Basecamp’s QR code
Recently, a very talented marketer and I were discussing QR (quick response) codes. QR codes are the rather ugly black-and-white squares you’ll find adorning business cards and perhaps posters. Mine is to the left.
Supposedly, if you scan a QR code with a mobile device (or I suppose with your desktop scanner), the QR code takes you to a special web page (say, one with a coupon), or a home page, a landing page.
I was quite enamored of them, because they seemed to work so well in Japan.
Anyway, my friend says QR codes are finally being used, and maybe she’s right. But I haven’t seen evidence of it.
Well, QR codes were created in 2009 and I thought I was pretty savvy adding one to the back of my business card. I can assure you that only one person scanned that QR code — and I was with him at the time.
Since 2009 the QR code has been plagued with setbacks. No smartphone manufacturer ever sold its products with a scanner already installed. So most of the public was pretty flummoxed and stifled by this.
Also, mobile phones were not quite ready for QR codes — in 2009, virtually no web site was “responsive” (that is, able to display content well on a mobile phone). If you scanned a QR code, gosh knows what would appear in front of you.
And THESE days, it’s so much easier for a business to post a sign asking you to text a 5-digit number, after which you’re entitled to all kinds of discounts and coupons.
“[QR codes are] as dead as a dodo,” said Adam Buhler, DigitasLBi’s vp of creative technology. “They seemed like the holy grail, but they’re horrifically ugly. I’ve heard them described as a robot vomit.”
Anyway, after several years of waiting for QR technology to catch up to the rest of us, I finally redesigned my business card. And I’ve said goodbye to QR codes for good.
If you want to read more, check out:
Death of the QR code
or read what people think who still believe in them.
Some kind of a nod to equal time
Add your own links if you agree or disagree!
The two biggest mistakes in using a QR code are:
1) Not including text that tells the person who sees the code what the “WIIFM” is. (“What’s In It For Me?”) More below on a real life example.
2) Using the QR to send the person to a website Home Page. The QR should take the person who scans to a dedicated landing page that will provide the information or experience promised in the WIIFM call to action text.
I found a real life example of effective QR use about three weeks ago, and it was the day before I was holding a webinar that included a segment on using QRs. I was rinsing a clam-shell container from Driscoll’s raspberries before putting it in my recycling bin, and noticed a label inside the lid that said, “Scan. Join. Be Rewarded.”, and in smaller font, “See bottom of this package.” The bottom had a label with the QR and “Scan to Join the Panel”. I scanned and immediately got an email with a link to a coupon for 50 cents off my next purchase of berries. BIG WIIFM and it made me very happy because I love raspberries – but if I had seen the QR code without knowing its purpose, I would have ignored it. So I was personally excited – because I now had a source for saving money on a favorite food – and professionally excited because I had a great example I could share on my webinar.
So the marketing moral of the story is that the QR needs a Call to Action explanation, AND needs to go to a mobile friendly and specific landing page.
Side note: QR codes were invented in 1994. Here’s a link to a short history: http://www.qrcodesinmarketing.net/history-of-qr-codes.html
Cheers!
Judith, you make some excellent points.
However, if QR codes truly go back to 1994 (and thanks for the fact check!), then I think the fail is even greater. 20 years and almost no action?
I appreciate your berry story. I will supplement it with an experience I had at Tropical Smoothies recently. I ordered my wrap and my smoothie, and then had to wait around, as usual, for the order to complete.
There was a sign on the wall that read, “Text XXXXXX (don’t recall the number) and you’ll be signed up for coupons and discounts.” It took me 30 seconds to do so with my cell phone — no need for a scanning app. I got a message back right away.
So Tropical Smoothies knew how to tease me into giving up my email address fairly quickly, and I didn’t have to try to read it on one of those small clamshell berry packages.
Just saying!
But, please, keep the debate alive.