Quick Response Codes for shopper initiated Digital Communication Strategy

Prof Mohit Maurya,  NIILM CMS writes about  Quick Response Codes

QR codes were invented by the Japanese firm Denso wave a subsidiary of Toyota in year 1994 for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing. Though QR codes are not very demanding to execute, still awareness is low, and not everyone knows how they can benefit from them, thus limiting this experience for a limited few. Nowadays, technological advancements are facilitating increased website hits/page views originating from a handheld mobile device. By virtue of their ubiquity, utility, and portability, these mobile communication devices have attained “invisible” status for many consumers—being carried constantly and unconsciously. All this has prompted increased mobile advertising, which is now recognized as an opportunity for marketers to engage consumers in a targeted and contextual manner.

Of late advancements in exchanging digital data on mobile handsets and wider dissemination of 2G and 3G network communication has changed the entire communication landscape. Facilitating which has been Quick Response (QR) Code a simple, effective technological innovation. QR codes are a two-dimensional image containing information in both the horizontal and vertical directions and can be created by a software application using textual information. QR codes are fundamentally pictographic hyperlinks that can be embedded in the physical environment. Its content types include URL, text, phone number, and SMS. The codes can be placed on different media such as magazines, newspapers, posters, packages, labels, and receipts.

Quick Response codes, more commonly referred to as “QR codes” are changing the way marketers and consumers view print media. QR codes are the seemingly perfect bridge to mend the gap between the tactile and virtual worlds.  A  QR code, which is a two-dimensional square image is an open-source technology that is free to use, simple to create and capable of being tracked. They are able to bridge the real world to interactive media, with the help of a ubiquitous mobile phone. After following a simple process a prospect can find him connected to hoards of information offered by any marketers. Though the use of QR codes has not become widely accepted, there are several merits of the technology to believe that it will flourish soon. By employing QR codes, marketers can help expedite the adoption of their offerings by the target audience and can create competitive differentiation. 

The author can be contacted at : mohit@niilm.com