QR codes are a bit of a craze at the moment, cropping up everywhere from billboards and flyers to magazines and coupons. We’ve had a few people making enquiries about getting QR codes implemented for their sites or just generally for their businesses, but in most cases we’ve talked them out of it for their own good, and the good of their ongoing marketing effort – QR codes appear to be a fad which is doomed to fall down as a mass marketing tool, sooner or later.
The biggest problem is that to utilise them a person has to get out a smart phone, load an app and then wait for the code to send them wherever – and many users don’t even have the capability to read the code as QR code reader applications are not native on the vast majority of smartphones, so have to be downloaded and installed in the first place.
It is actually quicker and more efficient to just give people a web address – plus a line for a web address on most print media takes up less space than a QR code, so having the code removes space which could be used for other promotional or informative content. We’ve even heard absurd suggestions from some people saying things like “but if I have the QR code I don’t need my website, email or phone number.” When you’re talking about cramming a QR code onto a very limited space such as a business card, rather than printing common sense information like your phone number, it is probably time to re-evaluate your priorities!
Consumer research into QR codes shows that a vast majority of people don’t even know what a QR code is – in fact only 36% know what they are and only a very meagre 11% of those surveyed had actually used one. Of the users, under half said they found QR codes useful and wanted to see them used more widely, and a third found them useful on selective occasions and “didn’t mind” using them. A full 20%, however, said they did not find QR codes useful, couldn’t see the advantages of them and didn’t expect to use them in the future.
Far more tellingly, 52% of respondents didn’t actually possess a mobile device that was capable of scanning in a QR code. For a general consumer audience, that means any B2C brand that relies heavily on QR codes for its marketing presence is potentially losing around half of its available customers. 15% of the surveyed consumers said that they’d never seen a QR code for a website they were interested in, and 11% were of the opinion that there are plenty of other simpler, quicker and more convenient ways to get to a website. Memorable vanity URLs, for example, are far easier, cheaper and more effective, and can also be used to convey additional marketing messages (anyone in the snack industry looking at itsdelicious.com or similar?) to draw in visitors.
All that said, however, if your main audience is the marketing-sensitive younger generation who love their gadgets and gizmos, you could probably do worse than pop a QR code discreetly onto some of your print advertising. Offer something unique to prompt a visit, like scanning the QR code to get to a money off voucher or giveaway offer, and you can build up a successful brand presence for the highly tech-savvy consumer. Above all, if you’re planning to experiment with QR codes, proceed with caution – try starting slowly, directing people to a specific page on your website which is hidden from search engines (for example) so you can easily track visits in your analytics and see just how much traffic the code is generating. As with any new marketing gimmick, don’t jump into the pool with both feet at once unless you’re willing to get very wet all of a sudden, as well as potentially breaking a leg if the premise turns out to be a little shallow for your needs.
