Grumpy Old Men

On Friday night I watched the programme," Grumpy Old Men" on BBC 2 (9 50pm), mainly because there had been a wonderful comment in the previous weekend "Guardian" about it, along the lines of why do men need a whole programme devoted to them to moan in when they do it most of the time anyway (obviously written by a woman).

Well,I discovered I must be a grumpy old woman because I agreed with most of the comments. The problem is I don't feel old as I am firmly in mid-life and look forward to the forthcoming years.I'd also object to being called grumpy just because I have lived long enough to know what I like and what I don't like ( one of the real benefits of getting older) and because I have something to compare today's life style to.

As you'd expect technology was one of the main gripes. For example, John Peel mentioned he hadn't worked out how to turn off the very annoying traffic announcements on his car radio (which do have the habit of interrupting the programmes you most want to listen to). I felt slightly smug because I have worked out how to do this. I think the whole issue about technology is what Dick has been banging on about in his articles on the subject ie the level of assumed knowledge. As Dick mentions, someone born in 1940 was 50 before computers were introduced in the work place.

I would suggest that these so called "grumpy old men" are bright, intelligent and experienced people who are frustrated by their own ignorance because hardly any company has bothered to develop the insights to make new technology and new products and services RELEVANT to their lives.

Most of the new developments could be of real benefit if they weren't so difficult and time consuming to learn how to use.Rejection and moaning are in fact a natural response to this difficulty.

This market is so full of opportunity it is surely worth putting a bit of time and effort into even though marketers may be faced with the initial resistance of "I've managed 50 years without..... ." The solution is actually quite simple. Ask. Just ask these grumpy old men why and what they'd really like ie unearth the consumer insights, then act on them in an appropriate way and you'll be surprised how receptive they are to your products and services.

Judith- "