QR Codes: What the Heck Are Those?

I have been in the technology and marketing business for over 25 years now—yikes! And a lot has changed. When I began, the Internet was in its infancy and no more than a college project, and nobody had any idea that it would take its place at the center of our lives. Since those early days, the Internet has flourished, to say the least, and a multitude of technological and social innovations have used it as a springboard to success.

Well, now there’s another Internet technology that seems to be developing into something that, years from now, we won’t even think of never having had it. Have you ever seen a QR code, or maybe a BeeTagg? Do I hear somebody saying, “How on earth do you put a tag on the leg of a bee? Can it still fly?” I can assure you that no bees were harmed in the writing of this article, but I’ll bet that at least a few of you will have seen something like this (see Figure). It’s called a Quick Response Code and is referred to as a QR code.

Basically, you could imagine QR codes as two-dimensional square versions of a UPC or bar code. Originally designed and used in vehicle manufacturing to keep track of parts, QR codes now have a significantly broader usage model. Each version has its utilizations, designs, and looks. “So what?” you ask. “UPC codes have been around forever.” The difference is that these codes can be read by your smartphone in such places as museums or posters and transport you to an online destination or application. I prefer to think of them as “printed hyperlinks.”

Readers for these new symbols are downloadable for all makes of smartphone. Go to your marketplace or online app store and search for QR or BeeTagg reader (check out beetagg.com). Once downloaded, you can scan these codes wherever you may find them, and they can automatically take you to a Web site, provide contact information, or compose an e-mail or text message. Now that you know what they are, I bet you will start seeing more of them. They are typically found on printed materials and can have many uses, including:

Magazines and posters for campaigns and contests that take you to a Web site with a click or wave of your phone
Instant digital communication of business card information, as a scan of the QR code will allow you to save the contact information directly to your phone
Watching a video, which is becoming increasingly popular with movie advertising. Codes are being added to posters and other items related to a new movie. Scan the code and it might take you to a trailer or movie review.
For those who are big into social media, a simple click and scan could have you liking somebody on Facebook or following them on Twitter.
Mobile e-commerce purchases. There are all kinds of technologies, including QR codes, that are looking to help the phone become our payment device of choice.

There is a lot of ground to be covered before these 2D codes can even think of becoming as ubiquitous as their bar-code relatives. With that said, the ability to simply scan and save information to my phone is a distinct boon. It is infinitely easier than trying to find that ever illusive pen and scrap of paper to note something down that would inevitably get lost or be pulped to a congealed mess in the washer the way those scrawled-upon cocktail napkins in my pocket do.

By Jon Kenton