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Target Market Ethics
Posted By: teknoraidr* on 12/21/2004 10:11 AM (CST) 250 Points
In my MBA program, my team was working on a marketing plan for a natural alternative to Botox. We decided to research and target the image conscious gay male market segment. This plan is meant to be supplementary to the existing marketing plan.

Our understanding of identifying a target market is that the market needs to be measurable and easy to access, etc. Never in our team meetings or presentation was anything derogatory said about GLBT people.

Some people in our class were bothered that we targeted gay males instead of all males. I was trying to understand why some would feel this way and now I am curious about target market ethics.

On one extreme, these people could be bothered because they feel that we discriminated in targeting this group. On the other extreme, these people could be bothered that we mentioned GLBT people.

Do you feel that it is ethical to identify a target market based on sexual orientation, race, religion, etc? Why/why not?

Do your feelings change if a members of the affected groups are involved in developing the marketing plan? owners of the participating business?

Does it matter if you are providing a general product/service or if you are providing a product/service customized for one of these communities?

Do you think marketers sometimes target these groups, but find a way to present it as if that they are targeting certain geographic locations or income segments to be politically correct?

Posted by: W.M.M.A. Accepted Answer
12/21/2004 10:31 AM (CST)
This is a great question. I will answer from my perspective, and from what I have learned through the years.

Early on...back in the day...it was considered insentive. Things have changed. Every spectre of society has been isolated as a different market. Those who have issues with it should get over it. It exists. Early on, certain gays were offended that they weren't in play. Now, that they are, they are offended that they are targeted. Get over it.

I, as a baby boomer am a major target. I lead the edge in spending. More than any other demographic in the entire history of man.

why do you think Harleys are so visible. We have always wanted one, now we can afford them.

Targetting begins at birth, through the maladies of childhooe, then into toddler-ville , on through the tweens and into teens, have I missed any target market, here?

I am trying to state that no one's feelings should be tweaked because EVERY PERSON-GROUP-DEMOGRAPHIC-COLOR-RELIGION-NON-RELIGION IS A TARGET MARKET.....PERIOD

If I've missed anyone, pleae forgive me and have a pleasant: RamaHanuKwanzMas.


Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: teknoraidr* Author Response
12/21/2004 11:38 AM (CST)
As far as I know, the people who were bothered by it are straight. But the questions still apply.
 
Posted by: W.M.M.A. Accepted Answer
12/21/2004 12:11 PM (CST)
Yes, they do. Bothered by it or not, the issues still remain...you must reach every segment of the population and sell them your products. If a "lifestyle" is targetet, so be it. Have you seen the Press in recent years. Have you been to the Montrose....Massive targetting to gay/lesbians/freaks/frats n' tats.
Why.......it's a market. And it is our job to create responses from markets. I create marketing specifically for targeted groups. Why? Because they exist, and I get paid to do it.

Randall
WMMA
 
Posted by: Theresa H. Accepted Answer
12/21/2004 12:42 PM (CST)
I agree with Randall. These folks need to get over it. Or maybe they need to open their eyes.

As a marketer you slice and dice the population by any and every factor you can to get to your target. Income, sex, spending habits, sexual preference, ethnicity, religion, recent purchases, etc. Nothing is off limits. Particularly now with technology and databases full of information.

Maybe a field trip to a good news stand in New York's Penn Station would help. Magazines aimed at every market segment, lifestyle, ethnicity... , with advertising speaking to their audiences, products and services that they already buy, or may have a need to buy, models that look like their audience, words that speak to the audience.

There are even publications for men, straight and gay, who are looking to buy sex in the city (not the season 1 DVD set.) Obviously there is a different ethics issue with this one, but my point is that there is a lifestyle target here and there are businesses/marketers who target them.

How about race? How about the Hispanic market? New advertising agencies have been created over the last 6+ years that do work for companies who want to target this market specifically. Ads in Spanish, hispanic/latino models in the photos. There's no politially correct agenda. This is who they are talking to. This is who they are targeting.

How about Coke-a-Cola's global branding campaigns?. Their campaign is based on audience and media placement. Inner-city vs. suburban, Tokyo vs. New Delhi, Miami vs. Green Bay. Some marketing basics. No agenda here.

You asked how a team's/marketer's feelings would change based on situations. My question would be how would you/your team feel if they heard the words "You're Fired!" for lagging sales because of improperly marketing to a segment known to buy, or a segment identified with a propensity to buy?

Hope I didn't offend.

Theresa
 
Posted by: Dee* Accepted Answer
12/21/2004 4:06 PM (CST)
I definitely agree with the above answers. Marketing a specific product/service to a certain group of consumers-sounds perfectly normal to me. Market segmentation is usually successful only when you break the classes down to the finest level and are finally almost sure of your taget market. Segmentation by itself means that you are distinguishing between A and B and/or C on the basis of some factors- be it high/low-income, religion, color, marrried/single, men/women, kids/adults, geography & so forth.

If accepting transgender people is ethical then why should marketing to them be unethical? Here in the U.S, I see different media, magazines, TV channels targeted for Hispanics and Black Americans. In that sense even this type of marketing should be considered racist & unethical! The point is, as long as there is a certain type/group/segment of cutomers (that you have identified) existing for your product, you can target your product advertisements/messages to them without getting ethics in the picture. Different group of consumers have different lifestyles, cultures and as a marketer your job would be to find the core of that lifestyle and use that to communicate to your target customer.

As far as team members (with different preferences) are concerned, they should learn to live with the reality. They want to be respected, accepted and when they are accepted they feel that others look at them with a discerning eye, sounds like a catch 22 situation. They should understand the ultimate goal and rather help the group with their insights if they have any.

Hope this helps.
 
Posted by: Peter (henna gaijin) Accepted Answer
12/27/2004 1:04 PM (CST)
I also agree with the responses - there is nothing wrong with just targeting one group based on a trait (in this case, gender and sexual orientation). This is no different than targetting metrosexuals (a potential target for your product), married men, etc.

As it turns out, the segment you chose can be very lucrative, as they generally are highly educated, affluent, and have a large amount of disposable income (one of the benefits of not having kids). It is possible that your target group could have been subsegmented some more, in particular by age groups (not likely that younger men would need a product like this).

I suspect that the classmates had issues on moral grounds. Perhaps they just didn't like the thought of serving this market? Or perhaps the reverse - they were trying to be politically correct. But there is nothing illegal or immoral about segmenting by race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
 


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