Barcodes are creating plenty of opportunities for e-Marketing.
The market is going to continue to grow and maybe booming in 2012 as more brands, enterprises and consumers recognize the convenience and opportunities that mobile barcodes offer. Barcodes answer the need for information on the go, interactivity, measurability and traceability.
The barriers to this kind of marketing are mostly consumer education and awareness, training of Marketing Directors. The user needs a smartphone and an application reading codes. Readers pre-installed on handsets are removing one of the barriers (no need to download). Obviously, the supplier of the code should provide the user a good reason to scan it. The user willing to scan is a key element of this marketing strategy channel.
The use of codes enables customized content display, coupons and discount management, product feature information, games for fun. With the codes, the experience of the user is more interactive, is active against the offline world of the physical product or support. Furthermore, it could be a way to collect leads.
To sum up, the landing page of the scan should provide special value for the customer.
Being active, a user has higher expectations as to what content they will find than while watching TV. You can reward the user with discounts, exclusive content, or useful tips relevant to the code's context. The different scenarios can leverage smartphone features (email, SMS, phone call, video, map, apps, etc.) to save time for the user.
Regarding time saving, Tesco in Korea created a virtual store in a subway station with QR codes transforming waiting time into shopping time.[1] Another example saving time is including a QR code on a business card that links to a VCard is a lot easier than the user manually entering the contact record. The landing page can also be a website or a free-no-strings report/whitepaper/offer.
Prefer the use of QR codes for events
Additional information: a great addition to any traditional marketing channel you are showing to clients, groups, and audiences. It helps them to make decisions and could lead to purchases.
Digital publishing: link directly QR code to sample chapter downloads and additional branded content (video from author, etc.) to promote sales of the book. In the books, the codes provide additional content of interest for the reader.
(6)Going further offline world: for example, a real estate broker, could include 2D Codes on all home promotional items (on-site and online) that include a branded video showing the house while complete, the schedule for building it, and broker contact information.
Customization: QR codes can be customized, 1D codes are more difficult to enhance experience.
Prefer the use of ordinary 1D codes on day to day basis
Additional information: access to carbon footprint, nutritional content, history of the product, cross sales and/or up sales proposal in the store.
In-store locations: codes promoting a special discount for their current or next visit.
Packaging and labels: codes can direct consumers to branded content video featuring unique characteristics for that particular item.
The number of existing 1D codes is huge and make growth unstoppable everywhere.
In general, codes giving access to mobile coupons offer great opportunities to address buyers individually and win new customers. H&M successfully used that strategy (Neomedia website). [2]
The power of customization of 2D barcodes
You can get a code that corresponds to your brand. The design will send a message to the user. QR codes include an Error Correction Level (ECL) that enables codes to still be scanned with some changes in the code. Many brands created customized codes including Louis Vuitton.
A Japanese company called Design Barcode Inc., is able to customize 1D code. It is a good way to customize the code but however less powerful than 2D codes.[3]
Mass media usage
TV channel are starting to use QR Codes. As of today, the use is mainly through advertising and not really for shows. At the SuperBowl, GoDaddy, a famous brand for domains in the U.S.A., includes a QR code on its TV commercial. With the use of codes on TV, the market is likely to be huge similar to the short text message market.[4]
The future of scanning
Goggles, one of the Google project, is preparing the future of scanning with image recognition. This technique goes beyond the power of scanning barcodes.[5]
Author: Alban Fournier
[1] Van Camp, Jeffrey - South Korean supermarket chain opens virtual grocery stores in subway, DigitalTrends, Date of access: March 11, 2012 - URL : http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/south-korean-supermarket-chain-opens-virtual-grocery-stores-in-subways/
[2] Neomedia, H&M, Case study, date of access : March 11, 2012 – URL : http://www.neom.com/node/142
[3] Design Barcode website, Date of access: March 11, 2012 – URL: http://www.d-barcode.com/barcodes.html
[4] GoDaddy, SuperBowl, date of access: March 11, 2012 – URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DGCDpP-kfQ
[5] Goggles, Date of access: March 11, 2012 - URL: http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#text
Offering value to the customer who goes to the trouble of scanning is particularly important, I think.
ReplyDeleteWell, they also offer the opportunity to turn a static advertisement into a measurable and actionable ones which builds customer engagement, as well as the potential for increased conversion rates. The use of QR codes allow the marketer to become creative and think of new ways to create awareness.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments!
ReplyDeleteI am on the same page :-)
This kind of marketing is flexible (you can change the URL whenever you want), measurable (you track many dimensions), fast (a few seconds), and interactive (content can change according to the profile of the user, the time and the location).