August30

QR Codes = Goofy

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the QR Code "craze" to be over. It's the new "you have to have a website facebook page twitter account to be relevant" gimmick in marketing. And, in my opinion, it's very over-used and seldom worth your time.

For those of you who have seen these black/white boxes pop up here and there, but don't know what it is, QR Code stands for "Quick Response" and allows smart phone users to access information by simply taking a picture.

Sounds awesome when you're looking for a coupon while in a store, or more photos/video if you're out and about. But, most of the time, these codes are simply taking people to a website. My argument is why make people go through the process of getting out their phone, take a photo, only to be taken to a website – sites that aren't usually enhanced for mobile phones.

The example posted above was an ad on Facebook. If you click the ad, it takes you to Becks.com. If you have a QR Code reader and access it that way, it takes you to the Apple App Store to download a Beck's app.

Here's the big question, was there anything in that ad that told you what to expect when you clicked/took a picture of it? No. And that's why that ad, in my opinion, fails. It's why a majority of marketers scrambling to put QR Codes on things are failing. It's too gimmicky right now.

I'm not anti-QR Codes. I'm actually pro them if used in a compelling way (see YouTube video below). I'm anti hopping onto fads. I'm anti doing something because everyone else is. I'm anti irrelevant marketing. And I'm definitely anti not giving people the expectation of what will happen when you click on something.

Marketing isn't tough. But we sure do make it hard on ourselves sometimes by not thinking about things more thoroughly.

+ original post date: August 30, 2011 11:32 AM
+ categories: Web Stuff