According
to match.com, a survey showed that 80% of singles are pet lovers. And, 59% agree that finding out your date had
adopted rather than bought their pets would make them seem more attractive.
(Irwin, 2014)
Therefore
it makes sense that match.com would partner with PetSmart charities on pet-friendly
dating events. The members only events
include advice about when to introduce a pet to a potential date, and whether
or not cat people and dog people can truly get along. (Apparently the answer is yes, since 66% of
dog owners would date cat people.)
So
what do you think? Is this an good way
for match.com to increase membership?
Irwin,
T. (2014, June 20) PetSmart Charities,
Match.com Pair For Dating Events. mediapost.com. Retrieved June 20, 2014, from http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/228365/petsmart-charities-matchcom-pair-for-dating-even.html
8 comments:
At the end of the day, people on match.com simply wants to connect with others with the same passion and in this case, love for pets. I'm not sure that people will sign up for match.com just so they can participate in this event but it seems like a better deal for pet smart leveraging on the membership numbers of match.com.
I'd go the other way around and ask what proportion of pet lovers are singles. If the proportion is high then match.com could leverage their business relationship with pet smart to deliver that info to pet lovers in targeted ads. Perhaps pet smart can even identify likely singles among their users for that purpose. So there would be a route towards membership on match.com that starts within the group of petsmart users.
I don't think this will significantly increase member acquisition, but it will serve as a value-add for current members that have pets. If you look at the top reasons people join dating sites (sources below), pet events are not a consideration.
http://www.boldsky.com/relationship/love-and-romance/2011/online-dating-sites-reason-040111.html
http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/men/why-people-date-online
I think the degree to which single "pet lovers" can bond with other individuals over this animal affinity would depend strongly on what exactly constitutes the very vague definition of a "pet lover." Whereas one person might take this as "I enjoy petting the occasional dog at the park," another might take this as "my life revolves around my cat." For this reason, I believe that the previous commenter's assertion about this being a "value-add" feature for current members is appropriate, because with more detailed information about the extent to which one's life revolves around his/her love of pets could seriously dictate what kind of fellow pet lover he/she would be an appropriate match for.
'The small events will probably not increase membership substantially. Nevertheless, leveraging the partnership through Petsmart’s audience at stores, in both companies’ communications and through earned media can help differentiate match.com from its many competitors and increase both short term and long term membership, after all, online dating is often short lived, while pet ownership is long term commitment.'
Luis
I don't think that this would work to bring new customers for the site but would probably make some users create a long term membership. People who like dogs and cats can be really interested in these events so they can get closer to others with the same passion as them. We can also conclude that this can be a difference point from match.com competitors.
I would have to agree with the last two statements: the partnership between Pet Smart and Match.com, should be beneficial for both businesses in some way. This partnership is an excellent opportunity for both companies as they as this is a chance to gain and trade new, relevant target markets: people who like pets, and people who are looking for relationships.
However, I would imagine that Pet Smart would benefit from this whole experience more, simply because it is not as much of a niche market. What I mean by this is that the subscribers of Match.com are more likely to have peers that are in the market for “pet products” than online dating. Therefore more people will find the Pet Smart portion of the experience interesting, and valuable—translating into a more marketable opportunity overall.
From my point of view, the whole point of internet dating is not to meet people face to face. So, a meet up based on a common interest like pets might be good for existing members but is not enough of an incentive to join a dating site. Consequently, membership would not increase due to this partnership. Orkun
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