In Episode 16, Kelly, Mary Beth and long-time Atlanta radio personality and LGBT trailblazer Melissa Carter explore what brands, marketers and strategic communicators are getting right (and wrong) about reaching the lesbian segment of the market. 

 Melissa shares:

• Her personal coming-out journey, and what teenage and early-adult life was like for her in a Bible-belt, Middle Tennessee small town;
• How coming-out to her family set the pace for her to embark on an authentic life in her mid-20s, and how her father’s reaction as a Christian (and his comment about Jesus) was such a critical moment in her life;
• Her experience as an organ-donation recipient (kidney) and how finding a nephrologist in a gay-friendly Atlanta medical directory saved her life;
• Fairness issues of being “branded” gay / lesbian (given that straight people are not branded “straight”);
• What it means when marketers give lesbians “the scraps from the straight table” and why only lukewarm LGBT brand support never works well;
• What brands like Absolut Vodka, Subaru, Disney, The Hallmark Channel and Chik-fil-A are doing right or wrong in their messaging;
• Differences between supporting the gay community versus a willingness to SEE the gay community;
• How societal messages and conditioning of boys versus girls when they’re growing up feed lifelong behaviors that impact women’s ability to achieve career success;
• What elements of brand-experience and authenticity drive loyalty within the lesbian community;
• What legacies of inclusion versus exclusion mean for brands long-term.

Links:

1. Follow the #MsInterPReted hashtag
2. Tune in to Melissa Carter’s “She Persisted” podcast: https://shepersistedshow.com/ 
3. Follow Melissa Carter on Twitter: @MelissaCarter https://twitter.com/MelissaCarter 
4. Discover Fletcher Marketing PR: https://www.fletchermarketingpr.com/ 
5. Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on Twitter: @FletcherPR https://twitter.com/fletcherpr 
6. Follow Kelly Fletcher on Twitter: @KDfletcher https://twitter.com/kdfletcher 
7. Follow Mary Beth West on Twitter: @marybethwest https://twitter.com/MaryBethWest