Eharmony Case

The company creates value by doing a lot of the work for its clients. While the initial time investment (45 minutes) may be longer than the traditional model, it then provides the service of searching through the millions of potential matches. This not only proves to be a more accurate way to find dates, but also saves a great deal of time (where most online daters spend a 7 times as much time searching for a partner as they do interacting). And for men, who are usually fighting over a scarcity of women, they benefit from the majority percentage of women who have become the core of eHarmony’s paid customers. Thus the value proposition for the customer is: better matches (and better quality people) with a much smaller time commitment. The customers who benefit most from this are people who are serious about finding a person for a long-term relationship (rather than those who are just browsing, or hoping to have flings with as many people as possible).

Still, the company has problems from its competing Match.com, Chemistry. These competitors deliver services at a lower price compare to eHarmony. eHarmony needs to focus on problems the company for long-term success. The following analysis examines the online dating industry, eHarmony’s main problems, the strengths and weaknesses, potential opportunities, and threats.

At eHarmony, the customer gets the chance to communicate with a potential partner after having paid for the communication process. The value provided in eHarmony’s business model concerns giving the paying member guided communication with a potential partner. The company ensures that they consider the preferences of the applicants before starting on the match-making process. According to Piskorski, Halaburda & Smith, the company considers the similarities among applicants in order to start the match-making process (6).

Given the stigma that is surrounding the online dating service industry, eHarmony is going out of its way to legitimize the dating system and erase the negative stigma. I believe this is what has contributed to eHarmony’s growth. As more and more people, who are no longer in relationships, are looking for a companion and partner, their

I mean let’s be honest anyone can fill out their questionnaire and be dishonest. It is too simple for a person to hop on their and completely lie on the questioning portion and then go onto the site and post a fake background and picture. I am sure this has happened more than once, but what is eHarmony doing to guarantee other users that the people they are matched up with are genuine? I guess time will tell based off of trial and error. I am sure there have been many first dates that never received a second one, or the date was cut short do to one of the subscribers not feeling like they have been matched with the same person whose profile they were matched with. I think eHarmony is doing what they can at ‘weeding” out those who are faking profiles or manipulating the system for their benefit. “With the deluge of online dating sites out there it's hard to know which -- if any -- is best equipped to help you find the right person. Some bank on users liking the same quirky date suggestions, while others rely on religion or a shared love of Apple products. And then there are those supposedly based on scientific algorithms, like eHarmony, which probably sounded pretty solid until a recent study suggested they're not that scientific after all.’, Bindley, K., (2012) eHarmony Duping Customers, Researchers Say. EHarmony may claim they are based on science and algorithms,

eHarmony also has to utilize social networks as a marketing tool or provide combined service with them. For example, Facebook induces their users who try to search their dates in Facebook to reach the eHarmony’s Facebook page. On the other hand, eHarmony can induce their new or existing customers to open a Facebook account and proceed to some activities for providing more reliable information to their potential dates. By this collaboration, both businesses can be winners. eHarmony can expand its market and potential to all the Facebook users, and it can also take advantage of more reliable information from Facebook page. Facebook can also penetrate their service to over 40s which has been had resistance to any social network

Recently, eHarmony finds that there are more and more companies enter into matching market and its main competitors are copying its some features to improve their own competition. How eHarmony should address recent competitors actions. They now have four options and people in eHarmony are debating for choosing their strategies to defend their company, even broaden their current market share. At the same time, Their CEO, Greg Waldorf, must do a final decision that which option(s) the company should pursue.

eHarmony, expanded its TV and radio advertising campaign to appeal to broader audience. Company advertised on national cable network and avoided spending on broadcast television. Match, eHarmony’s close competitor leveraged

eHarmony advanced in the online dating landscape by establishing its brand as the site for the serious relationship seeker, particularly women. The outcome was a dating site that at the time conflicted with all the standard practices and introduced a new of mechanism in the industry. eHarmony didn't permit clients to scan and search the database for potential mates. Rather, eHarmony enforced clients to finish a comprehensive survey and based on the results, provided clients an assigned measure of potential mates.

Now the central problem for eHarmony has begun. eHarmony established itself as the leading matchmaking company but with competitors threatening to take market share, the company needed to find a way to preserve its reputation and remain the top matchmaking website for long term relationships.

EHarmony has branded its name across the Internet and television, revolutionizing dating and concentrating single individuals into one virtual place. Their business purpose is ambitious; gain subscribers and match them with other subscribers based on characteristics or interests that would potentially result in a long-term relationship. According to the eHarmony website, since 2000, when eHarmony was founded, they have successfully remained the industry leader for generating long-term relationships. Dr. Neil Clark Warren, the founder of eHarmony, uses the 29 dimensions of compatibility to achieve such success. In fact, 438 people are married per day in the United States because they were matched on eHarmony. Essentially, eHarmony is responsible

Match.com employs business practices that deter, even paralyze members from making choices.Though it is difficult to find consistent data, it is clear that online dating is very, very popular with “one in every ten American adults [using] an online dating site or a mobile dating app” (Smith & Duggan, 2013). The first driver is the matching through stated responses that are matched against similar answers throughout the site. It begins in test-like fashion with members responding to questions about one’s background and personality such as, level of education, political and religious views, habits, connection to animals, work-out regime - the list goes on. This information is said to be vetted and through a formula specially engineered for Match.com. As a result, a potential mate (or 24) is pulled like a rabbit from a magician’s hat. The sites claim different missions depending on the category but there is always a match on the other side of the curtain. Match.com boasts of finding the partner of one’s dreams - and here may be where the disconnect begins. If the seeker of love is not able to see themselves for who they are, there is no self-efficacy. If

Increasing online daters in Europe is also a chance for eHarmony. It helps eHarmony expand its market geographically. According to competitors presenting in many of the country, investing in Europe or other countries, especially the English

About competitors, Facebook responded new system and functions to the launch of Google+ (Reed, 2011). With regard to the similarity, Facebook has strived for developing new services, like Game Trick, which can compete with other rivals (Parr, 2011); in addition to buy other social networking service, especially cross-platform messaging apps for mobile, such as Instagram and WhatsApp.

Unlike Threat of new entrants, this factor mainly refers to competitions from existing enterprises in specific market. Porter mentioned, “Rivalry among existing competitors takes the familiar form of jockeying for position—using tactics like price competition, product introduction, and advertising slugfests.” It is also very important to notice that number of competitors and their capabilities directly influence on the intensity of rivalry (1979, PP. 137-145).