Media Interest in UK Gay Market

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TOPICS: Gay and lesbian market. Lesbian and gay marketing in the UK. Global gay market. Lesbian and gay market issues. Gay market research in the UK. New gay marketing emphasis in Britain.

New UK Gay Market Research Generates Media Interest.

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There has been a lot of media interest in the gay and lesbian market research findings we released last weekend for Diva and Gay Times magazines in the UK.

As with any research such as this, this new UK lesbian and gay market research most closely reflects the sample tested - in this case the readers of these two magazines. Having said that, it is very interesting when we compare these findings with similar research undertaken for Bent magazine in the UK - a free-to-street publication with a younger audience due to its distribution being primarily through gay and lesbian venues. The figures come out surprisingly close on most variables.

It is important to note that the research is a best estimate given all available information and cannot be considered a census. The reasons for that are simple. Not to push any agenda on the part of the publications but rather to use the best available means of sampling the market. Using the UK's two largest lesbian and gay media titles is a reasonably strong starting point from which to measure the market. On top of that is the fact that the sample size being as large as it is - 1,118 respondents - means that the results give a good overview of these two market-leading titles.

People will never always agree on anything of course but I always find it interesting that if you talk money and incomes there are people that become agitated at the research and the assumptions upon which it is based. When you use the very same research for a different analysis - for example about the issue of workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians - there is almost no voice of dissent.

This new research has provided much gay marketing insight that has not previously existed, and particularly so given the official Whitehall estimates placing the total size of the UK gay market at 3 million adults, or 6% of the UK population.

I was asked this week during a TV interview on BBC London news on Tuesday evening why there could be average incomes that are much higher in this sample. I responded that averages mask diversity and that there are rich lesbians and gay men as well as poor lesbians and gay men.

What I think is much more interesting is a fact that few journalists picked up on - that education levels in this sample are high, which seems consistent with research we have done in many markets around the world. This result occurs no matter which sample sourcing we use (including randomized sampling via mainstream media). It seems to us that higher education levels, combined with a lower presence of children in gay households leads to higher levels of managers and professionals in the segment, with more time to devote to work and with more discretionary income due to an absence of expenses associated with bringing up children.

Though as I also said in the BBC interview, the research showed that one in five lesbians is already a mother - so we should not generalise too much there as well.

We will continue to expand the available gay market research base as time goes on.


For further gay marketing information, or to seek gay market advice, please contact:

Ian Johnson, Director, Out Now Consulting
landline: +32-2-514 6443
mobile: +32-4737 60886
web: OutNowConsulting.com
updates: Gay Marketing 101 - Gay Market Updates by Out Now

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