Pride month: Preparing Your Brand for Marketing Success

Happy Pride! We hope your brand is ready to join the LGBTQ+ community in celebration and resistance this year! If not, don’t worry! It’s not too late, and we believe the spirit of Pride should extend throughout the entire yet, not just be confined to June. So, we at C+R Research and CultureBeat are excited to share some information that we hope you find helpful this Pride Month and beyond!

The LGBTQ+ community is larger than most people realize, and it’s growing quickly – and along with growing numbers comes burgeoning spending power. As more brands recognize that the LGBTQ+ community is an appealing target for marketing and they begin to participate in Pride events, the LGBTQ+ community is concerned that Pride is moving away from its protest roots (learn more in our blogs, “The Birth of Pride Month” and “Pride Month Marketing: From Riot to Retail”) and becoming too much of a party. While concern over this has been growing for many years, it’s especially relevant now as we’ve seen an unsettling rise in the number of anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-trans bills emerging in state legislature all over the U.S. We shared information about this back in 2021 in our blog “LGBTQ+ Rights Are Still Facing Serious Threats – How Can Brands Help?”; unfortunately, there have been even more anti-LGBTQ+ bills since then.

As skepticism in the LGBTQ+ community increases about whether corporations have the community’s best interest at heart, we still believe that if your brand supports Pride, then it’s more important than ever to think carefully about how you intend to get involved during Pride Month and beyond. For examples of brands that have done a good job showing their genuine support for the community during their past Pride marketing campaigns, check out our blogs “Corporate Pride: How Companies Can Support Pride Month” and “Four Tips for Marketing to the LGBTQ+ Community.”

If you’re looking for thoughtful ways to bring these ideas to life, take a look at our CultureBeat blog, “Six Tips for Successful Pride Month Campaigns,” for tips on building campaigns that genuinely connect with the LGBTQ+ community.

We can’t wait to see how you make a difference this Pride and all year long!