Defining the Research Question:

(What does the research want to find out?) I want to look into the online dating market and find out why the industry has achieved this sudden increase in popularity. I will be looking into their marketing strategies, as well as finding out secondary and primary data regarding the consumers that use the sites/apps.

 

How will I do this?

(Selection of media) To do this research project I will be conducting two main methods which are content analysis and survey’s, as well as looking at quantitative research that is already available. The secondary research will help me to gain a wider scope of data than if I had just focused on primary sources. The content analysis’s will focus on different marketing strategies that the companies use to advertise. I will select a sample of advertisements from each of the main competitors in the sector and analyse its success. Secondly I will conduct a survey allowing me to gain primary data regarding how many and the type of people that use the sites.

 

Hypothesis:

I believe that the results will be largely dominated by young people using the sites, and therefore the companies now targeting the younger market in their advertisements. I predict the research will show that this is still a very recent revelation within the industries as it was originally largely focused on older consumers.

 

Limitations of the research task:

A lot of the research relies on secondary sources which could prove problematic depending on the availability of information published. Also the survey I conduct myself may have limitations simple because its difficult to get a ‘random selection’ of people to do the surveys. This may result in the collected data not being completely reliable.

Written by Lucy Cammack