You know what I'm talking about, those little square Rorschach tests that have been popping up on advertisements and signage everywhere. They're called QR codes and one of the latest trends out there for savvy, hi-tech, marketing assets. And yet, I have this unsettling feeling that QR codes will soon disappear into the mental ether along with cue-cat and spam e-mail. I was chatting with my realtor about the value of printing hand-out's with the QR code he now had available to link to his listings and my immediate thought was uhm, no. Don't even bother Paul. Why's that you say?1.) While the QR code is relatively compact, it still requires a bit of real estate on the printed material. A 2" x 2" square could be used for other things, say a picture, graphic image and web link. Is it any eye-catcher? Yes. But how often does it really get scanned? Read on...
2.) To read the QR code, you'll need a specialized reader or a smartphone enabled with a QR reader. Think about what you need to do: pull out phone, start up the QR app, snap a picture and then let it do it's thing. We're talking 15 - 30 seconds, give or take. And the result? Most likely a special web landing page with an offer or more content. Wouldn't a shortened weblink work as well? And given that only 35% of adults own a smartphone and only 3% of that group is using a QR code reader more than weekly, we're talking about a very narrow and small target group.
3.) And finally one of the most interesting aspects of a QR code is also one of the most unsettling: the mystery of the QR code! Where will scanning this QR code lead me to? What special online offer can I get? The danger of somebody potentially embedding a malicious QR code on the re-direct seems very possible. And do you just click on any weblinks that you see online? Not a good idea and certainly not a safe one. Practice safe-computing, people!
So in the end, while the QR code fad may be around a bit longer, I can't imagine it will be much longer. They were initially developed for high-speed, automated scanning in the auto industry. Given its current deployment and use by a slow-speed, non-automated human being, I'd say that QR codes are misplaced and ineffective in most printed assets. Just scratch one up for tech-geekiness gone wild in the marketing space. 