(Online Dating Industry Journal) eHarmony has released a new service for married couples. eHarmony Marriage is designed to "help married couples experience stronger, happier marriages," according to eHarmony.
The new service is intended as a "marriage wellness service" designed to help married couples deal with conflicts. According to eHarmony, the new service is a personalized, interactive, online program designed to help couples make their marriages stronger and happier. It provides tools and information needed to recognize the strengths of a couple's marriage. An article by LA Times reporter David Colker states:
"Couples willing to put their trust in computerized relationship analysis start by filling out online, 310-item questionnaires concerning communication, romance, sex and other topics. They then receive a computer-processed marriage profile that points out strengths and possible problem areas."
The eHarmony Marriage service contains two distinct sections. The eHarmony Marriage Profile and the Marriage Wellness Program. With the eHarmony Marriage Profile, couples fill out a marriage questionnaire and get back their profile, an "in-depth, customized report that offers insights and guidance in 10 key areas of marriage such as communication, sex and romance, and roles and responsibilities." The profile gives positive feedback and suggestions on how the couple can create joy and appreciation in their relationship.
The Marriage Wellness Program is a series of 12 20-minute interactive, online video exercises that work with the eHarmony Marriage Profile. The video's are designed to help couples put into practice the insights and understanding identified through their profile. Each of the video exercises focuses on a different marriage topic and includes coaching and insights from Dr. Warren, sketches illustrating relationship behaviors, interviews with couples, personalized feedback and follow-up activities.
"eHarmony Marriage was developed in accord with the most recent theoretical understanding of what comprises successful marriages and all of our testing instruments have been fully psychometrically validated," stated Dr. Galen Buckwalter, vice president of research and development at eHarmony. "Backed by Dr. Warren's clinical and theoretical expertise and this rigorous empirical and scientific research, eHarmony Marriage provides unsurpassed benefits to couples who approach their marriage as their primary relationship requiring ongoing nurturing."
Kim's Comments:
eHarmony is really going to great lengths to set themselves apart from other mainstream dating sites and effectively express to the public their goal of being a "relationship service" rather than just a dating service. They have already announced that their dating service is responsible for an average of 90 singles getting married each day, and that those married through eHarmony have happier marriages. By introducing this new section of eHarmony focusing on building and maintaining successful marriages, in addition to the steps they have taken in the past focusing on relationships, eHarmony is cementing their brand in the minds of marriage minded singles searching for their soul mate and possibly turning off those that are online only to "hook up". Which seems to be what eHarmony has wanted all along.
The eHarmony Marraige is a total scam. We got suckered into spending the time to fill out the questions and then get sold to see the results for $50 a month. Screw that, they claimed we can view the results. Plus their terms and conditions screen comes up AFTER you are done with the profile so it negates whatever they promised to begin with. Very unethical way to conduct business. I wish I had my three hours back from this scam.
Posted by: Joe | November 14, 2006 at 11:09 PM