Sunday, April 15, 2012

The most over research and least commercialised market sector in the history of mankind


I am currently writing another book. This is requiring me to revisit some of the issues I talked about in my first book about marketing to older people. It is so depressing how little has changed in the past 5 years.

Zillions of pounds of government money and some (much less) from the private sector has been spent on researching and reporting about the same subjects. Consultants have made a good living out of UK and EU funding to tell people what they already know and what they have neither the wit or intelligence or indeed the inclination to do anything about.

Laurie Orlov seems like she has come to the same conclusion.

In here recent blog posting she lambastes academia and and companies for researching to death and then doing nothing. Let me quote: Come on Orchatech, Mayo Clinic and MIT -- let's stop researching the same problems with fresh, new press releases about different graduate students year-in and year-out.  Living laboratories are everywhere -- what do seniors need and what can they use? 

Recently I spent a good amount of time putting together a proposition to bring together top tier industrial designers to bring the same quality of thought to care product and services that we apply to the latest retinal display on an iPad. It could be done and would not have cost a fortune.

I had no success because the academic/development/political establishment would prefer to keep funding 'initiatives' that create headlines for a week, cost a fortune to administer and deliver nothing.

Something for you to consider. The largest 10 companies in the UK providing care services spend nothing - zero - zilch on R&D. As long as that continues and as long as the establishment are more concerned by the bling or PR than commercialised products, older people will live out the rest of their lives in an environment that was designed by, and for, their grandparents. Dick Stroud

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