Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
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Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
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Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#2I think this boils down to the basic rule: don't disrespect your audience.
I keep going to meetings where people suggest using QR codes to advertise a product. And I ask the obvious question: when have you ever scanned a QR code and learned about/bought something? No one can ever answer. But there's a vague sense that somewhere, out there, "those people" are using QR codes.
What's funny is no one seems to know who this is. Among the hip, young, techy people at a startup, it is assumed QR codes are for technically-illiterate old people who don't know what a URL is. Among well-dressed, professional adults, it is assumed they are for all the young, hip people with their smartphone addictions.
I assume someone uses QR codes, but I don't know who, and I don't see why they are popping up in so many places.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#3If people didn't scan them, the statistics that go along with them are useless.
People do scan them, though.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#4Plus, they hang in the most ridiculous places: On billboards high in the air, on a highway, across subway tracks...
I have no idea how to scan these. Well, maybe if I use a DSLR but not with the average smartphone.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#5I feel like this article is backwards. QR codes are still the best way to transfer from print to phone. The problem is most people are still transferring from print ad to phone ad.
My theater company uses it to send people from our poster to our ticket buying site (and let you know where the QR code goes). There's genuine utility here.
Don't throw out the useful application because so many are doing it wrong.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#6Especially the QR-codes that aren't QR codes. I honestly tried to scan a new style barcode that wasn't QR, that literally said below it "Please download the SomethingCode app to read this barcode."
Never have I sworn out loud so fervently at a magazine, or so quickly sworn off purchasing from that (rather large) company.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#7I feel like this article is backwards. QR codes are still the best way to transfer from print to phone. The problem is most people are still transferring from print ad to phone ad. My theater company uses it to send people from our poster to our ticket buying site (and let you know where the QR code goes). There's genuine utility here. Don't throw out the useful application because so many are doing it wrong.
The issue is you're one of a few using them correctly.
Most implementations are unlabeled, no indication what it does or why I should bother.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#8Home Depot had a QR code linking to a YouTube video showing how to install a garbage disposal. It was right by the product.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#9Home Depot had a QR code linking to a YouTube video showing how to install a garbage disposal. It was right by the product.
This seems like it would be an actual good use of a QR code, if it was specifically labeled as "Scan this to see how to install this product."
On the other hand, I just got a bill from my exterminator service. And lo and behold right there next to their address block on the invoice was their URL and an unlabeled QR code. Why in the heck would I ever bother scanning that? Having it there just screams "the owner's kid nephew said that QR codes are all the rage so we had better get one on our invoice."
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#10Why is is so cool to hate on QR codes lately? I've heard Merlin Mann and Marco Arment rag on them pretty often on their podcasts. I don't get it. No matter how ugly, it's still a better way for me to get to your website/app from a physical item (bottle of wine, print ad, whatever) than having me type out a URL....sure they are stuck a bunch of places that make them ugly or inconvenient to actually read....but so are URLs and phone numbers. I'm way more likely to scan a code than open a browser and type out a URL or even worse make a note/take a picture to remember to look something up later, there's pretty much no chance at all that I will call a phone number if that's all that is listed. The code (when implemented properly) takes me directly to what I want with almost zero effort on my part.
But I may be some kind of weirdo, I think think QR codes are kinda cool looking anyway, at least more so than (800)-999-9999 or http://www.foo.bar