Cracking the Code

Understanding QR Codes and Their Place in Our Digital Future

In a way, QR codes are reminiscent of the secret decoder pins, badges and rings of the Golden Age of Radio and the early days of television.

The most enduring evocation of the era of the decoder ring is a scene in the yuletide classic A Christmas Story, where Ralphie Parker receives his Little Orphan Annie ring in the mail only to discover that the message he’d been waiting weeks to decrypt is merely some ad copy for Ovaltine. That was the marketing beauty of the decoder ring: It was a highly sought-after toy that was closely tied to a program’s advertiser.

There really is no limit to the ways QR codes can be employed.

Toys have grown a lot more complicated and wondrous since then. For example, so-called smartphones.

QR codes (QR stands for quick response) are those black and white squares that appear on packages and signs, looking like bar codes with hangovers. They can only be accessed using appropriately configured smartphones and tablets.

Once scanned, the code links the person who scanned to additional online information about a product or service — or rewards them with bonus materials and offers.

There really is no limit to the ways QR codes can be employed. They’re being used by real estate agents, educators, restaurateurs, HIV-AIDs activists, even funeral home directors.

Blogger Joel Buckland posted this fascinating look at the many surprising ways QR codes are being used. As Buckland pointed out, some savvy modern marketers are trying to create the same sort of fun with these codes that those clever marketers of the mid-20th century did with those decoder rings.

QR codes have been around for a while, but their use by consumers in this country is a recent phenomenon. In February 2011, mobile-oriented marketing and digital payments company Mobio Identity Systems, Inc. released a study concluding that QR code usage in North America had jumped 1,200 percent in the last half of 2010.

QR code usage is still such a novel concept in some quarters that none of several dozen marketing professors I contacted felt knowledgeable enough to comment.

Of course, some pundits have spent the last couple of years predicting the death of the QR code. You don’t get anywhere in the technology punditry biz if you don’t start predicting the death of something before most people have found out about it.

When a marketer tries to think too much like a company cheerleader and not enough like someone looking for practical information or entertainment, snafus can result.

Case in point: this blog post by Matthew Brown from April 2014 in which the author explores reasons why the days of QR codes might be numbered.

Brown’s wrap-up reads: “In conclusion, the QR code isn’t dead quite yet — in fact scans for QR codes have never been higher.”

Apparently QR codes are going out like James Cagney did in White Heat: “Top of the world, Ma!”

Blame the Messenger

One of the reasons that some pundits have relished touting the demise of QR codes is because they’ve had (or heard of) some bad experiences with QR codes, as Bryson Meunier pointed out in a post at the Marketing Land website.

“Everyone who has been the victim of a bad user experience at the hands of a marketer armed with a QR code understands where these critics are coming from,” he wrote. “Many marketers have nearly killed the QR code movement by using a code without optimizing the experience.

QR codes aren’t going away anytime soon, especially when one considers how mobile device usage is likely to rise in the coming years.

Mashable and Business Insider posted accounts of QR code “fails” that mostly show instances where marketers didn’t seem to understand how they work (just as marketers didn’t really understand how Twitter worked at first).

But both website lineups also erroneously feature a tombstone, an object on which the placement of a QR code actually makes a great deal of sense. Just think of a QR code that links a person to biographical information about, or creative works by, someone who has passed away.

Many of the cited cases of misused QR codes echo infamous instances where corporate marketers mishandled social media. Britton Marketing blogged about those in September.

When a marketer tries to think too much like a company cheerleader and not enough like someone looking for practical information or entertainment, snafus can result.

For example, there’s the breakfast bar company cited by Graham Charlton on the Econsultancy website that employed a giant QR code on a sign to connect mobile phone users to a list of terms and conditions.

That’s a far greater bummer than the one Ralphie Parker experienced. There are few people who are willing to read terms and conditions in any form. Maybe they should, but they don’t.

Using a QR code to gain access to terms and conditions is a little like using one of Willy Wonka’s golden tickets to get a tour of a factory that makes fiberglass insulation.

This sort of thing is covered as No. 5 on Matthias Gallica’s Mashable list of avoidable QR code mistakes.

“This point is highly subjective but also probably the most important,” he wrote. “The proper mindset is to reward the user for scanning your QR code. This ‚Äòreward,’ however, will change depending on what you’re trying to promote.

“Try to avoid redundancy (a digital copy of your flyer), irrelevance or dullness (your company’s street address).”

Gallica wrote that compelling QR code campaigns tend to offer one or more of the following:

1. Exclusive rich media, videos and photos
2. Exclusive or time-sensitive access
3. Free downloads or swag
4. “Instant Win” contests
5. Special offers, coupons or gifts
6. “Secret” information
7. Deep integration with social media to activate viral loops

In conclusion, Gallica echoes some of the same sentiments I expressed above.

“The best advice is to put yourself in the shoes of your target fan,” he wrote. “Would you bother pulling out the phone for your campaign? Would you be happy with the pay off? A little bit of time and thought can create a truly successful QR campaign.”

For every supposed QR code fail, there is a less-heralded success, it seems. Meunier cites a number of them (with links) in his 2013 post.

QR codes could be an enormous boon to marketing campaigns if marketers could just figure out how to incentivize the acquisition and mastering of the technology.

“Take HP, Heinz, Nestle and McDonald’s,” he wrote, “all of which were cited by Forrester [Research] as having great examples of extended packaging using QR codes. Heinz even got more than a million scans from their QR codes on bottles.

“Or ask Peapod if QR codes are dead. They set up a virtual grocery store in a pedestrian tunnel on the Chicago subway and have been watching their average order size and mobile consumer base grow as a result.

“Taco Bell and ESPN got more than 225k scans earlier this year from this dead medium. L’Oreal put QR codes in NYC taxis last year and saw a 7 percent conversion rate and their app downloads increase by 80 percent.”

QR codes aren’t going away anytime soon, especially when one considers how mobile device usage is likely to rise in the coming years.

The World’s My Home When I’m Mobile

In January 2014, a digital milestone was reached, according to the CNN Money website.

“Americans used smartphone and tablet apps more than PCs to access the Internet — the first time that has ever happened,” the website reported.

Rebecca Murtaugh of the Search Engine Watch website called it the biggest shift since the Internet began, writing that companies and retailers have been slow to embrace mobile as a unique conduit to and from customers. But they need to step things up.

It seems as if QR codes may get a second chance to make a first impression.

“The time has come to seriously consider integration of mobile-friendly versions of all mission-critical assets: applications, data, the website, communications, demos, sales materials, customer service, etc.,” Murtaugh wrote.

She added that mobile devices are 24-hour devices that impact B2B (business to business): “Meeting your customers wherever they work is no longer a luxury — it is a necessity. If you wish to convert interaction to action, you must compel the decision-maker.”

It seems as if QR codes may get a second chance to make a first impression.

As an unidentified blogger on the Parish Group’s website pointed out, it’s not so much that QR codes failed as it is that they never got off the ground.

The blogger said a large majority of smartphones do not come with native QR code readers: “That means that new QR users have to make the extra steps of downloading and learning to use an app before they are even able to scan a code and see where it leads.”

Making people want to download an app is the work of a marketer.

The possibilities are there. QR codes could be an enormous boon to marketing campaigns if marketers could just figure out how to incentivize the acquisition and mastering of the technology.

Video/Photos: YouTube, iStock, Shutterstock and onextrapixel