USA TODAY — July 2 — You’ve no doubt seen Neil Clark Warren on TV commercials. "He’s like the grandpa who wants to set you up," says Nate Elliott, an online media analyst with Jupiter Research. Warren, 70, really is a grandpa. Born on an Iowa farm, he’s quick with a down-home hug and a smile. His pale blue eyes grow misty when he speaks of his love for his wife of 46 years, Marylyn, the senior VP at eHarmony. He really does want to set you up – but only if you’re emotionally healthy, heterosexual and want to get married. Nothing in Warren’s TV or radio ads ($50 million spent last year, $80 million projected this year) hints at his Christian background. The Web site doesn’t play it up, either.
Mark Brooks: eharmony excludes the outliers. True and Perfectmatch are non exclusionary.
eHarmony is interesting from a sociological perspective. For example, there is actually much in their advertisements that “hint” at Dr. Warren’s religiously-oriented background and business focus. Dr. Mark Thompson from weAttract made the insightful observation that the all-white background and Dr. Warren’s strong foreground presence make for a nice metaphor of Dr. Warren speaking to the masses and telling them what is best for them like God on the mountain top.
Of course, there are less symbolic hints as well. Most obvious is Dr. Warren’s name and the company name, which have long been known to be associated with Focus on the Family. It can be argued that Focus on the Family helped brand eHarmony. Dr. Warren wants to now sever the two brands in the public perception, but it may be too late for that. In addition, eHarmony is clearly “selling” one type of relationship in its ads — namely, marriage. This is not wrong per se, but it is a strong testament to religious orientation of the company. eHarmony is in the throes of attempting to rebrand itself — an attempt that essentially means trying to be less of a niche online dating/matchmaking site. I wonder how this article concludes, therefore, that eHarmony continues to adhere to its founder’s moral values?
Thanks,
James Houran, PhD
Chief Psychologist
TRUE.com
Due to low real-marriages over whole matches (reported 10,000 marriages from their site; 10,000,000 matches, and a database of 6,000,000 persons.10,000 matched pairs -out of 10,000,000 matches- ultimately married, or 0.001 or 0.1%. Thus, for every 1 recommended match that actually resulted in marriage, there were 999 matches that did not.)
Perhaps eHarmony`s clients only target “marriage” to reach a “quality compatible contact / compatible real person”.
i.e. They became clients of a site that offers “marriage”, but an average client does not want marriage, only a “quality compatible match”.
It is like a person who wants to sell a diamond and ask USD50,000 but receive only USD35,000. He/She knew that the diamond values only USD35,000 but asked USD50,000 to obtain USD35,000.
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Good comments, Fernando…
Of course, the average online dater likely does not think about or fully understand probability theory and baseline rates to know that his/her chances of finding a spouse on eHarmony are extremely low. In fact, eHarmony’s ads present a much different picture for consumers. In particular, their ads and messaging consistently present married couples and tout the numbers of marriages they claim to have produced. As a result, I think that the people signing up for eHarmony are indeed consciously “buying” the chance to find a marriage partner. That notion is what eHarmony is clearly and aggressively selling.
Thanks,
James Houran, Ph.D.
Chief Psychologist
TRUE.com
I see no issues with the eharmony service having a Christian values background.
Heterosexual couples and the value of marriage is under enough attack. I assume that someone, somewhere is upset that eharmony sponsors only man-woman matches and not same sex couples? Such is the world we live in.
As far as the ratio of marriages to members and possible matches, those numbers go with the territory.
If you have an online service that matches people, the more choices you have to make that match the slimmer the chances are that you will find a match.
Example: if you can match on two possibilities you will match your members 50% of the time. Choice is blonde hair or black. 50% of the time you will match someone. Add a third choice, brown hair. Now you can match your members only 33% of the time.
Add anther 50 match choices and you exponentially lessen the number of matches a member will make.
This is why most online services keep their profile questionnaire to 10 or less selectable member search options. You can’t run a program to match essay-type questions in the member’s profile as accurately you can giving them selectable options in member preferences.
Now take eharmony’s 1 hour long profile and questionnaire. The matches are that much more limited. But, because the field has been so narrowed down, the successful outcome of the match is heightened. It’s a great niche. eharmony’s marketing machine has just happened to allow it a very large reach.
The way of reasoning of Mr. Robert Lee is NOT correct.
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com