What's on Tap...
A brew of marketing and advertising news for your insatiable knowledge palette

The QR Code Evolution: Could Death be Knocking on the Door?

By Molly Carnicom on Thu, Mar 01, 2012 @ 12:00 PM |

Share:

QRCodeBlogThink back to a year or two ago. QR codes were becoming a real hit with advertisers and were spreading like wildfire. In fact, you couldn’t  page through a magazine without seeing at least one QR code. Though QR Codes were first developed in 1994 by the automobile industry for identification purposes, they were not widely used in advertising until recent years. What was all the hype about these barcodes?

Many people claim this is just another fad while others strongly believe the small back and white squares are here to stay. Quick Response, or QR, codes are used in advertisements to enable consumers immediate access to what is being advertised.  Supporters see this as the perfect tool to ultimately make the consumer’s life easier. Skeptics, on the other hand, feel the return (what you receive when scanning the code) did not compare to the effort put in. Moreover, others feel the QR Code can be something of the past as new technology arises.

Should QR Codes be a part of your marketing efforts? Yes. The question is how. It could be as simple as adding them to your business card to easily allow contacts to input your contact information in their smart phone.  Or it could be the start of an entire campaign with multi-level landing pages, offers and the gateway to your marketing efforts. When executed and used in the correct context, you receive the results you are yearning for – motivating and engaging the consumer. Typically, QR code failures occur because of the way they are carried out. Putting codes in places where there is no reception for mobile devices or placing codes on mediums where consumers cannot act upon them will yield little to no results. Like most other marketing efforts, you can’t just do it to do it. You need to first make a plan, set some goals, and define what you hope to get out of incorporating this technology. If you do that, with QR codes, print advertising or social media, you set yourself up for a much higher success rate. Plan your work, work your plan, and you have a chance to experience your desired outcomes.

Where do you see the QR Code future heading? Let us know in the comments section below

Click meClick me

qr codes quick response qr code evolution

false