QR Codes: Time to Get Off the Starting Block?
Thursday, 12 May 2011 00:00
by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro
I’m sure you’ve heard people talking about QR codes, those black-and-white (sometimes branded or in color) squares that you scan with your cellphone and that take you to a website, a video, or some other content of interest. Whether you use them as a consumer or a marketer, this is good stuff.
As a marketer, the appeal is intuitively obvious. You put them on a poster, a window cling, a point-of-purchase display, and with an appealing call to action, someone walking by can respond immediately simply by taking out their phone. Not only this, but because the landing page stays in the phone’s history, it’s always there for people to refer to later.
I’ve heard a number of people say, “That sounds great, but most of my customers don’t know what QR codes are yet. They won’t know what to do with them.”
That used to be the case, but I’m not so sure anymore. Not only do I see it in the case studies and in my own experience, but I recently downloaded a survey conducted by a Maryland-based ad agency, MGH, which found a high degree of usage. It found that of people with smartphones, 65% had seen QR codes—which means they know what they are. Of those who had seen QR codes, 49% had scanned them.
This is powerful information in itself, but there’s more. From a marketing perspective, the demographics of those who had used QR codes are highly appealing. Of those who had used QR codes, the overwhelming majority are . . .
· 35–54 years old
· College educated
· $50,000+ household incomes
The barriers to deploying QR codes are coming down, if they are not gone altogether. The opportunities offered by QR codes are significant and compelling. If you’re still on the sidelines about QR codes, maybe it’s time to put them into action.
Heidi Tolliver-Nigro is an industry analyst specializing in digital, 1:1, personalized URLs, QR codes, and other marketing technologies as they apply to print. You can contact her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
