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Courtesy of a link via Mary Schmidt, Mary Ellen Merrigan over at the ProfitMeister blog highlights how the ubiquitous 3-fold brochure is changing, mostly as a result of Web1.0 websites.
I still think that 3-fold brochures are a waste of time as they make you look so ’small’ and ‘amateur’, but I concede that they may have their place in your communications armoury.
Mark Cahill (also found courtesy of Mary) has an interesting piece and also very interesting links at the bottom of his post about using your business card as a brochure.
“At Vario, we personally use business cards which are glossy on both sides and on the back carry a list of our basic services. Jill Cole designed them, and I’ll admit that I originally thought they were problematic, as I couldn’t write notes on them. Recently I’ve had a lot of customers comment that they wanted to do cards just like ours”
Your views? Are 3-fold brochures a waste of time? Can business cards serve as useful mini-brochures?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Mark Cahill 06.14.07 at 11:21 pm
Thanks for the link!
Personally, I think you’re right - the trifold is dead. I think part of that stems from what I perceive as a change in the way we read. Perhaps the internet has caused this, but I now focus more on bullet lists and short sections of text with the key concepts in bold. I guess people don’t want to have their time wasted, so the appreciate breif formats.
Danielle 06.15.07 at 10:00 am
I agree, and I’ve seen some very smart business card lately.
One of these (from Red Goat Media) doubles as a mini-notepad and contains a soft pitch on page one, with contact details and a list of services on the back cover, and logo on the front cover.
If you want to write messages, I think it looks more professional to do this on something custom made for the purpose, like a ‘while you were out’ post card.
Mike Bellina 06.15.07 at 11:37 am
It seems to me that the 3-fold brochure becomes outdated quickly. I’ve had clients who spent tons of money on a professional photography of their employees only to have one of them leave and they no longer use the brochure. Using a 3-fold brochure doesn’t allow for flexibility or for keeping information up to date. I believe most printed collateral materials will end up extinct. If you have a good website, there is nothing more that you will need other than a good positioning statement and a URL.