[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Japanese advertising poster"]
[/caption]You look at this thing and you think, “What in the world is that?” It’s not a crossword puzzle, a bar code doing drugs or postage stamp designed by someone on a hallucinogen. So what is it?
It’s that strange thing called a QR, or Quick Response, code. You have seen them in this blog, in magazines, in stores an even on T-shirts. They have grown in popularity because so many people are purchasing smart phones.
The idea was invented by a Japanese company named DENSO Corp., which is a subsidy of Toyota way back in 1994. Japanese have been using it for years, but only recently has it become popular in the United States.
You need to have a QR scanning app in your smart phone to begin with. Then when you see a QR code, open the app and used the smart phone’s camera to focus the code on your phone’s screen. The app will recognize the code and automatically open the link, video or image in your browser. Of course you will need an internet connection to find out what you have.
Do you want your own QR code? You can create them for free and link it to anything from URLs to information about yourself to your GPS location.
Brands and companies are getting into the spirit of the low-cost marketing tool. People are making use of the codes as well. A February survey of U.S. smart phone users by MGH of Baltimore, MD found that 32% of people who answered said that they have scanned a QR code. Of those that did, 54% said they used the code to get a coupon or a discount. Plus 72% said they were more likely to remember an ad that sported a QR code.
Matthias Galica, CEO of ShareSquare, a QR code platform said that “QR codes work as paper-based hyperlinks that can lead you to music videos, a site for MP3 downloads, or even purchase tickets right there.”
While some consumers know how to use their phone cameras to scan, many do not. Galica said he believes scanning QR codes is not always intuitive and should not be taken for granted. He suggests that QR codes should have some text like, “Scan with any barcode scanner on your phone.”
He said it is also important to communicate the use of QR codes or else there is no point in having them.
Related articles
- QR Code (shakthydoss.wordpress.com)
- Everything a Marketer Should Know About QR Codes (hubspot.com)
