Dino Bertucci, advertising and marketing manager for Xtra magazine, says he wasn’t surprised by the recent news that Wal-Mart USA has begun marketing directly to homosexual consumers after hiring a gay-marketing agency and joining the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. That’s because the giant retailer’s market research evidently discovered the same kind of persuasive data as is reported in Xtra‘s just-released reader survey.
From its Toronto HQ, a team from Canada’s most widely read gay publication – with national readership of 175,000 – compiled info that, says Bertucci, reveals the gay market to be ‘compelling enough to be an irresistible choice for advertisers.’ As a result of the DINK factor (double income, no kids), the income of Xtra readers is $25,000 higher than the average Canadian household income, while their education level is double the national average, and 23% own a business. Additionally, he says that many of the survey’s 900+ respondents professed ‘a need for status and prestige and considered themselves opinion leaders exerting a great deal of influence over the straight market.’
Some of the survey’s key findings are as follows:
* Home: 50% own their own home; 16% plan to purchase a new home; annual amount spent on mortgages $3.4 billion, on renovations $420 million, on home décor $235 million, on furnishings and appliances $124 million.
* Automobiles: $470 million ($9 million on motorcycles) spent annually.
* Investment: over 30% have more than $100,000 to invest.
* Home electronics: $64 million spent annually.
* Health and Fitness: annually, $33 million spent on fitness membership fees; $24 million on vitamins and wellness products; $16 million on fitness and exercise equipment.
* Computers: $83 million spent annually on home computers and $21 million on computer software; 7 hours more per week using the Internet than the national average.
* Fashion and Beauty: $200 million spent annually.
* Alcohol consumed per month: 1.5 million beers, one million spirits, 5 bottles of wine per respondent.
Bertucci adds that Xtra‘s regular advertisers include such major marketers as Gillette, Mazda, Subaru, Mercedes, Rogers, Telus and Virgin Mobile, and that targeting gay consumers ‘pays off. For example, Rogers reached the number-one spot for best cellphone provider (in the survey). Is it coincidence that Rogers also purchased national coverage of the gay market through the inside front cover of our Ultimate Pride Guide this June, and has had a consistent national campaign in Xtra?’
Next year, Xtra plans to repeat its national reader survey, but this time with a twist. ‘We are inviting advertisers to suggest questions to ask the gay market with respect to their products and industry,’ Bertucci explains, making the results ‘the most comprehensive study ever done on the gay and lesbian market in Canada.’
