What the heck is that funny looking, pixilated image over there?
It’s a Quick Response code, or QR code for short, and they are quickly becoming the newest darlings of the marketing world.
What exactly do they do?
They can be used for anything from downloading a business card (v-card), launching a specified website or social profile, providing ratings and reviews for local businesses or restaurants, or even getting creative and hosting local scavenger hunt games where participants must seek and scan the codes to locate the next item in the game.
Although there is a certain learning curve with new technology, if the end result is worth it, most people will take the time to learn how to put it to good use. This seems to be the case with QR codes. While QR codes reading software comes standard on phones throughout Asia, they are just beginning to catch on here in the US.
In order for you to take advantage of the use of QR codes, you must have a camera enabled mobile device (most new phones do these days) and you must also download a QR code reader app to that device. Once the app is installed, all you have to do is launch the device, which accesses the camera and turns it into a scanner, point it at the QR code and snap a picture when prompted, and whatever that code has been intended for happens next.
Why would people want to use QR codes?
Most of us already have a camera phone on us at all times so it makes it very convenient when you run across the QR codes in the wild. Imagine meeting someone in a random manner and you want to exchange contact information. If you both have QR codes, all you have to do is scan each other’s codes and your contact information is automatically downloaded into each other’s phones.
No searching for a pen, no double-checking spelling, no quick scribble to check out their website later … it’s all right at your fingertips with a simple scan.
I don’t want to get into in-depth details about QR codes in this article, but Mark Sprague of Lexington eBusiness Consulting has already done that for us in his supremely informative article: Understanding QR Codes … Drive Traffic using QR Codes. His article discusses some ideas on how you can use QR codes for marketing and how some companies have already used them. He also provides an awesome list of QR codes Generators and Readers software (about mid-way down the article page).
I already have a ton of ideas for using QR codes in my marketing designs with clients, including a current poster project … so I’ll be sure to share those with you in upcoming articles.
What clever ways can you think of using QR codes?
