INSIDE EVERY BANANA SPLIT THERE'S A LESSON

Today is National Banana Split day, and inside every banana split is a lesson in the power of creativity and strategy.

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Dateline: 1904. Latrobe, PA. The sleepy college town is where a 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist and drug store soda jerk David Evans Stricker, bored out of his gourd in the hot late August sun, went nuts and slipped a banana into a long dish. He plopped triple scoops of ice cream and flaired it out with some syrups, pineapple chunks, and various cherries. Retailing for .10, his creation cost double the price of a sundae.

Timing being everything, the incoming college students for fall term at St Vincent’s discovered the Stricker kid’s creative banana concoction, and it became a smash hit. Over the next 16 years this fancy dish continued to be a drug store draw (one of many common food and beverage products developed inside drug stores at the turn of the century, BTW).

Now let’s talk about strategy. Eventually this fortified banana novelty item attracted the attention of Chuck Rudolph Walgreen, who knew a hit when he saw the split.

Walgreen ganked the idea, and made it his own drug store’s signature dessert. Because the banana split was not patented or trademarked, borrowing the concept was on the legal. Through marketing and word of mouth, the banana split played a pivotal role in Walgreen’s—encouraging customers to visit, and buy more than just drugs. Strategically placing the soda fountain at the rear of the drug store meant customers walked past all those standard pharmacy items like soap, cocaine, lard, flyswatters, and what have you. This idea of creating a beacon in the back of the store is directly responsible for the Costco rotisserie chicken phenomenon.

So, today, in the spirit of David Evans Stricker—find a creative innovation and reimagine it through the lens of strategy.