ZO Cards

Image by roadkillbuddha via Flickr

These are postcards, that are given free at restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars, etc. It is used by marketers to sell across a promotion, an event, a message, etc.

The problem with these cards is that they are in essence post cards, yet they are fundamentally flawed as a post card, because of the lack of blank space on the card. 

There are 3 types of people who take ZO Cards.

1. The people who collect post cards and take the card for the printed design.

2. The people who want to send messages to their friends and use the post card as a communication tool (Writing message at the back)

3. The people who don’t care about ZO Cards, but need writing material urgently and these cards come in handy at the appropriate moment.

A large portion of the target market I assume would be (2) – people who take the cards and continue to spread the message. This way, a single message goes to not just 1 person, but 2. Yet, nowadays, these cards are sprawled with words from the marketer. No blank space for writing anything, except the addressee’s name and address.

I used to just take the card of the shelf with the coolest design. Now, I would flip the card over and check out the blank space. If it was not 3/4 empty behind, I would not even consider taking the card. Those cards can continue to gather dust on the shelves. The truth be told: most of the cards that are left on the shelf are those which are only fairly good with their design but have little blank real estate behind. No one is going to send a postcard (using their own money to buy stamp) to a friend, without being able to write a decent message on the card.

This is for all you marketers/agencies out there.