In regards to ye olde standard business cards, the 21st Century has a lot of surprises in store. Consider that one popular gimmick has been to give out little mini-CDs! These “cards” are generally rectangular, except with the two shorter sides being round (almost quarter-circular, in fact) to facilitate spinning in a drive. One side is preprinted to look just like any normal business card, with the company name and so forth. The CD itself, of course, is chock full of information (ideally, anyway) promoting the company and its products and/or services. What a way to make an impression, eh! What ever are they going to come up with next??

Whatever it turns out to be, standard business cards have become so…well, standardized that even you will wind up trying something — anything — to stand out! Naturally, nothing arrests the attention like being given something that looks like a weird little CD and a strange little business car — at the same time!

Of course, gimmicky cards are not new. From the very beginning, folks have been rebelling, shall we say, against standard business cards. For example, their use in real estate has been different. In contradistinction to just about everyone else in business, real estate folks routinely include their pictures on their business cards. No, really! It is usually considered unprofessional to include personal photos of anything with anything in business, from résumés to business cards, but when it comes to realty people, they absolutely indulge in it.

And no wonder. For research into consumer psychology has proven that people purchase homes based on unquantifiable emotional factors. Naturally, if an agent or broker selling property can help prospective clients feel “right at home,” as the saying goes, that would be a good thing. Hence the photos on the card — and, for that matter, the house’s very “for sale” sign out front. No need to waste time with folks who might discount you simply based on your looks, right?

Other industries have opted for non-traditional cards, too, though never as iconoclastic as what real estate types do. Still, evertyhing from holograms to folding cards have been tried, especially by those in advertising and marketing. All other departments — accounting, personnel, and so forth — will probably always stay traditional…standard!