Searching for the next big idea that will revolutionise your marketing and gain new customers?

 Well, the answer just might be found in history that you can adapt for your business  today.

 Here is one story which has similarities to today’s environment and the challenges facing small business.

 In December 1931 Ted and Dorothy Hustead bought a little drug store in Wall, South Dakota. Business was tough around that time due to the Great Depression.

The town they settled in was small and tourists travelling between Black Hills and the Badlands only found the town apparently by accident. Some called it the “geographical centre of nowhere”.

The area didn’t enjoy the best of weather as it was very windy and dust was everywhere. The small number of tourists that did go through Wall drove in non air-conditioned cars, thirsty and probably not that happy.

The key issue facing the owners was:

How to get the tourists off the main highway and into their store?

According to the story they thought about their customers’ key need by asking a question. What would tired, hot, dusty and thirsty tourists rather have at the moment they passed through town?

The answer:

A glass of cold, icy water.

This gave them an opportunity to attract customers.

The offer:

Free Ice Water from Wall Drugstore.

The Promotion:

They put up signs offering the Free Ice Water, Wall Drugstore, Wall, South Dakota just outside of town slowly began to gain customers.

They didn’t stop there, as they continued to put up more signs and at the end of the summer of 1932 the signs were along fifteen to twenty miles in each direction. Needless to say they gained many more customers.

Through their company Hustead and the involvement of friends and customers the signs were all over the country. Eventually the signs appeared in Europe and other places in the world including the Great Pyramid, the Taj Mahal and the North.

Supporters even posed signs like the photo above taken at the South Pole saying how many miles to Wall Drug. Free Ice Water 9,333 miles.

Talk about viral marketing and the successful involvement of others.

The Wall Drugstore still operates today, although on a much larger scale, has a website and is still being talked about around the world.

So if you are stuck on what to do to attract new customers or how to gain co-operation and enthusiastic support, perhaps the idea you can adapt or just use can be found in history.

Photo credit:  Wikimedia commons

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