What Do You Think A Business Card Is For?
The use of business cards, or calling cards as they were more popularly known, is still widely prevalent today, even in this age of electronic communications
. Technologies of instant communications such as Bluetooth and infrared connectivity are easier and much handier ways of sending and receiving data and information,
including those contained in a business card. Yet people ---and particularly businessmen--- still carry around small stacks of business cards, giving them away at
every chance they get and at the slightest provocation. Don’t ever tell a businessman you’ll call and he will give you his card, faster than you can say “Jack
Robinson”, whoever he is, regardless of whether he has given you one earlier.
This only proves business cards still play a vital role in business or even everyday life, because even those not in business, such as students, have calling cards in
their names. Why so? A number of reasons have been advanced as to the business card’s functions, and they range from as a source of personal pride to a business tool.
The functions of a business card
As a business advertising tool. A business card will normally contain the owner’s name, form or list of business or service rendered, phone or contact number/s, and
some sort of catchphrase or slogan for the business. In this way the holder will immediately see in the card if the card owner is the appropriate solution to his
immediate needs. So actually the card acts as a kind of ‘sleeper’ or inactive advertising for the owner, accessed when needed.
As a social link. Many people accept other people’s business cards and promptly forget both the card and the person right afterwards. Then the card is remembered when
the holder needs to contact the card owner socially, and so the card is dredged up from the dustbin of ‘where-did-I-place-it’ questions. Or, you may not care what the
guy sells, but he is so hunky…
As a travelling reference. If you know a friend who requires his boat engine serviced and you bump into someone who does that, you may wish to request his card to pass
to your friend, who might later pass it on to another with similar needs. Without the card, neither potential customer will remember the boat engine service provider
when the service is required. With it, the card owner may well capture a whole boating association.
