(By Martha C. White)
". . . With its “Legalize Love” campaign, Google became the latest in a growing number of companies to publicly take a position in support of gay rights.
Far from being simply feel-good initiatives, these moves are highly calculated, marketing experts say. Companies may be embracing the rainbow, but the motivating color is still green.
The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is a huge market with buying power of some $790 billion annually in the U.S. alone, according to Witeck Communications. And gays have influence among the straight consumers who are their friends and relatives.
For many marketers, that is too much to leave lying on the table, even if they risk some backlash from consumers opposed to expanding gay rights. Companies “have to satisfy shareholders at the end of the day,” said Bob Witeck, founder and president of Witeck Communications.
Target is selling these T-shirts to raise money for a group working to defeat a gay marriage ban in Minnesota.
Google’s campaign, announced last week, comes on the heels of Mother’s and Father's Day promotions by J.C. Penney featuring same-sex parents, a Gap ad featuring a male Broadway performer and his boyfriend, and Target selling t-shirts as a fundraiser for the Family Equality Council, a group lobbying against a same-sex marriage ban in the retailer’s home state of Minnesota.
Last November, four dozen companies ranging from Nike to Microsoft signed a statement essentially supporting gay marriage by objecting to the Defense of Marriage Act. In February, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein participated in a Human Rights Campaign web video in support of marriage equality. “There’s no doubt that American businesses will be central to the dismantling of DOMA,” Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese told Politico last month. . . ). . . "
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