That Postcard...

Advertising 101 says that you need to make you business stand out from the others in you field. When I started out some 30 years ago I took that literally. I found this picture on a postcard when I was about 17 years old (I am 58 years young now) in an old garage that looked like it had been there for a hundred years. The building was falling in literally, and so I got permission to walk thru to see if there was anything worth saving.

This picture postcard was on the wall above the telephone (which was probably last updated in the 1960's) and the postcard itself had no writing on it whatsoever,  just this picture. I have no idea where it came from but it had clearly been there for a couple of generations. It reminded me of the old pinup calendars that hung in garages and dealerships in my younger days. I knew I had to save it...or it was going to be hauled off in the back of a dump truck along with the rest of the building and contents. Not racy by today's standards, but back when that car was new it would have been a scandal. There is something to be said for leaving some things to the imagination.

When it came time to start my business I knew I needed something unique that customers would remember and something that would make my business card stand out.  After about a week of looking for ideas I remembered that postcard and knew I had what I needed for my business card.

Some of you reading this may be old enough to remember when most office desks in garages and dealerships were wooden, and had a large sheet of thick glass on top  that they slid business cards under. I have since found out that my business postcard with this picture got slid under hundreds of glass tops over the years. When I visited a shop or garage and saw my postcard under glass it made me smile inside. I knew my idea worked, and they would always have my telephone number handy. Most could not remember my name but they all remembered me as the guy that gave them "that postcard."

That postcard became my trademark and I captured a lot of business because no one threw away that postcard. My business information and telephone number just happened to be printed on the back. I also discovered quite a few of my postcards stapled onto walls above the telephone...how ironic.

Then in the 2000's the politically correct era came along and the once harmless lady postcard suddenly became taboo. People not associated with antique vehicles or the hobby in general, began complaining about "those lady postcards." This was also about the time all of the pin-up calendars disappeared from garages and auto parts stores. It was the end of an era.

So I began printing two different business postcards, one with the picture of the front of my store and the original lady postcard from 1987.  My longtime regular customers and my new customers who had seen the "Lady Postcard" demanded the original.

I also discovered the "Lady Postcards" had a cult like following. I even had a customer make one into a poster. He owned a business that enlarged mechanical blue prints from 8 x11 size to 36" x 48" for use on the assembly lines at GM, Ford, Chrysler, and others. He thought the lady postcard was the neatest thing he had ever seen, so he ran it thru his blue print machine and it came out 36" x 48" in size which he then put up on his garage wall. He also sent me one. It is hanging in my office still today.

So that is the story of the "Lady Postcards" and how they came to be. If you want a pair of the "Lady Postcards" just send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I will put a couple in the mail to you. Now you can own a bit of nostalgia for the price of a postage stamp. How cool is that? Nothing dresses up the wall in your garage or makes your tool box look better than that  "Lady Postcard."