A little introduction

Brand Audit Blog : Dating sites

Analysis of the market 

Concept/definition : Dating sites are online platforms dedicated to meetings via chat and exchange of documents (photos, videos, letters, etc). Their goal is to create a first virtual and long-distance relationship between 2 persons and to enable an eventual real one. They target single people that are looking for different type of relationships (love, friendship, sexual relations)

http://www.ibsaustralia.net/the-best-dating-site.html

A website that proposes interactive online services to help people to find love. Internautes can look for the criteria they want (weight, size, age, gender, location…)

Dating websites provide several services: chat, webcame, cell phone chat. Depending on their advertising revenues, some of them have free registrations and other ask for money.

We are going to focus on the french dating sites market

A Market Like no Other !

During the past few years, online dating services have become a very popular trend in France.  These social sites allow individuals, couples and groups to make contact and exchange information (photos, videos, letters, messages...) over the Internet.

Source: http://nycitylights.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/online-dating.jpg

                                          


The purpose  of which is to develop a personal, love or sexual relationship with someone, and to able to do so they offer their members numerous channels; chat rooms, mobile texting, video chatting, personal messages, videos, and so on. When the subscribers enroll on the website, they’re divided into several groups depending on certain criteria, note that these criteria depend entirely on the dating site, and usually becomes the competitive advantage over the competitors.  In general terms they segment their members by  age, occupation, gender, personality, location, and/or interest, to help them effectively find Mr. or Mrs. Right.  As we all know, the database is an important aspect of dating websites, which should be the asset of its brand equity.

Most of these websites are free for women, and paid for men. The payment depends on the clients’ adverting revenues, for example; some websites have free registrations, and others require a registration fee.

But very difficult to manage ...

Customers-products relationship and consumer involvement theory: The dating online service, like most social networks, implies high involvement because consumers spend a lot of time and energy on it and it influences their daily life. Depending on the conversations you will have, you will feel happy or very disapointing because your happiness is involved in this service. Don't forget that a subscription to a dating website can really change your life ! 

source:  http://www.arizonafoothillsmagazine.com/valleygirlblog/wp-content/uploads/online-dating.jpeg

                 


Dating websites offer a quite special service, for this reason it’s a difficult type of brand to manage, the marketplace for this kind of service has become increasingly popular and crowded, so in order to stand out dating sites have to be able to overcome barriers and create strong brand identities in the eyes of their customers. Outstanding brand identies are crucial for all types of businesses, since they depend on the constant flow of members. This is why dating websited need to reach their possible customers and convince them to join them, showing them that their brand has the best offer in the market. In order to attract their customers these sites have a hard job creating loyalty and trust, htye are built upon their customer's personal information, without it the matching process becomes increasingly difficult. Some websites post their most popular and high quality subscribers’ information on the webpage to attract more clients. The pricing strategy of the dating websites, it is more complicated, it depends on the customers’ demands. Some websites offer free membership until certain point, the more information you want the more you will have to pay.

In general , running an online dating brand is a very a big challenge of brand management.

Did you know that ?

Did you know that only in the French marketplace there are over 2000 dating websites?  The popularity of dating sites in France have gone over the top and with that also the competition. What do dating sites have to do in order to create a name and become successful in such a complicated market? 

For one, they should have a well-organized database with a good content of members’ information, good technology and effective services.

Online dating is a high involvement product; for this reason customers will pay more attention on all elements of the dating service. In the same time, how to be more attractive will be a big topic for all dating websites. Recently, some dating websites attempt not only to work on the online dating service, but also provide some dating and meeting activities below the line to attract the potential customers. The more touch points to contact the customers the more marketing share they will gain.

As we can see, dating websites are expanding and developing rapidly with the increase of online chat platforms such as instant messaging. The number of registered members have grown so much that several websites have decided to specialized, for example that “Gay Droite Rencontre” is a website with sexual and political targeted interests, and “amour Maghreb” is with religion interests. We can count 18 millions singles in France and one third are registered on one or several dating sites. From the INSEE survey about the marriage, in 2010, only 250 thousands of French got married, and about 130 thousands were divorced. 

Laurence et Christophe - They found love after only 3 weeks chatting on Meetic 

Vincent et Alexandra - "With his humoristic personality, I immediately knew he was for me"

Recently, the number of people get married or finding love have increased because of the dating websites. Cordia is one of the beneficiary of the dating website, who found her husband on the Match.com in 2009. After the fist time meeting and chatting on the website, they kept in touch online.  30 months later, they had the first face to face date, and then they made their relationship real, getting married in 2012. Since then, Cordia has shared her happy experience online and has encouraged singles to be brave to find the Mr. or Mrs. Right online. 

How often do you log on your dating website?

How much time will you pass in the dating website? How frequently would you log in a dating website? 

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgV8lKmGb7rwUQ4P6aA_oJybF9cKwqyg4Q_AtQ_5HiZgX1yX2tu0uqZiGN2zef07wyTFLvqE843KgsXu0bF4jWwlUdh56P_UcbOmKrf84mowY7ivwmqMslvjuKxph9FRLWq8V41ojN2Z-X/s1600/images+%282%29.jpeg 
             https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJKkf3UHqkTv54iIiyn1fPn-JUz_bwrkKFv8deUTltMmstctSIprps-7CgBP9ihTqzPlgOgVMxHkvLSkU_L0FSAlYfxvOBf2hEJc1GAn-x7HPzTOHTMxxXn16A4ShIoVaCpEzvYO73u6OC/s1600/images+%281%29.jpeg

It really depends on the personal habits and free time. An online survey, it indicates that over 42% of users will logged on 1 or 2 times per week, if they get more serious, the frequency will become more. Around 13%, they logged once per 3 weeks. And about 28% subscribers log in the dating website 3 or 4 times and spends one hour online. The rests are only registered in the dating website, rarely seriously into it.

It is you turn, how often do you log on your dating website?

Resources:

http://forums.plentyoffish.com/datingPosts8352528.aspx

http://www.loveshack.org/forums/romantic/dating/214277-call-e-mail-frequency-communication-online-dating-pros