If you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s 2013 biographical film, The Wolf of Wall Street, you probably remember the part wherein actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Jordan Belfort, engages in a competition for the best business card with his colleagues. Belfort has an internal monologue wherein he analyzes every detail of his competitors’ business cards. He critiques the font style, text placement, and quality of the white cardstock the information is printed.
Belfort works as a stockbroker. He handles people’s financial assets by buying and selling shares on their behalf. Professions such as that require broker and client trust that can be established through the stockbroker’s efforts in providing a professional and trustworthy image of themselves and the organization they represent.
Where did business cards originate?
The history of the business card can be traced back to 15th-century China. During that time, business cards were known as visiting cards used to announce an individual’s intention of meeting with another. Like the current purpose of business cards today, they were used as a self-promotion tool by the 15th-century Chinese elite and as a way of introducing themselves.
Six centuries later, business cards earned their current name and produced various shapes, sizes, materials, and designs. But given how digitized the world has become, the cards started losing their charm because businesses and individuals can easily create digital versions and send them to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Despite the prevalence of the business card’s digital version, businesses and individuals prefer giving out their cards rather than sending them digitally.
Do they still have a place in the digital age?
The digital age has allowed people to share information using communication channels such as the Internet, which computers and modern handheld devices can access. But the question of whether everyone has access to or can navigate these devices to access data remains.
The rise of digital business cards is a phenomenon that is difficult to hinder. The point of creating business cards digitally is to make them unified, simple, and easily shareable. For people with access to computers and smartphones, the business card’s digital version is extremely convenient because it can be sent and received through any communication channel over the Internet. Typically, digital business cards contain hyperlinks and other interactive files to ease navigation.
The use of digital and physical business cards is essential to businesses and professionals because it helps promote, identify, and distinguish them. Even if a business is only online, giving out physical business cards is still essential because they can act as a promotional tool and allow the business to reach customers offline.
What will be the future of physical business cards?
They won’t be obsolete because of their ease in helping businesses spread the word about what they do. Another thing is that only 44.81% of the world owns smartphones with the features to access digital business cards, making over half of the world potential recipients of physical business cards. They may be more expensive than sending digital business cards, but they can make a bigger impact because of their broad reach and versatility. Physical business cards cater to both users and non-users of smartphones and computers.
To conclude, physical business cards still have a place in the digital era. That place will be kept until all the remaining half of the world gains access to computers, smartphones, and the Internet, which won’t happen until after 49 years, based on predictions. While giving out digital business cards is much more convenient, there are potential customers that businesses may overlook if they stick to giving out physical business cards.
Throughout the years, the purpose of business cards has remained the same: to introduce the person and imply the intention to engage in business with the receiver. It has been the world’s medium of brief introduction for centuries. Today, businesses still use business cards to spread the word about their identity and invite people to do business with them. In the world of digital nomads, all of that can be done without printing out copies of business cards, but then again, it could decrease businesses’ reach.
