Pride Month
Pride Month is the annual celebration of equality and inclusiveness recognized all over the world. It’s more than just a parade. Film festivals, art exhibits, and music concerts also play a huge role.
Pride Month was born of the Stonewall Uprising in June of 1969. Before the movement began over 50 years ago, it was illegal to be LGBTQ+. Everyone who lives the way they want to experienced and continues to experience hate, violence, and persecution. The riots in June of 1969 sparked a movement that sought to change the injustice.
Today, everyone supporting equality shows their Pride and self-respect in colourful displays of joy, peace, and love. Pride is one of the most peaceful movements out there. And it raises a ton of money to further its cause.
What Pride Is
Mariam-Webster defines pride as, “justifiable self-respect.” What we’re talking about in this blog post is the Pride movement and its power to raise money.
But let’s get back to this whole idea of justifiable self-respect for a moment here. Being persecuted is hard. It negatively impacts your mental health. You begin to lose your self-respect in the face of constant persecution. That’s why Pride Month is so powerful. Everyone who supports inclusiveness displays their self-respect to the world.
It’s a political statement. That’s the source of its power. But all movements need money. They also need people’s time. Pride is succeeding in many places. Gay marriage is now legal in Canada, and many come from all over the world to get married in Canada. This brings a ton of new business. In 2013 same-sex marriages injected $4 billion into the Canadian economy.
Money Raised for a Good Cause
Today Pride sparks a lot of interest from corporations. Pride Week has many corporate sponsors from all over the world. Daily Mail suggests that Pride parades around the world raise “vast sums of money” for LGBTQIA+ organizations, but even more interesting is how the events generate income for local small businesses.
Rainbow Retail
Spending on Pride Month is worth $917 billion annually to businesses. But it’s the LGBTQIA+ community spending the money, and they say it has to be genuine. People can spot a fake anywhere. That said, if you’re genuine it’s easy to see too. And if you are genuine, there’s money to be made, especially if you’re a small business.
Last week we talked about how sustainability and environmentally beneficial products and services can increase profits for small businesses. The environmental movement came out of the same anti-violence movements of the 1960s as Pride. It all goes hand in hand. Caring for each other and the other living things on the planet is inclusive, and inclusivity brings bigger crowds. And big crowds spend money.
“Diversity and inclusion are good for business.” Jonathan Lovitz, NGLCC
Inclusivity & Buyer Behaviour
An inclusive world means everyone gets a chance to succeed. Everyone has self-respect and respect for each other. This is a better business environment. Happy people going out and getting together tend to spend more money. Verizon Wireless recognizes that $130 billion of its revenue comes from connections, not separations.
Aggression and cruelty are generally the behaviours of unhappy people. Many fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) tests (brain activity studies) have shown that people use emotions over logic and reasoning when making buying decisions. That’s why people will spend more money on products and services that support movements they feel good about. It’s why so many corporations support Pride. Inclusion, happiness, and joy all come from seeing happy people celebrating love and diversity. It puts us in the mood to spend.
While sad may equal more clicks, happy means more shares. Which of those two is more crucial to selling? Anyone who has spent money marketing their small business online knows all about getting many impressions, with no sales to show for it. But shares lead to reach, and reach leads to brand awareness. And when your brand makes people happy they buy more.
Small Business and Pride
Small businesses have a tough time competing with the big guys. It’s no secret. And in a world of full-time hours wasted on free consultations and financially expensive ad-bidding, small business needs a break.
There’s an opportunity for small business here. People want products and services they feel good about. Many don’t trust messages from big corporations. Supporting Pride can help small businesses tap into this annual $917 billion market share and grow their customer base with great community reach.