QR CODES:New barcodes give smartphone owners access to everything from websites to phone calls
IN RECENT MONTHS you may have noticed the appearance of small black-and-white symbols on advertisements in magazines and newspapers. The little icons are part of the latest marketing craze to hit Ireland: Quick Response (QR) codes. Read by camera-enabled phones that contain easily available code-reading software, they are being used by companies to reach customers more easily. Although they have just been introduced here, the codes are not new. QR codes were invented in Japan in 1994 and they have been used there for some time.
The two-dimensional bar codes were created at Denso Wave, a subsidiary of car company Toyota, to track parts during the car-manufacturing process.
These days they are used for everything from gaming to marketing.
Irish consumers may soon see them in more than just advertisements, however. Earlier this year, Total Produce, a fresh-produce provider, announced it planned to introduce “smart packs” for its fresh produce.
These packs will include QR codes that allow consumers to find out more information about the fruit or vegetable in the pack. For example, consumers may be directed to a video on Total Produce’s website describing how best to prepare a particular fruit. The first packs have begun to appear in stores, starting with grocery chain Dunnes Stores, and will be rolled out in all of Total Produce’s European markets.
One of the major appeals of QR codes is that they can be accessed by most smartphones that have cameras. A simple free application can turn a smartphones into a QR-code readers, regardless of whether it uses an iPhone, Android, Symbian or Blackberry operating system.
It’s not difficult to see why companies are turning to the codes. Smartphone usage has exploded in recent years, fuelled by consumer-friendly devices such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android handsets.
According to research company IDC, the mobile phone market in western Europe increased in size by 5 per cent year-on-year to 45 million units in the first quarter of this year.
In that period, smartphone shipments rose 76 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, shipping some 21.2 million units or almost half of the mobile shipments for the three months.
Vincent Dolan, the marketing manager at Total Produce, says the company decided to start using QR codes for a number of reasons.
Research from An Bord Bia showed that a lack of understanding of how to prepare fresh produce was holding back its use. Total Produce saw the opportunity to use the codes to address this through an information campaign.
The growing use of smartphones and the mobile web was another compelling reason for opting for the smart packs. “It’s the medium of the future. We wanted to get in on the ground floor,” he explains.
The response from the trade has been enthusiastic, he says. “It’s an undifferentiated commodity industry,” he says. “This is something different.”
QR codes provide a simple way to reach consumers, they are easy to create and can contain a lot of information. It’s a low-cost, easy to implement marketing tool that can be clearly measured. Colm Grealy, the chief executive of marketing agency Digital Reach, estimates that a typical campaign can cost as little as €500 to €1,000, which includes creating a landing page for codes, the code itself and capture information. A campaign can be created in 24 to 48 hours.
From the consumer’s point of view, it provides an easy way to get information on a product, get access to additional content, or even just to visit a site without having to type in the web address.
“A big part of how we use the web now is mobile. We’re all carrying smartphones,” Grealy says. “Smartphones have their downsides. They’re clumsy to enter a lot of information into, particularly URLs and numbers.”
That is where QR codes can help. They can be programmed to include everything from a web address to a “scan to call”, where the code will put you directly in touch with a company without you having to type a number.
Giving consumers something extra is a key feature of QR codes. While some codes simply display text on the phone screen, others link to a website, additional information or multimedia content.
Web links have proved the most popular. According to research from ScanLife, which makes barcode-reading software, web links made up 85 per cent of QR code uses last year.
Companies are using the codes to reinvent traditional ways of reaching consumers. Car magazine has begun to use the codes to direct readers to videos of road tests.
The Sony game Little Big Planet 2uses QR codes to link players to user-generated levels within the game. All you have to do is hold the printed code in front of the console's PlayStation Eye camera for it to scan.
Not to be outdone, Nintendo’s 3DS avatar creator can generate codes for each Mii created, which allows them to be shared online or in print.
You can even get a QR code with your clothing these days. The IOU Project, which was launched this month, provides a unique QR code for each piece of clothing produced. The project works on the basis that each item has a “story” and the codes are linked to this.
The item’s “journey” shows profiles of those involved in its creation, from the weaver who created the fabric to the artisan who worked on it.
Eventually, the owner of the garment can add a photograph of himself or herself wearing the finished product.
QR codes have been used in everything from music videos to artwork in recent years. The entertainment industry has embraced the technology. Such artists as the Pet Shop Boys and Kylie Minogue have used QR codes in their CD artwork and videos.
QR codes have also been used to direct movie fans to trailers and entertainment firm Xtravision uses codes to distribute coupons.
The codes have even made their way into works of art. Italian artist Fabrice de Nola began using QR codes in oil paintings or embedded in photographs when he began the Active Project in 2006. The codes contain text and mobile web links.
One of the most interesting uses of the codes is on grave markers in Japanese cemeteries. There they are used to provide more information about the deceased, with photos, videos and memorial websites. Although this doesn’t appear to have caught on outside Japan yet, it shows how varied the uses of such codes can be.
Digital Reach, for example, already includes QR codes on business cards that contain contact information. Grealy says this will become more common in Ireland in years to come.
“I can see a day when every company has its own QR code, like they have their own e-mail address and website,” says Grealy.
