King Pin Business Cards

First impressions are everything when it comes to business. You will be judged on how you look and act as well as how you negotiate. All these things mean that the modern businessman must be schooled in many arts. The international businessman needs many more tools in his arsenal to be able to effectively represent himself and his company abroad. It is well known that us Americans aren’t too good outside our own country. When we do travel we expect everything to work just like “back home”, and complain often loudly when it doesn’t. That kind of attitude just won’t work when travelling on business.

The European and Asian business world is founded on quality. That isn’t to say ours isn’t, but there is much more emphasis on it over there. From the quality of your suit, to your manners and observance of local cultures. All these things will be studied and either marked for, or against you.

For example, doing business in Italy, you would be marked down for not having a stylish suit or quality business cards. Style and quality is everything there, and the outward display of it permeates every facet of their society. France is much the same on a more conservative level. Style and quality count for a lot so turning up to a meeting in an off the shelf suit isn’t going to win you any friends. You would have to work very hard to convince either the Italian or French of the quality of you or your company like that.

Russia on the other hand couldn’t care less. They are interested in doing deals and making money. They are much less interested in you, what you wear or the quality of your business cards. Here what you have, and what you can provide them is paramount as far as they are concerned. Even though there is a hunger for money, and doing deals, it will take forever to get one signed. A relic of their communist past is the monolithic bureaucracy which not only stifles their government but most of their older more established businesses. New money or companies are less constrained by this though.

Doing business in the Middle East isn’t an inviting prospect for a lot of businesses. The relative instability of the region (mainly caused by us), makes this a shifting foundation for any deal. The almost universal prevalence of Islam is something that has to be taken very seriously and observed strictly by any visitor if they want to even be considered as business partners. It has its own rules that need to be observed and treated with respect to get anywhere with the people. Learn the culture and demonstrate respect for it and the region has some of the friendliest and most hospitable people in the world.

As you can see, doing business internationally isn’t just a case of grabbing a passport and buying an airline ticket. Research has to be done so you can get started on the right foot before you can make a success of any foreign visit.

I saw a couple of neat business cards the other day that had been issued by a couple of law firms. They showed an unusual eye for something different, while also offering real value to the person who had it. I thought it was an ingenious way to use a card as a marketing tools and as something of value.

The first of these legal business cards was a flyer which was being left in bars for patrons to read. It said something along the lines of “The county law enforcement has been targeting local bars in this area, cracking down on DUI’s. To prevent losing your license, eat a good meal before coming out, then plenty of non alcoholic drinks to slow alcohol absorption. If you have to drink, get a cab home. If you are stopped while driving, be courteous to the officers. Don’t swear or insult them. Don’t volunteer any information or get out of your car unless instructed to. Give the attached business card to the officer and tell him you want to call them before submitting to any questioning or testing.”

Now a cynic might think this isn’t any better than ambulance chasing, but I think this is a well thought out idea. Offering practical information and being useful is a great way of having your business cards retained and used when needed, which is the whole point of having them.

The other example is of a similar vein, but done slightly differently. This legal business card was standard on one side, and offered a bit of legal advice on the other. This version was again around the subject of DUI. It read something like; “Officer, you have stopped me presumably in accordance with state law. If you are going to give me a citation, please do so and I can be on my way. If I am free to go, I wish to do so immediately. If I am under arrest I won’t answer any questions without my attorney. Neither will I perform any voluntary agility tests or do any preliminary breath tests except those prescribed by law in order for me to avoid losing my license or obstructing the law.”

Although not a fan of lawyers, I applaud this imaginative use of the humble business card in order to assist people, while promoting themselves. Other professions use similar value add tactics in order to increase retention and use of business cards, such as adding calendars, rulers, or even combining a phone card and a business card. This last option is going to be quite expensive to run, so wouldn’t be feasible unless the company was of a size big enough to support it.

So while the remit of a business card is fairly limited, i.e. the promotion of a person or business, the implementation is not. The ways in which this little piece of advertising is used is only limited by imagination and application.