The Pink Escort
I lived in Johannesburg in South Africa for years. It was toward the end of the apartheid era, and was still a very conservative society.
Nearby there was a mechanics workshop. One of the mechanics working there was a quiet young man who, it transpired was gay. I didn’t know when first I met him, but when he showed up at work one day in a tricked out pink Ford Escort with nitrous and wide wheels it was pretty clear he was making a statement you couldn’t miss. The Escort was so overtly ‘flamboyant’ that the community rapidly realised this particular mechanic was as queer as a 9 bob note, to borrow a British expression.
We all drove old cars in those days. There was an assumption you’d have a car stolen about once every three years. There wasn’t much point having a great vehicle. Besides, the newspaper I worked for provided a decent vehicle when at work. I remember being upset once when my car was stolen, not because of the car but because the thieves had left my CDs on the sidewalk. They obviously didn’t like New Order and Spandau Ballet. I found that quite offensive.
It turned out that the business at the mechanics shop had been flagging, and the owner was on the verge of letting the mechanic go. In an unrelated moment of synchronicity the mechanic decided to come out, and he did so spectacularly. At first there was a negative reaction in the workplace, but he was a diligent worker and wasn’t going to quit. In the course of about a month the mechanic began to notice something. Most of the local gay community began bringing their vehicles to this particular mechanic’s shop.
Within a year the gay population if Johannesburg had figured out this mechanic’s presence, formed a connection, and he had become their go to mechanic. Doubtless there were also some straight clients and some clients who were still on the down low, but straight acting. As a marketer this was something that I noticed and couldn’t help being fascinated by.
Now I have many clients who are either out or getting there. A disproportionate number of my members do own their own businesses. Most of them hide their trans, or gender fluid, nature. Looking back to our friend in Johannesburg one has to wonder if hiding this side of who they are might not be such a good idea. Yes, you may alienate 80% of the potential market, however you may create an association with the remaining 20% that is far more connected than the relationship with the general market would ever merit.
I’m not saying for an instant that gender fluid people should only appeal to an LGBTQ market. However, there’s certainly a case to be made that there’s a connection with a proportion of your market that may be higher than your general share of the market.
For example, let’s take a fictitious city of 100,000 car owners. It’s a small city. Now, I’m making these numbers up as I go along, but you’ll get the idea. Let’s say there are 10 mechanics workshops. That means each workshop has a cut of 10,000 cars before they have to start reaching into real competition. Well, if 15% of the cars belong to gay owners who would like to support a gay business then the gay mechanic has an easy connection with 15,000 rather than 10,000. I think you get the idea. And before you say anything about this bringing a whole new meaning to ‘market penetration’, I’ll beat you to it. In this instance coming out as fast as possible and getting the blinged out, pink champaign paint job and custom licence plate starts to be a pretty savvy business decision. The dating benefits I need hardly point out.
A good friend of mine that happens to be lesbian does very well providing handyman (Ed. Handyperson) services to people nearby. She is well known in the community and there are many single women who have no desire to have a handyman show up in ill fitting jeans to unblock their bunged up hole (Ed. Phrasing), and exposing several inches of butt crack in the process, while they are in their homes alone. Instead they would rather have my friend do the work. She’s non-threatening, comes highly recommended and can do anything butt crack guy can do, only likely better. The fact she happens to be a lesbian is what you might think of as a massive marketing advantage.
So, next time you are bemoaning the fact that you worry if someone might descover the fact that you happen to enjoy wearing lovely clothes and embracing that feminine side of yourself, consider that it might not be the problem you imagine it to be. We are, as Fox Mulder so beautifully put it, not alone.
Fiona Dobson
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