In our office meeting last week the topic of new business cards came up, we were discussing what they should look like and if they all needed to be the same, each person would have their own and then one for general office use. A few different thoughts about what these cards should look like came up like should they all be the same or was it possible for each person to have their own style of card and then one for appointment use in the office? These are good questions and there really is no correct answer because it depends on how they will be used. Doing a little reading on the history of business cards I found out that most historians believe that business cards could date back as far as the 15th century in China, but they became more popular in the 17th century in England where they were called “Tradecards.” These cards were used by merchants as advertising and maps to where their stores were located, as there were no formal street addresses at that time. These cards would also tell of the goods or services these merchants sold or provided. In the 1800s business cards found their way to the United States where they were very popular for door-to-door advertising as merchants would go out to homes and present their business card to the lady of the house to either sell their goods on the spot or to let them know where their business was located. Along with business cards during these eras people had what they called “Visiting cards”, which were more of a personal calling card that they would present to each other at events or when visiting. It is pretty amazing that business cards have come through all of these centuries and are still going strong. With cards being a very economic way of advertising many businesses have a few different types to maximize their soliciting power. Let’s take a bakery for example they could have one business card with a wedding cake on it telling about their wedding specials that they would hand out to bridal shops and wedding expos and then they may have another one with muffins on it telling about how they cater muffins baskets to businesses. When you think about it the sky is the limit when it comes to ideas that you can come up with to create different cards for one business to appeal to different people to bring in more business. I think we will have fun coming up with some new ideas for cards in our practice.
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