Business cards are a traditional tool in trade used to provide a person’s contact details to possible partners or customers. If not all, most companies print business cards for every employee that deals with clients in order for them to initiate and encourage communication. This simple, inconspicuous assumption is a manifestation of the importance of the business card. While business cards have always been an integral part of trading, the value of a business card has escalated to a higher level in this modern age of sophisticated marketing.
The business card is more than just a piece of paper with a company’s logo and a person’s contact details, business cards are now considered a critical contact point of companies to the world. Yes, a modern company would rightly consider their business card a marketing tool, an advertisement that communicates not just their employee’s contact details, but more of the type of company they are. An artistic, glossy card, for example, would give an impression of a company that values individuality and creativity while a traditional, conservative-looking business cards scream an old traditional corporate atmosphere. In business people do not judge a book by its cover; they judge a company by its business card!
Companies that recognize the heightened value of the business card would naturally spend for a proud-looking card, normally one that has a glossy side, hard paper and a good quality of color print. They would also spend time (and money) on graphic artists to make the business card stand-out above a million other cards. Traditional companies, on the other hand, resort to entrusting their business card production in the hands of the purchasing department whose only consideration in deciding on a supplier is cost.
The template would probably be a company logo on the upper-right side, name in the middle and printed on a rough plain card that can easily crumble. Imagine being the client who meets with these two companies, of course the bottom line would depend on the skills of the card-carriers but it cannot be argued that the card makes an impact. From another point of view, imagine being the card-carrier of the sorry-looking card and being handed a nicer card by the client, it is not the end of the world BUT it can be slightly embarrassing and potentially diminish by a tiny percentage, one’s self confidence.
Business cards would play a very big role in times when the business card is the first contact point of a company. This is not uncommon as trade shows and expos are a popular practice for companies to build a network. Without seeing the person who owns the card, the people who browse through the collection of contacts would already form a bias to the nicer cards. This is not a superficial bias, nicer card means more money spent, and more money spent on a card may equate to a stable company. After all, if a company cannot spend a few more dollars on a low-ticket item, how much more thrifty can they get in bigger items!
In these cases where the trade show organizer or their client would need to choose a few companies to present their credentials for a potential partnership, they would most likely go for the companies that seemingly have a modern approach to business – ones that spend on their business cards!
