Eharmony has tapped Philip Armstrong for the Chief Marketing position. Based on initial comments in Adweek, Armstrong sounds like he is going to create a social network for eHarmony members. This is certainly a new direction for the #3 Dating site (depending on the day of the month or the stats you pay attention to). Several competitors have launched social networking-type features, results have been mixed to date.
Eharmony members either love or hate not being able to browse profiles, the duality is clear, there is no middle ground, at least for the members I’ve spoken with. It remains to be seen how they respond to people wanting to add them to their Pal list, rate their photos and spam them, all common to the current crop of social networking services.
Eharmony is going to have to do things differently, or risk alienating the current members and who knows how new recruits will react to the new feature? Perhaps an opt-out option is in order. How will this affect the marketing strategy? Remember when Match had a social networking feature? I’m talking 3 years ago, but, join me in the chorus, they chose not to market the capability. Can you imagine where Match would be now if they did?
What is the elevator pitch for, “We’re going to be like MySpace, for older, serious singles who really just want to get married instead of being force-fed the latest 20-something trend of which we most likely have no understanding of or interest in.”
Eharmony spent more than $60 million advertising in 2005. No doubt a good portion of the 2006 budget will have to go towards explaining what social networking to members.
No word on how eHarmony’s plans will be affected by Yahoo’s social networking patent.
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