Gay and lesbian travel market branding is not something new. But it is for one place. TV's reality show 'The Apprentice' where UK contestants recently tried their hand at 're-branding' the faded UK seaside town of Margate as a gay destination. Learn how badly they went wrong. And why.
Ian Johnson, Out Now
May 26, 2009
TOPICS: Gay market branding. Lesbian and gay market research. UK lesbian and gay marketing. The Apprentice. Margate, UK seaside resort. BBC TV. The Apprentice BBC TV show in the UK attempts to re-brand Margate as a gay target travel and leisure destination.
Reality TV is a taste I rarely enjoy.
One notable exception is the UK version of Donald Trump's corporate reality program - The Apprentice.
This year's offering has to me seemed weaker than any before it.
Nonetheless it was interesting to watch when the hapless contestants were given a task to 're-brand' a seaside UK destination - the town of Margate in Kent.
Margate and the Pink Pound
The format of 'The Apprentice' TV show is consistent across weeks, across continents, and across versions.
A collection of contestants vie for the 'best' result each week, and are rewarded. The losing team then slug it out in front of the high profile corporate celeb - which in the case of the UK program is the founder of Amstrad Computers, Sir Alan Sugar - and where one of them each week gets to hear that farewell catchphrase: "You're fired!"
When Sir Alan Sugar asked the teams to choose how to best re-brand the seaside town of Margate, one team decided they would target the gay market and attempt to turn Margate into a pink pound tourism magnet.
Their idea was not entirely flawed, although their execution almost entirely was.
What went right?
The team that decided to pitch Margate at the gay travel market did do some things right.
They travelled to the destination and did some fieldwork research. Admirable first market research step.
Admittedly this appeared to consist of not too much more than quizzing some locals about the gay life of Margate, but at least they apparently recognized some kind of need to identify existing product 'assets' they could seek to utilize in their re-branding exercise.I would like to have seen them doing much more research asking non-Margate gay people - ie their key target audience - what things might attract them to consider a seaside vacation in a town like Margate.
They also had a gay team member who had some say in the selection of their models for a photo shoot campaign for a resulting tourism brochure and poster. (This worked okay, but many times having a gay staff member at a company in charge of corporate gay marketing strategy can be a recipe for disaster - as the individual in question can incorrectly seek to project their own personal experiences of gay life out onto the gay market at large. Usually a costly marketing error ensues.)
Having said that, little about their efforts made an impact likely to attract any kind of serious tourism success for Margate from the gay tourism market.
What went wrong?
There were so many things to fault the hapless team on that I will stick to just a couple.
Time management by their team leader appeared woeful.
We all know that deadlines can sharpen the mind's focus - but cruising blithely through a deadline, without even making any serious effort to complete their brochure, was clearly a fundamental error.
What was even worse though was the actual content they put into their brochure and their poster.
The graphic design visuals used by the team were 'tired' - shall we say. The font really looked like it would be more at home on the BBC's retro hit Ashes to Ashes than on The Apprentice.
The text on the poster was more than excessive in quantum, to say the least.
The worst mistake?While it is hard to say what was the worst mistake made, it is quite likely their misguided attempt to use a rainbow flag map of the UK showcasing gay centres such as London, Manchester and Brighton and adding in 'Margate' as a fourth name on the map.
This really is unforgiveable as a fundamental error against the most basic of 'Gay Marketing 101' principles.
Margate is not, and likely never will be, a gay centre of the likes of those other cities.
So do not attempt to sell it as such.
There are plenty of good reasons to give lesbians and gay men to discover the joys of a holiday to Margate.
Trying to position the town as a leading UK 'gay capital' is definitely not one of them.
What they should have done?
First step - research. Find out what the target market (ie gay people not from Margate) think of the place.
Then consider the product. How could the location augment its product to better appeal to a gay audience.
For example, register local hotels into the GayComfort training, accreditation and marketing program to show the target audience that the product on offer in Margate would do a good job in service delivery to their needs.
Look into distribution. How should this audience best be reached? Online distribution is a key sales strategy with the gay market, and so partnering with effective and established gay travel and tourism operators could help do a lot to shore up any marketing effort applied by the team themselves.
Improve their woeful marketing. The little we saw of the team's marketing efforts really were sad - and misguided.
Martine Ainsworth-Wells, Marketing Director at VisitLondon - known to readers of Gay Market News - made some well considered remarks in the show's wrap-up episode.
The marketing nutshell?
In gay marketing - as with any effective form of market development strategy - the basics always apply.
In a nutshell - understand the target market, and their needs, then set about meeting those needs. Pure marketing basics.
It would work with Margate - or for Stockholm, or Berlin or Tel Aviv - or any of the many destinations that Out Now currently does exactly this kind of work with.
If you would like Out Now to help you take your marketing to the leading-edge of sales results, please do get in touch.
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