Looking back, to look forward. How P&G managed rough times.

Given our challenging business environment, I thought it was a good time to look back in history to see how some businesses managed.

The Great Depression was trying for most consumer product companies, but Procter and Gamble came out of the whole ordeal smelling better than it had in 1929.

How did the soap giant beat the Depression? Things were tough at first when mainstay grocery customers started cutting their orders and inventories piled up. P&G apparently realized that even in a depression people would need soap, though, so they might as well buy it from Procter and Gamble.

Thus, instead of throttling down its advertising efforts to cut costs, the company actively pursued new marketing avenues, including commercial radio broadcasts.

One of these tactics involved sponsoring daily radio serials aimed at homemakers, the company's core market. In 1933 P&G debuted its first serial, Oxydol's Own Ma Perkins, and women around the country quickly fell in love with the tales of the kind widow.

The program was so successful that P&G started cranking out similar programs to support its other brands, and by 1939, the company was producing 21 of these so-called "soap operas." In 1940 the company started its own production division for soap operas, and in 1950 it made the first ongoing television soap opera, The First Hundred Years.

Most of us don’t have the marketing muscle of P&G, but that shouldn’t stop us from getting as creative as we can to help leverage a time where digital Ad costs are beginning to drop and competitors are slowing down. Your brand has a better chance to be noticed now more than ever.

As of today April 1st, 2020, P&G stock is trading at $111.56 per share, which is actually 40% higher than the same date last year. Sounds like the Soap Opera was a pretty good idea.

What's your big idea?