The first NASCAR race of 2006 ran recently at Daytona and I was surprised by the number of new product sponsors. For years NASCAR has been a “good ol boy" thing, however, marketers have finally realized that this is huge untapped and under marketed advertising segment.

We have to admit that there are loads of stereotypes about the typical NASCAR audience. Ever heard this description, "Red necked, long haired, tobacco chewing, cigarette smoking, good ol boy?” Well, that used to be true of NASCAR viewers but auto racing now is one of the few sports that are gaining in popularity among all demographic segments. Face it. Popularity equals advertising revenue and sales.

Two current market groups that NASCAR is chasing for increased viewer ship are the 50+ generation and women. Previously, little marketing was done to attract these viewers. They were outside the perceived target market. Sponsors typically were auto companies, auto parts and suppliers, beer, soda, cell phones, and generally services and companies that were in the male purview. But now there are a lot of avid NASCAR fans in the over 50 generation, myself included. Until now, sponsors haven’t really sought them out as an audience.

When I did some marketing for an IROC driver, I was surprised to learn about the strength of the fans. One thing that really came home was the brand loyalty of those who supported NASCAR. When a NASCAR driver endorsed a product, it was used by an overwhelming proportion of NASCAR aficionados; a much higher average of brand loyalty than conventional markets.

An interesting campaign that I have been following is the Crown Royal endorsement of NASCAR. The company continues to sponsor the No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion driven by NASCAR NEXTEL Cup star Jamie McMurray. Crown Royal is collaterally branding their campaign with new packaging and launching the Speedway Collector’s Series, a line of limited edition packages that is customized to highlight the 21 tracks that host races during the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season. The Crown Royal purple bag, bottle label and carton will display customized motor sports packaging, including logos for storied tracks like Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Super Speedway. Smart and unique marketing! Most product packaging efforts have been limited to cast iron models and replicas of the cars or typical car stuff.

So why am interested? It’s all in the packaging, of course. In addition to advertising and endorsing a driver, companies are integrating all facets of a marketing campaign and utilizing packaging as a branding tool. If I were a smart marketer, I would look for underserved segments of the viewers just like Crown Royal has done. Even though there have been several women drivers that have tried unsuccessfully to penetrate NASCAR as professional drivers, the women’s market makes up 50% of the US population. In my opinion it really hasn’t been sought out. I’d brand a campaign that really hits home with women no matter what their age. Look at the Dove Campaign For Real Beauty as an example. Its being endorsed and supported long after then initial advertising campaign introduction.

So we’ve come full circle. What does NASCAR have to do with packaging? It’s a hot, growing, untapped market for those who want consumers that demonstrate their brand loyalty. Does this ring any bells or blow any horns for you?

Want to know more about the role of packaging? Need think outside the box to package products people will buy? Just starting a business that needs to package products for sale? Need brainstorming about what packaging works in the current economy? Contact the #1 consumer product packaging expert by email at PackagingDiva@aol.com or by phone at 678-594-6872 for a free 15 minute consultation. Read other articles by the Packaging Diva @ http://packagingnewsyoucanuse.blogspot.com/.

1. Plant negative ideas into people’s minds. The ad headline Don’t waste another dollar plants the idea of wasting money into people’s minds. The call to action Don’t hesitate is about hesitating. To cultivate more supportive thinking, focus on the positive. Try Save money today and Call now.

2. Send a diffuse message to an overly-broad group. The risk of an ad that addresses everybody: it appeals to nobody. Even if you offer something for everybody, address the audience so that each individual can easily discern whether you’re speaking to them.

3. Publish errors that hurt your credibility. Inconsistent punctuation, run-on sentences, poor grammar, odd syntax, and spelling errors in the print media get noticed. Make sure that your ads are exempt from their ridicule. Proofing by a sharp-eyed outside party can be invaluable reputation protection.

4. Act like a small-timer. Many individuals and small organizations invest too little in their ads, run unprofessional ads, or place too little faith in good ads. Some actually pay to damage their reputation through ads that do more to repel business than to attract it. So, project a tested, supportive image consistently.

5. Do it all yourself. Often, businesspeople get exactly what they want in their ads by doing it themselves or by getting others to do it under their direction. This is the DIY approach. Often the ads fail miserably. Your customer’s perspective and an expert’s perspective can save you from this. Listen to your customers attentively and pay for advertising expertise. Otherwise, the illusion of thrift with the DIY approach might yield to the reality of high cost.

Glenn Harrington is Principal Consultant of the Harrington Newsletter Company in Victoria, BC Canada.

http://www.newsletterdoctor.ca
doctor@harringtonnewsletter.ca

Into which camp does your business fall?

A. You don’t have a logo, but wish you did
B. You don’t have a logo, and could care less
C. You have a logo, but have a hunch it’s not quite “it”
D. You have a logo that you love

Whether you are thrilled, disgruntled or mystified by the whole logo piece of your business, it’s certainly not something to ignore (ahem, I know you wouldn’t dare do that!). Even if you are all set with your logo, you may still want to tighten up the way you use it.

If your business thrives 100% on word-of-mouth referrals and you have no desire to grow beyond current capacity, certainly you can function quite well without a logo. But most entrepreneurial businesses want to grow, and in fact need to grow in order to keep pace with clients’ growing needs and to outpace the competition. There are many small businesses providing the same professional services as you… having a notable image can contribute to helping you stand out from the pack.

Point blank: Your logo is the visual spark that burns recognition of your business into the minds of your audience. It is the quickest, simplest way to convey your essence – your logo tells your story without a wordy account.

One of the most brilliant logos is the infamous Nike "swoosh." I’m sure it pops to your mind instantly. This is a logo that needs no written explanation when you see it. This simple symbol swiftly conjures up what Nike is all about: “Just Do It.”

Whether you have an established logo or are newly considering logo design for your business, the following lessons from Nike and other companies with exemplary branding will raise the bar on how your logo serves your company’s image:

Always Deliver on Your Logo’s Promise. If a picture is worth a thousand words, your logo is worth a thousand deeds – make sure your business deeds jibe with the image you are portraying externally. Your logo is merely a visual reflection of your brand, and your brand includes every element of your business, from the way you answer the phone to your unique method of service delivery to your approach to building business relationships. As you deliver your “brand message” consistently over time, your logo becomes even more powerful because it links your target audience’s experience of you with the image you use repeatedly.

Don’t Short Change Your Image. I am astounded when entrepreneurs who invest thousands of dollars into equipment, training, entertaining clients, traveling, and many other facets of running a business, take the cheap route with their logo. They hire the neighbor’s “artsy” sister-in-law, or create a do-it-yourself icon with the desktop publishing program that came with their PC. Please, please, please… hire a real graphic designer. Pay the bucks to get this done right. You want your logo to be a masterpiece, not a monster piece.

Be Cool About Color Selection. If your audience tends to be more conservative, you’ll probably want to reflect that. Pick your top ten ideal clients and see what colors they favor. But only let this information guide you – ultimately, you must live with your logo a good long time, so go with colors that please you. There are no hard and fast rules, but ultimately, your logo will strike a balance between what you like and how your audience perceives your company. Talk to your designer about how color selection can impact printing costs.

TIP: Make sure your logo reproduces well in black and white, also. You don’t want your nice logo fading out when the client photocopies or faxes your document.

Make it Unique – Resist Clipart! The entire point of creating a logo is to set you apart from the crowd. Spend the money on a designer who will create a one-of-a-kind logo just for your business. Clipart logos are risky – there is a chance that another company uses a similar image. But also, clipart looks like… well, clipart. A little on the kitsch side.

Supersize It. Make sure your designer provides you with a small, medium and large version of your logo. If you need to put it on a business card, it needs to be legible at the smaller size. And if you ever need to put it on a large sign, you’ll want a logo pre-sized for that. Simply upsizing the small version will result in poor quality and often distortion.

Call your Lawyer First. Okay, this may be the most unsexy step in the process of creating a logo for your business, but I implore you to invest the time and expense to make sure that your company name is truly yours. Have a trademark attorney conduct a thorough search on your company name before you go to the expense of creating an image around it. How awful it would be for you if you spend years building equity in your company name and brand, only to learn that another company wants to sue you for trademark infringement! Avert this nightmare by getting a lawyer involved.

I bet you didn’t realize that designing a logo could be so complex! Please resist the temptation to skirt around these issues – put the time and money into creating a logo that builds your image and raises the bar for your business. You may not want to tattoo your logo onto your forehead, but this simple little icon is the most important outfit your business wears.

Martha Carnahan is president of MC3 Strategies, is an Atlanta-based company that champions entrepreneurs having a prosperous business AND a fabulous life. Learn more about Martha Carnahan and MC3 Strategies by visiting http://www.mc3strategies.com (which is currently under construction, but bookmark it for future reference!). Or, visit my coaching services website: http://www.YourBrilliantLife.com

If you want to write copy that makes your prospects sit up and take notice, look no further than the headlines on the magazines in the supermarket checkout rack. Odd as it may seem, there are some real similarities to the cashier’s lane and your business. The headline writers, like you, have limited time to (A) grab the potential customers’ attention, and (B) encourage them to select their offering over all the other choices. Magazine headline writers may be the best marketing copywriters in the world and you can learn a lot by reading their work.

With no gender bias intended, women’s magazines seem to do a much better job with cover layout and writing. Consider these clear, concise and attention grabbing headlines:

Rate This Week’s Scorching Sex Position

Eat All the Chocolate You Want

Train Your Fat Cells To Release 6 lbs. A Week

Retire Rich on $3 a Day

Head to Toe Healthy: Lifesaving Info on Heart Disease, Cancer and More

What’s Going on Inside Her Head?

Change Your Life in Five Weeks

His Moan Zones

Create A Stress Free Home

Get The Raise You Deserve

Half Off Tropical Getaways

Business success begins with getting attention and standing out from the crowd. You do that in the words you choose. Comparing business advertising to a well-written magazine headline may seem simplistic but no one said all smart marketing has to be complex.

Brian Grinonneau is the general manager of McMann & Tate Advertising an agency that insists its customers tell their story like it has never been told before.

There seems to be a lot of confusion between logos and business identities. As a small business owner it’s important that you identify what your logo or business identity is supposed to do for you, and what result you intend on getting from having it designed. Below are two lists that compare side by side what you can expect from a logo and from a business identity.
This all comes down faith and belief in yourself and your company. Business owners that invest in a business identity know they have a good business model and want to invest in their future success. Conversely, logo-purchasing business owners aren’t confident or self-assured that they’ll be in business all that long. Business identity clients see their money going towards an investment; logo clients see their project as a risk and an expense.

One last note, logo-purchasing clients who do survive past two years typically end up investing more time and money redoing their business image (and that includes discarding all of the old collateral materials that feature the old logo).

My advice: if you have confidence in your ability to sustain and grow your business, and you intend on being around more than 2 years - make the investment. I promise you that you’ll be glad you did. If you aren’t sure about how things are going to turn out, consider holding off on a business image until you see it as an investment rather than an expense.

A logo:
1. Quick fix solution so you have something to put on your business card.

2. Logos are pumped out with no thought to the company; it’s ideal target market, nice or competitive landscape. In fact, a designer can create a logo without ever having met the client.

3. A typeface, icon and color scheme chosen at random, or just what looked cool that day

4. A symbol that at worst looks like clip art, at best it’s passable

5. The logo won’t make you feel much different about your company at all. In fact you may find yourself making excuses like, "I am having that redone", "That’s just something I threw together", or "I am going to have that redesigned next month".

6. Logos can actually make you more apprehensive about networking, promoting and selling your business since you are not comfortable or confident in your business image. Having a logo, particularly a poor one, adds anxiety to people.

7. Logos add confusion and worry when it comes to reproducing them. Not having standard PMS colors and not the right file formats for professional printers can cost a huge amount of time and stress. Your logo may work on a t-shirt or banner, but then again it may not.

8. Logos separate you from the competition in your mind.

9. Better hope you don’t have any questions or concerns, there is no support.

A Business Identity:
1. Designed to be placed on every marketing and collateral material for as long as you own your business.

2. Based on in-depth questions, and gathering a fair amount of research. Business identities are based on research rather than guesswork.

3, A true reflection of your personality, the message you want to send to clients and your vision.

4. A symbol of yourself that you are proud to share with your family, customers and competitors

5. Makes you feel confident about your business. The business identity will make you feel like you are able to compete with bigger and more established companies.

6. It’s been proven time and time again that business owners that have invested in a Business Identity over a logo will lose their apprehension about promoting their business and sell it more effectively and aggressively. This turns into additional clients and revenue.

7. Business identities give you peace of mind knowing that you will have the right file format for every situation. You never have to worry if you have the right format. You’ll also get consistent results every time with Pantone colors assigned to every color in your Business Identity.

8. Business identities separate you from the competition in your client’s mind.

9. Don’t worry; if you have a question or concern, support is always available for you.

If you’re looking for a logo, well we might not be the right fit, but I know Kinko’s can do one for you in about the same time it would take to have a pizza delivered.

About Jeremy: I help small businesses build more confidence and credibility into their business brand. Through marketing and design initiatives; I help you feel better about your company. Making you feel good about your business gives you more confidence and less anxiety when you are networking, promoting or selling your business. If your business needs the reliability and talent of an in-house marketing and design department but doesn’t want additional employees, salaries and benefits, give me a call at 480.391.0704 - I have a new approach for you.

If you are looking for more free insight and inspiration, you’ll want to get in on the “Can-Do Confidence Builder”. Emailed weekly, the Confidence Builder provides you with essential marketing and design insights that help you get the most out of your investment and help you to stay one step ahead of the competition. Email me at comments@candographics.com and asked to be added to our list or visit http://www.candographics.com

Do the first five seconds of your radio ads make anyone want to hear more? Probably not. The writing and voicing of 99 of 100 ads share this quality: they’re positively, truly boring. Why is this, and what can you do to make sure your ads get listened to?

You’re going to hate this: When the vast majority of ads are aired, listeners’ minds go someplace else. Hear the alarm bells going off in your head? You’re wondering if your ads really are that bad, because you’re spending a large number of dollars running them. If your business is doing well, you undoubtedly think a lot of it is due to your ads. I’d bet more than even money that your ads don’t have much to do with your success, again, because most ads are terrible. If your ads were truly good, your business would be doing even better.

Your ads are getting tuned out because, first, they sound like ads. People hate ads. They get in the way of music or talk. So why do you have radio ads that sound like ads? Next, they’re written by radio station people, or you’re writing them, and neither you nor they are trained in the psychology of persuasion. Don’t take offense: I don’t mind if someone tells me I shouldn’t fly airplanes, because I’m not a trained pilot.

People think radio stations know about advertising. What they are not aware of is that the station copywriter, if there is one (many stations make their account reps write the ads), is not a trained copywriter. Stations are sales-driven, not ad effectiveness-driven. This is not good news for you. Further, station ads are voiced by people who cultivate “radio” voices, which are necessary for everything to do with radio – except advertisements. No one talks like that in everyday conversation. Deejays read dozens of pieces of copy about products and services with which they have no experience, and therefore no credibility. Whoever is reading your ad is reading copy for three or four of your competitors, too. To make things worse, most radio ads are announcements, not advertisements. An announcement is a list of facts–name of your business, what you sell, a list of sale items. Our minds are not wired to remember such lists.

Moreover, station copy is usually riddled with clichés. “See the experts.” “Friendly staff.” “Competitive prices.” “The sale you’ve been waiting for.” “…and so much more.” They’ve been overused for so long they’ve become a drone. We no longer pay attention. Most ads are filled with them.

Click on Dan O’Day’s Amazing Bad Commercial Generator for a hilarious (and instructive) idea of what I mean.

In a true advertisement, an association is made between something the listener already likes and wants (love, happiness, attractiveness, security, trust) and the product or service advertised. For example: in a FedEX commercial a few Super Bowls ago, a bedraggled Tom Hanks character (as from Hanks’ movie Cast Away) appears on a woman’s doorstep with a package under his arm, tells her he’s been on a deserted island for five years, and says that he’d promised himself that if he ever got off the island he’d make sure he delivered the package to her personally, because, he tells her, “…I work for Federal Express." This advertisement hammers home the idea that you can absolutely, positively depend on Federal Express to deliver your package …no matter what happens.

Everyone looks forward to Super Bowl ads because they are entertaining and filled with surprises. People want to be surprised and entertained. It is far easier to tell them what you can do for them if it’s done in an entertaining way. Stan Freberg has written some of the most successful commercials of all time. Each one surprises and entertains. Stan’s ads have sold more consumer products than anyone can imagine.

Years ago, Kaiser Aluminum Foil was getting no shelf space in supermarkets. Stan created a cartoon character named Clark Smathers, Kaiser Aluminum Foil Salesman, who walked into grocery stores and hit the owners over the head with a small hammer for not carrying Kaiser Foil. It was funny, it was entertaining, and tens of thousands of supermarkets began stocking Kaiser Foil in a matter of weeks. Read about it in “It Only Hurts When I Laugh,” Stan’s autobiography.

There was a restaurant located at the confluence of several roadways. It was the scene of a greater-than-average number of fender benders. Lousy place to put a business, don’t you think? The owner didn’t. His ads had cars crashing in the background. His slogan? “Food good enough to risk your life for.” People will listen to that.

None of this means you can’t be serious in your advertising. What good writers are really good at is writing copy that gets and holds attention while putting your point across simply, intelligently, forcefully.

Are effective ads hard to write? World-famous advertising agency guru David Ogilvy observed that good writing is slavery. Find an advertising agency whose clients say does effective work for them. Don’t write your own ads. Never allow radio stations to do them. Besides using good writers, serious agencies employ voice over actors, not announcers. Radio advertising authority Dan O’Day, who is very pro-radio announcer, nevertheless says that an announcer seeking voice over work with a voice talent agency should not tell the agency he or she is in radio because they will not get hired. Agencies know the importance of believability. You wouldn’t do your own appendectomy, nor would you let a medical student with three weeks’ schooling do it. Get professionals to do your advertising. It costs too much not to.

Well-written, believably-voiced radio advertising is inexpensive because it brings you results you would not otherwise enjoy.

Voiceover actor Michael K. Holmes has written and produced broadcast advertising for twenty years. Listen to examples of his ads and jingles at http://commercialmagic.com.

During the past decade, I have noticed the prevalence of name changing, as I am sure you have also. Several of the organizations with which I am involved have chosen new and different names that they feel represent them and their missions more descriptively. Companies who were ready for a new start have changed names to reflect a new attitude, direction and/or focus. Some of these changes have made a positive difference, others have just caused confusion.

What we name ourselves, our businesses and/or the way we describe our services can make a huge impact. For example, I teach fitness classes and have discovered that the name of the class can determine how many people try it (of course, just like a business, once you attract them, you must make it so good they want to return). I started teaching a lower body callisthenic class which has turned into a huge success. Rather than naming it "Lower Body Workout," I feel that the name we chose — "Pain in the Butt" — has helped to attract the large number of participants.

Decide what impression you want to have your name and/or the name of your company make. For example I know many independent professionals who use their own name followed by "and Associates." This sounds serious and a bit conservative to me. Law firms that in the past have listed many names of the various partners are now shortening their names. A good example is Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue which became Jones Day at the start of 2003.

I chose the name "Creative Keys" for my company because I work in so many different creative areas it covers them. I like the word "Keys" because keys open doors and more, and because my initials are CK it seems easy for people to remember it. Although, I must admit that I sometimes get calls from people needing a set of keys to open a locked door.

When choosing a longer name, consider whether it would work as an acronym. People remember acronyms, especially if they are short and punchy. Our Ohio storytelling group goes by the name of O.O.P.S! which stands for the Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling — a real mouthful. The fun part is that when I am giving a presentation or being introduced for any reason, I always have the emcee mention my involvement with the Ohio Order for the Preservation of Storytelling so that when I get up to the lectern, I say, "O.O.P.S!, that’s another story." It is not only an attention getter, it is also easy to remember.

Think of all of the easy acronyms: IBM, UPS, FedEx, P & G, MS, to name a few. I do a lot of work with community development corporations and their names are long, so acronyms fit the bill. The Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition is known as CNDC for example. Once you have picked a name with a reasonable, easy-to-remember acronym, you will need to repeat it everywhere until others become used to it - just as they will with any name that is heard often.

Take your time and have fun picking a great name for your business. You want it to last a long while and be remembered easily.

Chris King is a free agent, professional speaker, storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, and fitness instructor. Chris has what she calls a “Portfolio Career” –many careers at the same time. If you wonder if you could handle and love having a “Portfolio Career” you will find a free assessment to take at http://www.creativekeys.net/portfoliocareertest.htm Sign up for her eclectic E-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri, at http://www.freelanceliving.com You will find Chris’ business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz

The phrase fish in a barrel not the ocean is often bandied about in business circles but very few stop to think about it. In an effort to clarify what this should mean to your marketing effort, here is an explanation.

In the very basic sense, fishing in the ocean means reaching some prospects in a loosely defined area. Here’s an example: You own a heating and air conditioning company and decide to run a TV commercial. Despite the fact you supposedly reach the right audience about 5% of the viewers are interested in what you’re selling. Doing the quick math here, that means 95% don’t pay any attention. Now you’re playing the name recognition, educate the consumer game. Your sales rep probably justified your big cash outlay by using those exact terms. You are fishing in the ocean. Will you catch some new prospects? Yes. Is it a good use of your ad dollars? No!

Fishing in a barrel means reaching the greatest number of prospects in a tight, targeted area. For instance, the HVAC company in the above example, uses ad dollars for an online campaign sending an offer-filled, content rich e-newsletter to prospects who’ve asked for it, placing keyword-targeted pay per click ads, and sending emails to yet another opt-in list of subscribers. Hey, these prospects are already interested in what you sell. They just have to be convinced to do business with you. Will you catch more new prospects this way? Yes! Is this a better use of ad dollars? Yes!

In a crowded advertising marketplace where everyone is clamoring for attention, you have to be different. You can’t afford to do things the same old way anymore. A yellow pages listing, some broadcast commercials and ads in the paper just don’t cut it. You have to go cyber and your message has to be viral.

Find the right bait, and start fishing in a barrel. Watch and see how many new prospects you will have on the hook.

When dealing with foreign investors and franchising in another country often language and interpretation of word meanings can get clouded. Additionally tenses or gender of words can change what a sentence says or means in an agreement. In franchising Internationally this becomes a real issue because of the number of potential countries an international US Based, Australian or European Based Franchisor might franchise in.

As we expanded our company into other markets we found this to be extremely problematic due to the fact that a particular country may have different dialects and issues in their own language itself, not to mention the English versions of the words and their meanings. One issue we immediately noticed when trying to deal in multiple languages is that even the topics in the table of contents were at issue. So, I addressed this issue by inserting this clause into our international contracts for franchising our business model;

7.20 Headings and Table of Contents

The headings and Table of Contents used in this Franchise Agreement are for purposes of convenience only and shall not be used in constructing the provisions hereof. As used in this Franchise Agreement, the male gender shall include the female and neuter genders, the singular shall include the plural and the plural, the singular.

- - - - — - - –

Although this did not solve all the issues it did in fact assist us in some of the issues and helped us from causing ourselves litigation issues over miss interpretations due to language barriers, mistakes or cultural differences in basic word meanings and sentence structures. Perhaps you will consider this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

It’s a well-known fact that anyone owning a business or a part of a business carries a bunch of visiting cards to be given away to people with whom there is a possibility of future contact and interaction. A business card usually carries details about the person’s designation, organization that he represents office/factory address, telephone numbers and his email address.

The earliest business cards were actually playing cards on which people put their signatures and other messages. Then slowly trade cards evolved – cards that gave direction to a merchant’s shop or warehouse mainly and advertised the products the trader dealt in. Trade cards underwent modifications and it’s now called business cards.

In a market driven economy, it’s impossible to do business without business cards. Big or small business, business cards are a must.

Contact details of a big business or a big brand can be easily found out from other sources, like the Internet. However, in case of a small business it’s not possible to do so as in most of the times people don’t even remember exactly the name of the organization or person they want to contact. Big businesses can spend more on advertisements and their promotions. Small businesses have business cards to do their advertising. Therefore, business cards are vital when it comes to small business.

By simply having a business card doesn’t help when it comes to small business. As one cloth size doesn’t fit all, similarly one type of business card doesn’t suit all organizations. The business card should be designed in such a manner that it should make a positive statement about the organization or the personality aspect of the person carrying it.

Moreover, there is so much of importance attached to first impressions in networking and sales that it’s unthinkable to have a generic business card. The business card should be designed in such a manner that it would reflect strongly about your personality, the organization you represent, the products you deal with and the kind of service you can offer. For example, a business card made out of recycled material emphasizes the fact that you are an environment conscious person. It would immediately create a favorable impression of you and the esteem with which you are held will definitely go up.

The business card should be designed in conformity with the business you are in. An undertaker with comic fonts and cartoon characters on his business cards should not expect much response. Whereas, a small animation firm can display as much creativity and color as possible on their business cards to make a lasting impact. If corporate clients are the targets, it would be prudent to avoid adding your photo to the business card. Too many words on the business cards confuse people. Similarly, faint fonts do not register well in the minds. All such factors should be considered before ordering business cards, because a well-designed business card can be a ticket to business success.

Natalie Aranda writes about business, sales, advertising and marketing. In a market driven economy, it’s impossible to do business without business cards. Big or small business, business cards are a must.