We Told You So

Far be it from me to pull the old "we told you so" out of my bag of marketing tricks but the fact is, we told you so. Back in the Summer of 2010, we started talking to our clients about the marketing potential of QR Codes. After our description and more importantly a quick demo unfurled the brow and brought a smile to our client's face, I explained that this is one technology where we may be a little ahead of the curve. But I promised that 2011 would be the year of the QR Code.

Now in mid-March, it seems my prediction may come true. Everywhere we look, from billboards, to advertising fliers to direct mail pieces, we are seeing QR Codes. The good news is they are out there and marketers are excited about the potential. The bad news is that most marketers are doing a poor job of explaining what exactly a QR Code is and why it is important. I can't tell you the number of places where I have just seen the Tag used with absolutely no instruction as to what it is, why I should scan it with my smart phone and most, importantly, that it even IS scannable by my smart phone.

So, here's a free lesson on how to use QR Codes.
1. Determine if you are going to use the generic black and white code
that can be scanned by multiple QR Code apps or if you are going to use a proprietary code like the Microsoft Tag which can only be scanned by downloading Microsoft's app.
2. Remember that even though awareness is growing, you still need to assume that a large proportion of your audience may not know what a QR Code is and therefore, you need to include a line of copy explaining that it can be scanned with a smart phone once an appropriate app has been downloaded.
3. Give someone a reason to scan your code. Taking them to an informative video is one great option. Scanning it to enter a contest is another.
4. Check what kinds of "stats" are available for your campaign. How will you know how many people scanned your code to determine if it was a success?
5. Once you create the code, try scanning it with an iPhone (3 or 4), a phone using Android software and a Blackberry. See how the experiences differ from one phone platform to another because these will be the types of experiences your customers will encounter. NOTE: It has been our experience that the Blackberry platform struggles with QR Codes. My guess is that newer Blackberrys will address this in the future but "standard issue" Blackberry phones were designed to be great e-mail devices and not much more.

Recently there have been a number of articles hitting the marketing world about good stories and bad stories relating to the use of QR Codes. For instance, Jet Blue placed large billboards in NY subway tunnels only to discover that most cell phones work poorly underground and therefore, the tags could not be read. Others reported that even early adopters of new technology are not running around scanning every tag they see so they surmise that even though marketers are jumping on the bandwagon, their message is not reaching the target. We recognized this early on and recommended to our clients that they provide a strong incentive for why someone should scan their code. A trade magazine we received this week had a Microsoft Tag in the upper left hand corner of the cover with no explanation of why it was there. Because I am interested in this topic and knew what it was, I scanned it just to see where it would take me. It was linked to their home page. I was underwhelmed. Why not just put your URL large in that same place. I would probably be more likely to use that rather than scanning a tag when I have no idea where it will take me.

The current unbridled use of this technology is like watching a baby play with a new toy designed for an 8 year old. He will probably slobber all over it but it is unlikely he will figure out how it works.

Good News for the Economy

A Forrester Research report entitled "Bigger B2B Marketing Budgets Come with Great Expectations" notes that marketing budgets for 2011 will increase by an average of 6.7%!
High-tech products will lead the way while manufacturing companies will show lower increaeses of 4.3%. Pharma and medical device products are expected to decrease budgets slights (most likely due to lower reimbursements).