Community Marketing

TOPICS: Community marketing. Gay community. Marketing to community. Gay community artist. Celebrities. Gay community icons. Marketing labels. Singer vs gay singer. Gay community marketing issues. Brands. Branding. The importance of community to marketing.

Ian Johnson, Out Now
July 15, 2007

There is often a lot of talk about gay community celebrity and so-called gay icons. This week I was fortunate enough to meet one person that is a true star, who simply happens to be gay.

Marc Almond is a true star in all senses of the word.

He has attracted a highly devoted community of fans over his almost 30 years in the music business.

This week Almond turned 50 and chose a sell-out concert performance as the best way to celebrate, with a community comprising a couple of thousand fans and friends, and he gave one of those performances that will always be remembered by all who were there.

Marc Almond also happens to have always been pretty openly gay, even years ago when outside the gay community, few stars were willing to declare themselves as gay to the mainstream community.

It was a privilege to see Marc Almond's London show at the Empire Theatre, Shepherds Bush on Monday night, and to get to thank him backstage personally after the show. You will be hard pressed to meet a more likeable, genuine and immensely talented person - and his huge community of fans are certainly highly deserved.

What I think Marc Almond has to teach us about community marketing is the fact that he is almost the flipside to our recent music post on Enrique Iglesias appearing at GAY Club in London.

Whereas Iglesias is a star not known to be gay, seeking to target a gay audience and doing it well, Marc Almond is a star long known to be gay who positions his 'brand' perfectly for all - gay community, or non-gay community.

Q: "How do you feel about being a gay icon?"
A: "It’s very flattering when people have referred to me as an icon. Maybe I’ve been around long enough now and meant something to enough people’s lives to accept the accolade. I don’t know about ‘gay’ icon though. I feel it pigeonholes me into a compartment like ‘gay artist’. It’s often a way of dismissing you. In other words, this person is of no interest to you unless you’re gay! That, of course, is rubbish... So icon and artist thank you very much, but gay icon and gay artist thanks but no thanks. I’m a lot more, I like to think, than just a sexuality."

His body of work and professionalism leads to a natural community following drawn from all sectors of the market, not just from the gay community.

I would argue that the term 'Gay Icon' still stands as Marc Almond is a true icon to the gay community, as are stars like Cher and Madonna, along with many other people who have supported lesbian and gay community concerns and been admired by the gay community for longer than most.

So to us Marc is an "Icon" to the gay community - who also happens to be gay. It is Almond's status as an icon to the gay community, rather than his own sexuality, that sees him most deservingly earn the respect that 'Gay Icon' connotes in my mind.

To the gay community, and many more not from the gay community, Marc Almond always will be both a true star and an icon.

Marc Almond does not shy away from his gay community support, but as you can see from the very broad community of fellow artists wishing him happy birthday, Marc Almond is not and never can be pigeon-holed as appealing to just one community of fans.

Marc Almond's stock in trade is his music, not his gay sexuality. He is a person who is an outstanding artist that happens to be gay, not a 'gay artist', and by relying on the immense quality of his body of work - rather than his sexuality - to sell music he appeals to that broad community that appreciates true artistry.

Understanding how broad is his community of support is what has made Marc Almond the true star that he is, and his 50th birthday gig was a concert that those who were there will never forget: "It was that kind of night, when a couple of thousand people for whom Almond had provided much of the soundtrack to their lives paid noisy tribute to this talented and immensely likeable singer and songwriter, and he returned the compliment with a performance of unchained emotion."

Thank you Marc Almond. Your Stardom Road has proved again and again to be a journey well worth taking.

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