QR Codes and Why You Should Be Interested
by: Tim Harkins
So you've probably seen these small square bar code looking things show up on all your favorite products and in magazines and newspapers. We even have them at the bottom of this very newsletter. They're called Quick Response Codes or QR Codes for short and they're starting to show up everywhere!
A bit of history
QR codes originated in Japan in the 1990's by a subsidary of Toyota in an effort to better track parts in their manufacturing operations. They've been largely used in parts of Asia and Europe and are just now catching on in the US.
What they do
QR codes differentiate themselves from normal barcodes in that they can hold a great deal more information as well as different kinds of alpha-numerical information. For example, QR codes can hold information as simple as text or a link to a website or something a little more complex like a virtual business card (or vCard). Utilizing a smart phone's camera and a dedicated QR code scanner app a person can scan QR codes and access their content.
Why you should be interested
 Really? If you're wondering why you should be interested you should probably crawl out from under that rock too. QR codes are popping up on nearly every product that has a label, ads in newspapers and magazines, websites, even things like t-shirts and business cards. QR codes are a way for a consumer to interact with your business in a way that they've never been able to before. With the use of their smart phone they can simply scan a QR code and be magically taken to your website. Or maybe they scan a code off a mailer that you send them and they're taken to a page on your website that has video showcasing your department and personnel. Or how about you hand them your business card and you show them the QR code on the back and tell them if they need any service in the future to scan the code and your contact info will be put into their contacts list on their phone. The possibilites are only limited by your imagination.
Here are some ideas to get you started using QR codes.
Use them to...
- add an event to the users' calendar for a special you're running on oil changes, etc.
- link to a page on your website showcasing your department or personnel
- add your vCard information to their contacts list. (Place the code on the back of your actual business card)
- link to your main website
- link to your social media pages (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
- link your the location of your dealership via Google Maps
You can also utilize QR codes in many different situations:
 print them on mailers, brochures, business cards, in-store point of sale materials, anything!- have one printed out to the size of a poster and hang it on the wall in your dealership (people will be instinctively drawn to it like any other work of art)
- have them printed on your oil change reminder stickers that are placed in the corner of the customers windshield
- have some printed on the napkins or coffee cups in your waiting room
How to get started
So you want to get into the world of QR codes? Well the good news is that the investment in QR codes is very small to nothing! They're not like your traditional barcodes that need a sizable up front investment and a recurring cost for using the code that you traditionally have to pay to a third party or manufacturer. There are many websites that will generate QR codes for you for free, but with some limitations. There are also sites that, for a miniscule fee, will generate the codes for you with no limitations. There are also full service applications or programs that you can install on your smart phone or desktop PC that will generate QR codes as well. We at M5 utilize a website called QRstuff.com. There are other websites out there that will fulfill your QR code needs, but we like this one. It was inexpensive and also easy to use. You simply fill in the information that you want included in your QR code and the site will generate the code in the form of a graphic that you can utilize in your campaign. You can customize the color of the code information as well (the black blocky part) to fit into your company's branding.
Just do a Google search for "QR Codes" and you'll find a huge amount of information.
Some things to remember
Like with any barcode type of graphic there needs to be some considerations made. The first and most important consideration is the size of the QR code. There is a limit to how small you can print the QR code and it still be "scannable" by a smart phone's camera. Unfortunately there is no magic size for how small you can go because the limit is based solely on the density or amount of information you have in your code. For example a QR code with just a simple URL will be less dense (have less information in it), and thus can be printed smaller, as opposed to a QR code that has a full vCard in it. My best advice is to print out some samples before you finalize anything to test it with your own smart phone.
Another consideration is that not all QR code scanners are built the same and not all smart phones are built the same. Even though the codes themselves are standardized, the software and hardware to scan them is not. So a code you scan with an iPhone may be interpreted differently when scanned with an Android or Blackberry device and vice versa.
The last consideration to remember is that the white border around the code information is there for a reason, so keep it in there or outline it if printed on a white background.
Software and Hardware
Like I mentioned above, not all QR code scanners and not all smart phones are built the same, so you may see some variation in how the infomation in your code is interpreted. With that said there are many free apps for the big three smart phone platforms (iPhone, Android, Blackberry). I personally have ten QR code scanning apps on my iPhone (mostly for testing purposes) and all of them were FREE! Android and Blackberry will also have a myriad of free apps in their respective market places, that will scan QR codes too. Since they're free you can install them all and choose your favorite to keep and delete the rest.
Conclusion
QR codes are still ramping up in popularity in the US and now is the best time to start utilizing them in your fixed operations marketing campaigns. They're an extremely flexible and cost effective way of adding that next level of interactivity with your customers. And we all know the more you're able to truly interact with your customers, the more likely they will choose you as they're vendor of choice.
If you'd like any more information on the utilization of QR codes in your operations feel free to contact any of us at M5 and we'd be happy to help in any way we can.
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Sorry we missed this Charlie!
