The Nielsen Company (which measures everything people watch and buy) unveiled the first report on LGBT spending habits to about 20 people at its Chicago headquarters June 27.
Omar Marrero, learning and development manager client learning services at Nielsen and co-leader of the Nielsen PRIDE employee resource group (ERG), spoke about the seven ERG's at Nielsen including the PRIDE ERG which is dedicated to LGBT and allied employees. Marrero explained that the PRIDE ERG is raising awareness around LGBT issues during pride month.
According to Marrero, who is openly gay, Nielsen now includes coverage for gender-reassignment surgery and related prescription drug treatments for transgender employees, allows for employees to voluntarily and confidentially self-identify as LGBT on their profile page with human resources, supports marriage equality and will be listed on the upcoming Equality Illinois Business Case for Marriage Equality, and produced It Gets Better and Nielsen Celebrates PRIDE Month videos.
Jeff Fizer, associate client director and an openly gay member of the Nielsen PRIDE ERG, detailed the findings of the Nielsen report as well as an overview of the LGBT demographic study done in 2012 by Experian Simmons. Fizer shared that about 2,000 people participated in the Nielsen study and that the findings only looked at the buying habits of opposite-sex and same-sex (both female and male) couples and not single people.
According to the Experian Simmons report, "LGBT Americans are increasingly living their lives in the open and gaining the support of friends and family along the way. Marketers, too, are increasingly likely to show their support of their LGBT customers as they move their outreach efforts to this influential consumer segment out of the margins and into the mainstream."
Fizer shared that, according to the Nielsen study, lesbians and gay men earn more than their heterosexual counterparts. Lesbian and gay shoppers are influential trendsetters with 27 percent of gay or bisexual men using the Internet to plan shopping trips vs. 24 percent of straight men, and 21 percent of lesbian, bisexual or straight women, lesbian and bisexual women are 26 percent more likely than heterosexual women to buy on spur of the moment, and in the area of remembering products used by characters on TV, gay, lesbian or bisexual adults are 56 percent more likely to be emulators.
In the area of spending same-sex partnered households are worth 25 percent more dollars and make 16 percent more shopping trips than their heterosexual counterparts, according to the study. Fizer shared that, according to the study, the top five specialty retailers that same-sex coupled households shop at are pet stores, electronic stores, health food stores, online retailers and warehouse clubs and they do so more than the total U.S. household average.
The top five product categories that female same-sex coupled households buy are cottage cheese/sour cream, pet care, butter/margarine, coffee and cat food and the top five product categories that male same-sex coupled households buy are liquor/beer/wine, men's toiletries, refrigerated meal starters, coffee and fresheners/deodorizers according to the results of the study.
Finally, the study revealed that the top places to reach female same-sex couples are San Francisco; Boston; Denver; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle-Tacoma, Wash. For male same-sex couples the top places are San Francisco; Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; San Diego; Portland, Ore.; and Washington D.C.
"With this report, Nielsen has demonstrated and quantified the shopping power of same-sex households. The LGBT consumer is a very attractive shopping base which should be paid attention to. The findings of this report have certainly been noticed by consumer packaged goods manufacturers," said Matt O'Grady, executive vice president and managing director of Nielsen's local media business and executive sponsor of Nielsen's PRIDE group.
The Chicago Area Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce partnered with Nielsen and Out and Equal Chicagoland assisted in promoting the event.
See www.nielsen.com/us/en/newswire/2013/u-s-lgbt-households-make-16-more-shopping-trips-than-the-u-s-average.html and www.experian.com/simmons-research/lgbt-survey.html .
