Number one missed opportunity for QR-codes: "For Sale/Rent" signs. It actively annoys me that I don't have a super-low-friction way to take a closer look at a for-sale house I'm walking by.
Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
21–30 of 152 posts
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#22I 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 th…
I find them quite convenient, and prefer using my smartphone to photograph a QR code than trying to tap out some arbitrary URL.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#23Home Depot had a QR code linking to a YouTube video showing how to install a garbage disposal. It was right by the product.
If every Android, Blackberry, and iPhone came with a universal QR code reader it MIGHT be worth it, but none of them do, so you have to provide printed material or a url anyways so there is no real reason to use them now.
Definitely. The first and only time I tried to scan a QR code I took a picture of it on my iPhone, realized a few seconds later that I had to install an app for it, then walked away shocked that anyone actually uses them.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#24[deleted]
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#25I 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 th…
when have you ever scanned a QR code and learned about/bought something?
Shopping for dishwashers in-store, even after doing lots of online research. The in-store display tags have very minimal info. Best Buy has/had a QRCode on each product that took you to a webpage for that item with a lot more info, reviews, etc. It was one of the main reasons I actually bought a dishwasher AT Best Buy instead of elsewhere.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#26Why 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…
Karma-whoring, pure and simple. You can always get upvotes (facebook likes, pageviews) for being cantankerous.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#27I scan QR codes regularly and find them incredibly useful. Poster about something I might be interested in? Instead of typing error-prone-fully on my stupid tiny keyboard, I point, scan, check the URL looks sane, then go to the web site. Sometimes I take a photo and deal with it later.
Please, don't take away features I like and use just because you think no one uses them.
Instead of hating on them so much, show how genuinely clever you are and figure a way to make use of the technology, otherwise you're just like a eunuch in a harem, pointing, observing, and criticizing, without actually being able to do anything.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#28Japan has been using QR codes respectfully, and usefully, for years now. People don't scan them in the US because most people don't seem to have a clue what they are. If we spend any freaking time educating the public about what they are and how to use them ( and stopped using those damn proprietary variants) then we'd see a lot of value come out of them. You don't like QR codes? Fine, then give me some %#$%@$ altern…
In Japan they use them for useful stuff - scan one at a bus stop to get a real-time map of where the bus is.
In the US (so far) they have been used for crap - "scan this to see MORE advertising from us!!!!"
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#29Home Depot had a QR code linking to a YouTube video showing how to install a garbage disposal. It was right by the product.
If every Android, Blackberry, and iPhone came with a universal QR code reader it MIGHT be worth it, but none of them do, so you have to provide printed material or a url anyways so there is no real reason to use them now.
> If every Android, Blackberry, and iPhone came with a
> universal QR code reader it MIGHT be worth it, but
> none of them do, ...
> ... you have to provide printed material or a url
> anyways so there is no real reason to use them now.
Oh, and never write something for the iPhone, because not everyone has one of those, either.
Re: Dear Marketers: Enough with the QR codes
#30Japan has been using QR codes respectfully, and usefully, for years now. People don't scan them in the US because most people don't seem to have a clue what they are. If we spend any freaking time educating the public about what they are and how to use them ( and stopped using those damn proprietary variants) then we'd see a lot of value come out of them. You don't like QR codes? Fine, then give me some %#$%@$ altern…
"If we spend any freaking time educating the public about what they are and how to use them"
The problem is that people will not learn a new technology to engage with an ad.
If Facebook has been started with a ton brands and no people, and the advertisers kept putting 'hey like us on facebook!' in their ads, no one would have ever joined Facebook. Instead brands came to Facebook because that's what people were already using.
If there was some utility to QR codes that got people using them outside of ads, then they might also work on ads. But right now, ads are basically the only place they appear, so no one is going to go through the effort to learn about them.