QR Codes Marry Print and Mobile Marketing Communications

A recent study by InfoTrends, a worldwide market research and strategic consulting company, found that 64.7 percent of marketers have some familiarity with mobile barcode technology known as a QR (Quick Response) code.

Simply put, a QR code is barcode that encodes data. It is read by a smartphone much like a scanner reads the pricing information on a barcode at a grocery store checkout. When scanned, a QR code most commonly takes you to a website that has been optimized for mobile devices. But within the data, a QR code can contain other information including a phone number, calendar event, contact information (vCard), SMS (text) message, or geo-location (mapping) information.

To “read” a QR code, you need to have a smartphone with a camera that connects to the Internet and a QR code reader on your phone. Some of the newer smartphones have a built-in QR code reader. If not, you have to download a reader to your phone. A few popular ones are Neoreader, QuickMark and OptiScan. There are many others and most are free.

From business cards to invitations to posters and print ads, QR codes help make any printed piece more interactive – and can provide valuable information about a product or service. QR codes often link to websites. However, many marketers make the mistake of driving customers to a home page – or worse yet, a home page of a website that is not optimized for mobile devices.