Current Public Relations Trending Threats and Opportunities
According to Community Marketing and Insights 12th Annual LGBTQ Community Survey, 76% of United States participants agreed that companies supporting LGBTQ+ equality would get more of their business. This derives from 85% of United States LGBTQ consumers agreeing that corporations that support LGBTQ equality are more imperative than ever and that 78% agree that they support companies that organically and inclusively market to and support the LGBTQ+ community. Below is a visual representation of how the US LGBTQ+ consumer learns about corporate outreach, practices, and the stances of organizations in regard to the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community. While it is apparent that most consumers learn about these practices through advertisements within LGBTQ media, the report still concluded that businesses are failing in their organic LGBTQ+ outreach. While there is an apparent rise of positive sentiments from consumers towards organizations that include LGBTQ community imagery in their outreach communications and would be more likely to support and purchase from such companies, less than 10% of consumers feel that companies are doing a good job of their outreach to various such communities, including transgender/gender-expansive communities, lesbian communities, bisexual communities, and various race/ethnic LGBTQ communities. This is where the threat of losing an already neglected and marginalized community of consumers comes into play. Loss of consumers equates to the loss of brand support and superiority, which could lead to the financial demise of any organization. This is where the trending opportunity of LGBTQ+ inclusivity amongst organizations is through the hiring and professional inclusions of individuals within the actual social communities they are trying to market and appeal to ensure to the usage of appropriate terminology, organic and innovative media tactics, and overall proper representation.
Below are some concluded insights from the survey. While there is the competitive threat of equality rollbacks, this presents an opportunity for organizations to capitalize on being inclusive by sharing and displaying their continuous support of the LGBTQ+ community. This will not only ensure the retention of consumer brand loyalty of clients such as the concerned consumers below but also encourage other brands to take actual inactive in contributing to the current social trend of promoting equality for all through internal and external inclusion of diverse individuals.
Below is an example of a competitive opprutnial insight
Reference: https://www.communitymarketinginc.com/documents/temp/CMI-12th_LGBTQ_Community_Survey_US_Profile.pdf
