Quick Response (QR) Codes have become part of our day-to-day lives over the past few years, mainly thanks to the widespread of smartphones over the past few years and their ability to read and scan QR codes. You’ll now find QR codes all over the place and more creative uses for QR codes you’ll find them printed on product packaging, on printed advertisements in magazines, as edible pieces of food, printed on business cards and vehicles, even cut into hair and tattooed on to the body – they are everywhere!
Companies quickly realized the massive potential that QR codes have to bridge the gap between print and technology, and to interact with potential customers in a way that they couldn’t previously. Now-a-days around 50% of Americans carry a smartphone, so that’s 50% of the American population who are able to scan a QR code and get the information from it, which is a huge percentage and one which companies are looking to target.
A regular QR code is very boring, it’s black and white, square, and to be honest you couldn’t tell one apart from another. Sure, they are arranged in different ways, but they look practically the same. So, businesses have had to get creative, to make their QR codes stand out and to entice people to want to scan the code and find out what’s on offer.
Take a look at the regular QR code pictured to the right. I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised
to hear that many regular QR codes like this go overlooked or ignored, much like a barcode does on product packaging – you know it’s there, but you never interact it with it.
Now, picture yourself walking along your local high street and you saw an ad like this:
I think it would be safe to say that you would be much more likely to scan one of these QR codes, than you would to scan a regular QR code displayed by itself with nothing engaging around it. With a design like this, people see the image, they recognize that QR code is hiding something that they’d like to see, and they scan it for that reason – they want to see what’s on the other end. Once they’ve scanned the QR code they’re linked to page with information about the product on offer and details on how to buy it.
Another awesome method I’ve seen of companies enticing users to scan their codes, is to make it beneficial for them. Tesco did just that with their ‘Homeplus’ virtual store which they setup at an underground station in South Korea.
Their virtual store allows commuters to do their shopping while they wait for their transportation to or from work, meaning they can skip their weekly trip to the supermarket and just order their shopping from their smartphone while they’re waiting to commute! This is an awesome idea, time is money, this saves you time and therefor saves you money!
Check out the video below to see the Tesco ‘Homeplus’ virtual store live and in action:
Creative ideas like this which are useful to consumers are always going to work well. Tesco have already opened up a number of new virtual stores, including one at Glasgow airport in the UK! Tesco aren’t the only store doing this either, other huge names such as WellBeing.Ca and even Walmart have Virtual stores open to the public.
I think it’s something we’re going to be seeing a lot more of in the future. I haven’t had a chance to experience one myself yet, but I’m sure it wont be long until there’s one opening up near me!
