. They are well-aware of the recent inclusion of racially diverse populations in general market advertising and feel the advertisers are losing potential sales by not including representative of their communities.

• Gays and lesbians want the visual content of advertising and other marketing efforts in general market advertising to include gays and lesbians as well as “straights” in natural settings. They don’t want blatant approaches, but rather two men/two women in the same kinds of representations (touching, looking “connected”) as the non-gay/lesbian characters in the advertising. With the proliferation of gay/lesbian parenting, they also want same sex parents shown with their children.
• Even if gays/lesbians use media directed at them, they are also, obviously, users of general market media. While the advertising in general market broadcast has not included them, the program content is increasingly including gay characters. They voice an appreciation of this trend and would reflect this appreciation by purchasing products/services of advertisers who sponsor programming that does include gays/lesbians.
• More research needs to be conducted among the general population to evaluate the effect of including the visuals mentioned above on their reactions to the advertising, the image of its purveyors and their intention to buy. The gay/lesbian population is a minority, of course, but its high-end demographics should lead general market advertisers of appropriate products to consider evaluating the content of their marketing.