Monday, November 21, 2011

What target audience is the most tempting for advertisers?

Professional networking is a stream that has been very important for a long time especially in the US. Usually networks varies by type of job and/or interest, companies, income level, degree obtained etc. Almost every feature of a human being can be a determinant of a network 'headline'. So once we get into a certain network or are planning to choose it we define ourselves as representatives of a community. Lately the latter got an addition determinant which is sexuality.

A new website called dot429.com was designed specifically for LGBT community networking. Although this is not the first networking platform for gays it has become increasingly popular. The reason for such recognition became the fact that the website could attract well-known brands (e.g. Wells Fargo, Fiat, David Yurman, Saks Fifth Avenue, General Motors) to post their advertisements and even become dot429 sponsors. For such a young platform partnerships with companies mentioned above is a great success. Advertisers also think that attracting LGBT communities should be promising. First, families where both members are men make more money on average. Second, they also tend to spend more money on aspirational and luxury products, thus can be a good set of potential clients for, lets say, car companies. Third, gay couples tend to be more successful than straight people which also plays in favor of LGBT community.

Another advantage for companies to target gays is the fact that although some families have or adopt children, still most of them tend not to do so. Thus, they have a bigger disposable income and more 'disposable' time to spend on travel and entertainment. Another point is that LGBT communities have very strong trend-setters and trend influencers who can actually be hired by companies to advertise products.

These and many other reasons make gay communities so attractive for 'pricy' brands and advertisers in particular who can convert free rich and successful homosexuals into loyal customers who will pay for luxury; so professional gay networking has widely spread among LGBT communities as a source of target audience as well as a 'search engine' for 'recruiting advertisement'.

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