Gay Friendly: Luxury is Reinvented
For years, in Spain “normalization” and the intention of capturing this audience is a goal for big companies.
Spain is the country in which homosexual people have the greatest social acceptation in the world according to Pew Research Center’s latest study, but joins the Pink Marketing late. This Pink Marketing is mainly developed in the American, Australian, and Brazilian markets.
Gay protagonists in an advertising campaign? This was unconceivable not long ago. In the U.S., the Pink Market has been calculated to have a value of more than 600,000 millions of dollars, and in Spain, the last data counts with 72 million euros according to Eva Santos, the Proximity Barcelona general director.
The gay friendly market is growing due to many reasons. The first one is the acceptation of same sex couples in the majority of developed countries in the world. The second one has to do with its acquisitive power: couples without children, in which they both work. Although this second reason is starting to change, and gay couples with children spend 30% more in clothing and luxury accessories than the average heterosexual couple. The explanation for this is evident, and is related to the average income, usually greater than the rest. According to DiverSpain, the chamber association of Commerce LGBT in Spain, «homosexual people usually have a high rent and is loyal to those brands which connect to them.»
According to Pew Research Center’s latest study, 88% of the Spanish population claims to defend homosexual rights, facing the 11% of people who rejects equality. Data place Spain the first one in this ranking, followed by Germany, with an acceptation rate of 87%. Countries with anti-gay traditions, such as Ireland, have demonstrated in the voting that they have radically changed in their way of thinking and acting, and the majority considers marriage to be part of equality.
Brazil has the leading sales in male cosmetic products, since males have started caring more about their appearance, and heterosexuals who care about their appearance are not called metrosexuals anymore, since the gay-friendly, or feminine products are considered traditional now. In fact, the cosmetic brands where the first ones to risk their usual products by creating products destined to the masculine gay sector. Actors, singers, and artists in general were the first ones to come out of the “male closet”, and now we start seeing the female one with a shining star as Cara Delevigne (model) and her own line of handbag designs. This is a very significant change, such as it is the change that big brands have made.
In United States, it is common to turn on the TV and see “normality” in the advertisements, from banks of national implantation such as Wells Fargo, and its advertisement with gays as protagonists, until fashion brands such as Gap and Under Armour, multinationals that had never established advertisement campaigns which are part of “normalization.”
For years, in Spain “normalization” and the intention of capturing this audience is a goal for big companies. Big brands, that used to center in its family audience, now also directs the advertisement campaigns to LGBT. The current campaign that Coca-Cola is emitting, shows the slogan “Happiness is always the answer” in which many kinds of families that break with the stereotypes are present.
The campaign of El Corte Inglés for Valentine’s Day starred a homosexual couple inside the mall. These brands have joined others which have been pioneers in this topic, such as McDonald’s, American Airlines, Pepsi, Polaroid, Ikea, or Heineken.
The film world has also changed, and Disney has been one of the first companies to step ahead. The latest example has been their movie Frozen, which has complete normality in its characters.
Some companies have showed their courage by, not only including LGBT, but basing its content in this. In this area, it is famous the Proud Whopper, the Burger King burger released to celebrate the gay pride. Also, a new brand of vodka called Shotka, which is released in Spain, and mainly directed to the gay collective. This will be the official shot of the Circuit 2015, the most relevant LGBT festival in Spain, which is celebrated in Barcelona and receives a very international audience.
In fact, the first public appearance of the brand was in this year’s spot. In it, Rossy de Palma is the protagonist, and drinks Shotka while making the perfect man. As said by Proximity Barcelona, “the LGBT audience has been considered as the best collective instead of a separate collective, and that is the reason to release a new product to generate tendencies at a massive level.”
