9 September, 2009
- Some classic military postcards from the WWI era. The humour may be black but the postcards ain't! ]]> http://www.postcardmania.co.uk/uncategorized/military-postcards-on-16-september-2009/feed/ 0 http://www.postcardmania.co.uk/uncategorized/popular-uses-of-postcards/ http://www.postcardmania.co.uk/uncategorized/popular-uses-of-postcards/#comments Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:51:33 +0000 admin http://www.postcardmania.co.uk/blog/?p=29

Perhaps the most popular use of postcards is for writing to a friend or relation, you know, the 'Wish you were here...' angle.  For this reason, they're prominent items on most people's list of things to buy on holiday.  But postcards have many other uses too:

Souvenirs

Not a very good shot with the old camera?  Can't quite get close enough to the Great Orme to do it justice? As discussed, you can send them to your friends and loved ones to let them know how you are and where you’ve been, but you can also keep them as a record of where you’ve been and perhaps even better, places where you plan to go in the future.  They’re great for collecting and displaying on your noteboard or on the fridge.

Letters

Postcards are often sent as short letters to keep in touch or to simply say 'Hi' to a friend or relly.  It’s your way of letting them know you’re still alive and that you’re thinking of them.  Don't know about you, but I often find myself browsing through the spinning racks of postcards for that just-right-design in order to help convey my thoughts and feelings.   On the other hand, if you don’t know what to say or how to say it, you can use a postcard to convey you message.  Of all the media available out there, the postcard is still so incredibly powerful being able to say so much on such a small space.  Letters are perhaps a litte too formal for a simple 'Hi' or 'Hello' - the postcard can do the job much better.

Marketing Tools

Postcards can also be used as a most effective marketing or advertising tool.  Postcards have been used for a long time in order to convey short sharp advertising messages.   A well designed postcard can help you promote your product or service, or get your message across, to your target audience.  A well designed and thought out postcard will get leads and ultimately orders for your products.

Educational or Historical Mediums

Postcards are also used as tools by educators.  Almost by their definition, they take the form of snapshots, depicting lifestyles, products, views, monuments, buildings etc throughout the years.  If you want to know how people are dressed in a certain era, there are many postcards that carry pictures on the subject and / or its history.  There are even cases when postcards are used to mark special occasions that celebrate historical events.

Masterpiece Imitations

Through the medium of the postcard,  people are able to own replicas of their favorite masterpieces that obviously are otherwise out of their reach in terms of costs.  Digital postcard printing has reduced the price of reproducing artworks by Da Vinci, Constable, Van Gogh or whoever.  You could now have as many copies as you require for far less than the price of the original.

Propaganda

During war time, postcards, along with posters, are utilised for propaganda and mobilisation purposes.  Perhaps the most famous such images are 'Uncle Sam' or 'Lord Kitchener - Your Country Needs You'.  Over the years, it has been the favorite recruitment and propaganda material for postcard marketing especially governments.  Likewise, political aspirants use postcards to disseminate their promises when it's election time.  Barack Obama's campaign utilised postcard mailings in order to put his message across in the recent US Presidential Election campaign.

For instance, whilst browsing the web the other day, I came across an article on the website of Reflections of a Bygone Age, which desribes how the author first came to collect postcards.  As he points out, it was not a desire to collect postcards per se, but a thirst for knowledge about some local engineering heritage which promptd his interest.