Good Read: Drake Morton

Using QR To Create In-Store Mobile Moments

by Steve Smith , Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012
It has become a mantra among cheerleaders of mobile 2D codes that marketers must return real value to consumers when the user goes through the bother of scanning a code. Of course, one person’s “value” is another person’s mobilized version of another TV commercial. And using QR or other codes merely to push coupons and promos to customers is not encouraging the type of ongoing relationship a retailer or merchant wants or can afford over the long haul. But what mobility does allow is to make just about any context a moment of true engagement where the marketer can provide what just about any customer wants anytime, anywhere — a bit of fun.
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 Need To Read: Drake Morton

Marketers embracing QR codes,

for better or worse

(CNN) — A confused crossword puzzle. A psychedelic postage stamp. A bar code on drugs.

This is how a QR, or Quick Response, code may appear to most people. You may have noticed these black-and-white squares showing up in subway ads or in pages of magazines. Thanks to our growing addiction to our smartphones, you’ll likely be seeing more of them.

QR codes are showing up in more and more places: posters, storefront window displays, TV advertisements, business cards, websites and even on T-shirts. When accessed with your phone, a QR code takes you to a landing page where you’ll usually find special promotional content. (more…)

Need to Read: Drake Morton

Down the QR Code Rabbit Hole

by Steve Smith , Thursday, April 14, 2011

“What the hell are you looking for?” barks my fiancĂ©e in her now-familiar bride-to-be tone of impatience. Four weeks out from a wedding and everything takes on new urgency and little things get writ large. “I am not marrying a shoe fetishist, am I?”

Well, while she shopped for the right pair to match the wedding dress, I was rooting among the shelves for QR codes. I admit that a guy taking phone cam pictures of shiny black stilettos is going to raise some questions. But my understanding was that Macy’s had been instituting in-store mobile codes that shoppers could activate.

“Focus, please! Or I will call security on you,” she warned.
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