What businesses prosper in harsh times?

Who prospered in the great depression? There were three strategies:

Businesses that helped you survive tough times. 

Five and Dimes, buy/sell stores (pawn shops, used clothing, thrift shops) and other local retail.

Repair shops (shoes, tailors/seamstresses, furniture) extending the life of what you own. When shoe repair shops get busy, you know the economy is in pain.

Vegetable seed catalogs and others who helped you garden your own food. Disintermediate farmers and middlemen by using your back yard or roof garden.

Labor market-makers (employment agencies, unions, guilds, clubs) helped employers avoid long lines and people find work. Nepotism and social networks trumped formal employment processes. And political patronage became a lifeline to families that repaid jobs with votes. 

Businesses that served escapism. 

Music, movies, and booze all took off. Quality fell with prices, but you could make a healthy living in making, delivering and serving

• Music (records, sheet music, used instruments, live performance),
• Movies (theaters and the birth of Hollywood), and
• Booze (moonshine, speakeasies, juke joints).

You paid cash directly for all of these goods and services.

No advertising subsidies.

There was some bundling; music came with booze at a speakeasy or juke joint.

Hope was a product too.

Churches, tent revivals, populist politics, and activist newspapers helped people acknowledge the crushing emotional burden of new poverty. They also gave hope for a better future. 

It is easy to share bad news, harder to find a silver lining. Those who provide meaningful hope in bad times not only prosper, they shape the society that emerges.

 

Harsh, apocalyptic times trigger basic human needs for relief, survival, and optimism.

• How will you and your organization serve those needs?
• How can you redesign your company and its products to align with those values? 
• How will you revise your marketing communications, your brand identity, your conversation with suppliers and customers to fit the new realities?

Thanks to Jason Calacanis for asking "What ideas do you have for winning in a down market? How do you stay inspired in bad times?"

tags: economy, depression, apocalypt08, strategy, history

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