LGBT: $790 billion buying power but what are their favorite brands?

A brand that didn't even make YouGov's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Top 20 Buzz Rankings last year has emerged as the leader this year.

Android rose straight to the top of the rankings with a buzz score of 38.2 compared with iPhone's 35.6 and iPad's 34.2. The results were collected by YouGov who polled 5,000 consumers each day for a 12 week period, filtering responses from those who identified themselves as part of the LGBT community.

Target and Starbucks are also newcomers to the rankings, probably in light of their recent support of LGBT rights. In fact, the rankings are markedly different from last year with other newcomers including Samsung, Aleve, Kindle, Advil, PBS, LG, Comedy Central, and Skype.

Recent research from Catalyst found that most members of the LGBT community (87%) prefer companies that offer equal benefits for LGBT employees and almost half (47%) prefer brands that create ads tailored to their community. Even if a brand was more expensive, 71% would continue to be loyal if that brand was in favour of LGBT issues.

Witeck Communications estimates the total buying power of the US LGBT adult population in 2012 will be $790 billion.

Tags: brand marketing, brand messaging, gay issues, LGBT, LGBT rights, research, U.S.