How QR Codes Can Be Used In Marketing And Other Applications
Most people are familiar with some of the uses of barcodes. For example, they greatly facilitate the check-out process in a supermarket, and they also help the supermarket management in other ways, such as enabling the automatic collection of information on sales numbers, needed for stock control and re-ordering purposes. When they were first introduced, barcodes had to be read by special scanner devices, but nowadays almost all mobile phones contain miniature digital cameras, and smart-phones such as the iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices, are capable of downloading software or “apps” which can read barcodes. This has allowed many new applications to be developed for barcodes, aimed at consumers with smart-phones. Conventional bar-codes are one dimensional, but there are also numerous technologies for two-dimensional codes. QR codes, initially developed in Japan, but now gaining wider use in other countries, are two dimensional codes. This article reviews some of the opportunities which they offer to companies and other organizations.
Conventional barcodes consist of a series of parallel black and white lines of varying widths. Typically these encode ten or twelve decimal digits, and are used for applications such as product marking in stores, work order control in factories, and patient ID in hospitals.
Most smart-phones contain the digital camera and sufficient digital processing horse-power needed to make barcode recognition a practical proposition, and there are many applications now available. For example a supermarket may provide an “app” to customers so that they can read the barcodes of products in a rival store, and compare prices.
Two dimensional barcodes are an obvious development from traditional codes. There are several different technologies and standards available, and QR (Quick Response) codes have recently been receiving a lot of interest in the West (they are already quite common on Japan and Korea).
The QR barcode is a two dimensional pattern which looks rather like a large, jumbled up chess board or checkerboard. There are special orientation patterns in the corners which help the software recognize the pattern regardless of how the user is orienting the scanner or reader. It was originally developed by a Toyota subsidiary to track parts during vehicle production, but has now been made available for other applications.
The data encoded in QR may be text, digits, or a URL (web address). An example application might be in a magazine or billboard advertisement. If the reader is interested in the product then he or she can quickly scan the QR code using their smart-phone. The app in the phone then provides the user with a sign-up page, for example to register for further information about the product.
Many marketing and other organizations have used QR codes. Novel applications have included the marking of tourism objects (in Lviv, Ukraine) which links them to city information from the local tourist board. It has even been reported that a tattoo parlor in a US city offers QR codes linking to a person’s Facebook page.
The widespread availability of smart-phones with digital cameras and downloadable apps have made it possible for consumers to read barcodes while shopping, while reading magazines, and while visiting new places. Companies and other organizations can now use technologies such as QR codes to reach those consumers, providing targeted marketing opportunities, and many other relevant and valuable services.
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