Marketing to Gays
Weddings are a big “industry” in Cape May, bringing thousands of dollars to the resort.
Some in the city envisioned a large increase in gay and lesbian visitors after the state approved civil unions in December.
It apparently hasn’t happened.
Innkeepers say one reason is because many gays aren’t satisfied with civil unions. They want real marriages.
At the recent county tourism conference, a speaker said gays represent a $64-billion market in this country. He also said Cape May County is not doing enough to reach out to that market.
The county Tourism Department has responded that it doesn’t have enough money to promote to the gay niche.
I suspect there may be other reasons than lack of money.
Marketing to gays and lesbians is a logical business tactic. But if anyone is advocating gay marriage over civil unions simply to get more of their money, that person don’t have his priorities straight.
What do you think?
posted by Joe Zelnik @ 8:05 PM
12 Comments
12 Comments:
I look forward to the day when a person's sexual orientation becomes as insignificant as his or her hair color. People are people and business is business. Let us all profit from one another.
Is this going to be one of those subjects that prohibits the expression of an opinion unless it conforms to whatever is stylish at the moment? Every time someone says something that doesn't conform to gay rights, they are labeled homophobic, as if they are afraid of the beings. What if they are simply disgusted by that behavior? What's next, marketing to the bestiality crowd?
Marketing to gays and lesbians is a logical business tactic? No. Marketing to gays and lesbians is a tactless business tactic and further divides with labels our already fragmented society. If gays and lesbians want to legalize their civil unions in Cape May, they have the same rights and opportunities to do so as a heterosexual couple. But promoting a marketing policy to lure their business here is like promoting safari in Africa to blacks or a free buffet in Israel to Jews. Tacky, tacky, tacky.
Marketing to the group(s) one thinks are most interested in one’s products goes on everywhere. If you’re selling “Hillary for President” tee shirts, you market to Democrats, not Republicans. If you’re marketing rap music, you don’t reach out to (most) senior citizens. This is true for everything from cereal to cars to candidates.
Yes, Joe, but the law now allows for EVERYONE (homosexuals and heterosexuals, Democrats and Republicans, old people and young rappers, cereal eaters, car buyers, and political candidates) to be legally united, whether we use the word "marriage" or not. If you are going to promote a marketing policy aimed at one group over the other, aren't you perpetuating labels, separation, segregation, and special treatment?
Minorities can't have it both ways. They can't scream for inclusion, and then demand -- or expect -- special treatment. Like affirmative action quotas, which have outlived their usefulness (if they ever were useful).
I am getting sick and tired of the political correctness gone amok in this society (and I don't believe I'm the only one). It's crazy, and it is ANTI-democratic in that it creates "classes" of people based on certain inherent factors -- not based on their character qualifications (as Dr. Martin Luther King dreamed, and so do I) or their academic qualifications or job performance qualifications, etc.
Someone has to be brave enough and strong enough to stand up and say ENOUGH.
Marketing is about demographics, identifying specific segments and selling to them. Gays and Lesbians have alot of disposable income and usually appreciate the finer things and are willing to go for them. It is a proven demographic segment. SO......., why not package your services and products that would appeal to them and get a share of that market. No brainer except of course to very right wing factions. Cape may
Gee, I wonder, is there anything that is a "No brainer except of course to very LEFT wing factions?"
Good enough for the goose, good enough for the gander. No pun intended.
Create a spirit of inclusion locally.
Our county's tourism department could adopt a modification of the slogan that I offered up to our state a year or two ago.
Cape May County...where everyone is included
Do this, and there would be no need to target any group.
Your question makes no sense. You say, "anyone [who] is advocating gay marriage over civil unions simply to get more of their money....[doesn't] have his priorities straight," but you do not say whether someone is actually doing this or not. All you said was that the Tourism Department doesn't have enough money to target the gay niche. Such advertising wouldn't necessarily have to be about getting married (or unionized) in Cape May county, and not all the folks in the gay niche want to get married or have a civil union.
What it necessary to leave in the post comparing marketing to gays/lesbians with marketing to those who have sex with animals? Intelligent people, including ones who don't agree with or condone homosexuality, know that neither has anything to do with the other. Two consenting adults, be they male/male, female/female, or male/female, can make a decision to enter a relationship. Animals cannot, and gay rights advocates do not condone such behavior any more than they condone pedophilia, another anathema compared to homosexuality unjustly.
I also don't understand why you allowed anonymous posting. This isn't "Spout Off," and I'm certainly not ashamed to sign this.
Robert Geise
Most blogs I’ve examined do not require the person commenting to identify himself. I review the comments and don’t intend for this to be a Spout Off. Thank you Mr. Geise.
I could write this only as a spout off. Don't want to get clobbered. I can accept civil unions--we're all united to one another in many ways, but marriage! Same sex ones are the ultimate contradiction of life, negate God's command to Eve and Adam: Go forth, multiply and fill the earth. Tapping into same sex marriage as a market? I was in advertising but left when it became a weddding of poor souls & big bucks. Go ahead-flood the new demographic with paid ads. It will be their penance. Love the Sinner
Is it still OK to "Hate the sin?" Or what you perceive as sin?
Or has sin been politically sanitized?
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