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Sarah Reed's Twitter Updates

12,640 people doing a tonne for old age... http://t.co/yflKAcKi 240 days ago
A poignant diary of a daughter-in-law carer http://t.co/1PMLBe1c 249 days ago
You can learn to remember happily http://t.co/bZE23XOo - hope for boomers who might say if you can remember the 60s you weren't there... 252 days ago
Off to blabber on at the Kent Care Conf (I'd say speak, but that'd be both an over & an understatement) I'm looking forward to listening too 257 days ago
I've been saying it for ages. Now World Alz Rep says 27m people have undiagnosed dementia. Same in UK too. 750,000? Pah. Try doubling it. 257 days ago
 

Older consumers' mental models = learning insights for designers

Posted Feb 03 2011 10:56am

Tabula rasa
 As Joseph Coughlin of MIT AgeLab says, "product development and launch was easier when the consumer was young enough to see everything as new and novel. While admittedly fast moving and hard to keep, the ‘tween through twenty-something’ market is a relative tabula rasa when introducing new technology and design."

He goes on, "Easier does not mean profitable in a market where their numbers are not as great as their parents’ – moreover, they purchase the more affordable products where margins are thinner. In contrast, the boomers are now all grown up and have grown-up tastes – representing both the fastest growing and most lucrative market that purchases the most profitable products."

"Unlike their children, older consumers have history, experience, and a general understanding of what they like to judge and guide their use of new products."

And of course, as he points out, that is the challenge – how do companies innovate without leaving the customer behind?  More here

Source: disruptivedemographics.com

Image: Matthewbattle.tumblr.com

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