How long is a recession? The average length of the ten recessions since World War II has been 10.4 months, with a range of 6 months in the 1980 to 16 months in the 1981-82 recession. Of course, the big Depression is the thing that everyone worries about. The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1941. US GDP contracted by 28% between 1930 and 1932 and hit the bottom in 1933. The Great Depression featured global impacts of massive bank and business failures, and crazy unemployment. Not a fun time.
When a recession hits, adjust your strategy to the future. Robert Bruce Donald looked at advertising in Life Magazine between 1936 and 1939, in his article "Buying the Dream"
… In truth it seems that 30s consumers must have needed to have one foot in a "dream world" of aspiration while one foot remained firmly on the planet, with the pendulum swinging toward the dream as the duration of the hardship lengthened.In summary about the Great Depression:
What was illusion and what was fact?
Advertising twisted the message to serve an admittedly self-serving, yet useful purpose. Many of the products advertised were just beyond the reach of the consumer who read Life. That was absolutely as it should be and Life along with its advertisers knew it. Striving toward a better grade of whiskey, a smoother smoke, and even down the road perhaps a new automobile, served a very useful purpose: it reinforced the cultural imperative that if you were not climbing the ladder of success, you were not buying into the American Dream.
If you were not buying into the American Dream, weren't you just fooling yourself?Advertising Lesson #4 from the Great Depression ... Remember that the economy and prosperity will improve. When it does, you want to be sure that your products are top-of-mind and something for which your prospects have a yearning. Give them something to need.
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