The gay and lesbian market has developed such that Eastman Kodak Co. has brought them into the advertising picture. Literally.
The company, which popularized film and photography for the masses in the 1920s, has introduced a new campaign in LPI publications featuring gay-specific ads. They focus on the EasyShare camera line and printer dock, each with an image of people in the lens finder and printed photo.
While most of the ads feature three women who could be friends, one has two men in a romantic embrace. Created by Ogilvy & Mather, they carry taglines like, "Girls night out," "Share a joke (while they're still laughing)" and "Digital. Simple. Fabulous." While the company has been tiptoeing into the market for some time, with a trickle of ads supporting diversity and products in 1998, and again in 2002 and 2003, this spring marks the first continuous branding effort.
The ads will be tracked for brand and product awareness, as well as purchase intent, afterward. "It will be tied to how much we invest later, so we can move the needle," says Greg Walker, Kodak's director-VP for brand and market development and multicultural marketing.
From a creative standpoint, the gay theme to the ads "work within the overall corporate campaign," says Walker. "We are being as appropriately-targeted to the audience as you can be."
So why specifically target gay photographers, what makes them different? "We don't view the act of picture taking as being driven by sexual orientation, but the gay market is much more developed in digital photography, they're online more, and they travel a lot," explains Walker. Thus, gays own digital cameras in higher numbers, resulting in more picture-taking from a higher number of vacations, and more online familiarity means more digital sharing and printing of pictures from those trips to Ibiza, Mykonos, and Phuket.
Rochester, NY-based Kodak is one of few companies that has done its own proprietary gay market research from Harris Interactive and other groups, joining IBM, Subaru, Ford and LOGO, the new 24-hour gay channel. Over three years ago, Kodak did both qualitative and quantitative research and found a "generally favorable perception of Kodak as a brand" but that gays viewed it as "more of a traditional than digital" brand. The company looked for differences between gay men and women, but "there were not as many gender differences as one might have expected," notes Walker.
Still, he says, "We haven't done as much segmentation as we need to" within the gay market, saying he plans to look into more. In addition, Kodak has initiated niche marketing campaigns for other minority groups at the same time, such as for Hispanics and African-Americans.
For the remainder of the year, Kodak has a "robust print schedule" planned, but despite the arrival of gay TV network LOGO, Walker says he hasn't found broadcast "as the most desirable targeting vehicle." In 2006, Kodak will expand its presence with events, he says and web advertising will be evaluated. At the events for organizations such as Human Rights Campaign, Out & Equal, and others Kodak offers official event photography, along with picture stations to get prints.
Kodak Sets Up Dedicated Gay Section on its Web Site
Following an initiative by Motorola's Gay & Lesbian Business Council with Motorola.com/motopride in 2002, Kodak is among the first companies to introduce a dedicated LGBT section within the Global Diversity section on its corporate web site at kodak.com/go/pride. Content is driven largely by the Lambda Network employee group, while other minority employee resource groups are considering a similar move. The Pride@Kodak section celebrates Kodak's long history of LGBT community support, such as adding domestic partner benefits back in 1997.
Other corporations with dedicated pages include Coors's coors.com/community/gaylesbian, Wells Fargo's wellsfargo.com/jump/glbt and Kimpton Hotels kimptonhotels.com/glbt, which offers special GLBT packages and endorsements, as does IBM's ibm.com/ibm/glbt. The page from Avis' avis.com/prouder offers discount with partner companies to those who sign up for its "A Card."
"Diversity is one of our corporate values," says Walker. "We're doing it for business reasons. All our interest is in making sure that this constituency has a greater brand interest in Kodak, we're growing their brand preference."
Kodak has a good shot at winning market favor, given little competitive advertising in the category. In November 2003, Casio Computer Co. entered the market touting its new Exilim in online gay media, but hasn't continued a presence since last year. In Europe, Belgian gay magazine GUS carries a current general market campaign for the Canon EOS 350D digital camera.
The arrival of a superbrand like Kodak into the gay market is just another sign that the image of the gay market fits with corporate America.\n
