The Use of QR codes? Yes or No?
I was walking down the streets in Bern, when I realized that there are more and more advertisement posters which use a QR codes in them. That made me thinking quite a bit. As you may have noticed we have some projects for the use of QRs by ourselves. So they seem to get more important to the advertisement industry lately. Obviously there must be some studies that approve the use of QR in ads. But I cannot help it and look at it like it is “temporary fashion” to use the QRs on posters, billboard, banner or any kind of advertisement.
In my opinion there are some crucial points why not a lot of people will use their phones to get the additional information a QR provides. First of all the code needs to be placed so that people notice it, I did some research on the internet and found various options to do it “correct”. One possibility is to just use the QR code and text.
I saw a banner on the wall of a company and the QR was approximately 2x2m now figure yourself trying to scan the code, yes you would most definitely look like an idiot standing in front of this big poster trying to get the scan. But I have to admit it’s kind of flashy.
They achieved now that I look at their ad. Of course it needs to be eye-catching in the first place, I mean we are all in a hurry these days aren’t we? But right there takes on of the major argument place, what do I have to do with it? A lot of people don’t know what a QR code is, maybe it’s modern art or something like that in their eyes. They never saw an Instruction on how they can easily get more information with their smartphones, just download an app and then use the camera to scan it. Our target group grew shorter at this exact point, yes we are now in 2012 but still not everyone has a smartphone and you most definitely lock out elderly people. If you only want to reach a younger group that might not concern you. But in the end in my personal opinion the target group is to small at the moment, maybe it’s growing I’m not sure.
I can see the benefits of the QR, simply and accessible storing information, but it might not become accepted in advertisement.
To sum it up, the pros and cons for the use of QR:
Pros:
- Get more information
- Access without typing
Cons:
- You have to know what a QR code is
- It takes time to scan
Tell me what you think about QR codes, will they be used more in the not to distant future or do we take another step maybe directly to something like RFID?
If you are interested in our work with QRs take a look at our Products or go directly to the qrious.ch project or our Chrome Extenstion Simple QR Code Generator.