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ACADEMIC STUDIES
IN SOCIAL, HUMAN AND ADMINISTRATIVE
SCIENCES-2019/2
Editors
Prof. Dr. Zafer GÖLEN
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abidin TEMİZER
Cetinje 2019
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THE ADVANTAGES AND DİSADVANTAGES OF QR
CODE AS A MARKETİNG TOOL
Mihalis (Michael) Kuyucu
Introduction
Quick Response codes (QR), are one the few Internet and iconic
symbols or fads that have survived the constantly changing Internet
domain. In spite of the QR code’s invention back in 1994, its popularity
grew as a prominent matrix barcode within the last decade as a machine-
readable optical label. Invented by a Japanese subsidiary company Denso
Wave that produces automatic identification products, its initial purpose
was to track vehicles during manufacturing and to allow high-speed
component scanning. But since this invention and initial purpose, QR
codes have expanded into broader uses for commercial tracking and
convenient applications for mobile phone users, also being known as
mobile tagging. QR codes can be used to display text messages or simply
text to users with the ability to add features such as virtual cards as a contact
method to the user’s device. The QR contact card may also be used as a
wireless network to compose emails or related messaging. QR tools are
now prevalent with available generators and various software or online
tools.
History and Evolution
Denso Wave was a Toyota subsidiary that developed QR codes for
quick fast decoding speeds. The quick responses in which assisted the
manufacturing process is what provided the namesake Quick Response
codes. QR codes were somewhat evolved from bar codes in which they
were scanned. The innovation of bar codes especially with their impressive
and speedy scanning processes, have popularized coding, scanning
accuracy, and multiple functionality. The convenience of bar coding
improved information storage with increased capacity, variation, and only
required smaller printing areas. Hence the bar coding system is what
catapulted the innovation of QR codes when involving information
storage. QR codes had the ability to include increased amounts of digits
and modify the layout to include multiple code readouts.
However with every form of evolutionary breakthroughs and
improvements, some drawbacks were created as well. More storage
required more area coverage and imposed less space on the surface.
Increase in printing space also generated higher costs of printing. When
larger prints were scanned, the complications of scanning increases
printing areas also arose. Demands for storage capacity, functionality and
Associate Prof., michaelkuyucu@gmail.com
230
accuracy needed a response to the negative factors associated with bar code
technology development. QR codes were invented to counteract the
negative effects by implementing a 2D or two-dimensional code. QR
invention drew widespread attention and developments in technology to
improve storage capacity.
General and Popular Uses of QR Code
QR codes have several and diverse applications. As they were originally
invented to track inventory on production lines and in storage warehouses,
they are still predominantly used for these applications, but in more
advanced processes. In order to use QR codes, a QR code scanning
application is required. Promotional material frequently house QR codes
and draw customers to a webpage or landing page promoting specific
products or services (Lane, 2016). The purpose of coding on promotional
material is to reduce the tedious task of tying a URL or search endlessly
for a link. A QR code can bring a YouTube video, LinkedIn page or any
website that provides more information than a physical copy of a flyer or
advertisement.
If Internet navigators are searching for specific apps, they will spot a
QR code that brings them directly to that specific app in the App Store.
The direct navigation to an app eliminates the need to endlessly search for
apps through an app store to locate the app. Markets utilize the incentive
to quickly locate an app and promote it as a trial run for its customers to
test the marketing ability and effectiveness.
Business cards have become a branding place for QR codes. Many
business cards nowadays have QR codes on the backs with links directing
people to business profiles, particularly LinkedIn profiles. The
effectiveness has not yet been confirmed. But with the growing trend of
QR codes on business cards, many business people recommend having QR
codes on a business card. For effective promotion, QR codes can be
combined with LinkedIn and a mobile wallet to create a business card
directly connected to LinkedIn.
For flight and airline convenience, QR codes are becoming more
popular with frequent flyers. Most airlines have already introduced mobile
tickets and use QR codes to redeem them. Many tedious steps such as
dealing directly with travel agents or commuting to a travel agency can be
avoided and save time by using a mobile phone or watch. With the
requirements of presenting a ticket prior to a flight, customers can
conveniently scan their tickets from various locations to verify the
authenticity of their tickets.
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Use of QR Code in Specific Marketing and Events
With QR codes going and found beyond shopping and consumer goods,
they have found their way into magazines, brochures, and all sorts of
mobile phones. Rather than just being mere displays of bar codes, QR
codes can be used to organize or attend events by use of digital display. A
device’s camera can be act as a scanner to read QR codes, and contain an
app converting an image into readily and usable information by reading the
code. Sensibly QR codes are widely used by mobile phones and similar
devices for obtain quick and easy information on specific subjects, as most
of the latest smartphones are developed with built-in QR reader apps
installed.
QR codes can support events and event organization from marketing
and planning through an event itself. For example, printed matter can
become outdated quickly. Printed material such as brochures and flyers
were designed and printed before the event planning is completed to
include scheduling, speakers, or vendor lists. By providing a QR code, the
attendees gain easier access to the latest and updated information. Last
minute information can be added to provide attendees with last-minute
announcements in case events change or require additional preparation. As
a safeguard, many events are subject to changes due to unforeseen
circumstances, and the attendees can be informed to avoid any sudden
surprises, which would otherwise disappoint the attendees (Dorman,
2019).
If promoting an event with billboards or public transportation vehicles,
including a QR code allows interested people to scan for more information.
The advertisement itself behaves as an incentive to intrigue people to gain
further information and the QR code draws people onto the advertisement
site. The QR code allows people to check in quicker and the event
organizer can increase the pace when the QR codes are hard copies or
electronic tickets. Each attendee registered for a specific event has a unique
QR code for the purpose of tracking the rightful people with invitations or
tickets to avoid any ticket fraud or prevent use of older codes not authentic
to the event.
Participant badges are popular apps used by business people for
exchanging data on event organizations. This is similar to an online forum
or social business app to inform businesses with upcoming events and can
exchange data or opinions of an event. With participant badges, the QR
code can facilitate networking at business-to-business (B2B) and similar
events. At times when events are cancelled or are relocating to another
location, the QR code can inform business participants to prevent them
from arriving at the previous location without the knowledge of any event
updates.
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Examples of QR Code Use in Marketing
QR codes have become user-friendlier over the years, where previously
many users were unable to understand, let alone utilize QR codes.
Supposedly the introduction of QR codes was not properly introduced,
except for exposing them on popular products without providing specific
instructions on how to use them. Although QR codes are obtaining
measurable sets of customers, some companies continue to broadcast their
importance to marketing entrants. Instagram and Angry Birds are known
to be discerning and catchy to observers. Each of their respective QR codes
navigate users toward the app download while encouraging ad creativity
and providing self-explanatory instructions on how to download apps.
Greeting cards have evolved into online or virtual musical domains for
users to apply them conveniently instead of purchasing expensive cards.
QR images and playlists can be combined as arbitrarily needed. If users
have a compatible and specific app on their mobile phones, the bar codes
can be scanned to begin the playlist (Lucas, 2017). Music spans in almost
every category users may access for whichever interests they wish to select.
Previously the greeting cards were only coupled with the music provided.
Nowadays, users may customize their greeting card with a music selection
by scanning the QR code.
Locations and objects, which had to be previously physically visited,
may have their information accessed through QR codes. Old paintings for
example can be scanned for information about the specifications and
history about the paintings. This ability is available for viewing to
paintings in a museum in Poland where each of the paintings can have their
QR codes scanned and abundant information about them can be revealed.
In addition to viewing the paintings themselves, visitors can scan the QR
codes and discover the true nature and story about the painter and the
reasons why the painting exists. The information expressed in this manner
provided livelihood for tourists and maintain attraction to tourist sites with
information.
Almost any form of marketing had been cleverly manipulated to entice
a higher customer base, especially by adding more personalization. Some
franchise and supply chain stores during special or festive holidays or
occasions such as Christmas or Valentine’ Day. QR codes can be used as
tags to write personalized messages to a recipient. As in the case of
playlists, QR codes can be scanned with personalized messages in
association to the musical message. If gifts are being purchased online and
sent to a recipient, the QR codes can be used to pinpoint the recipient and
the code will recognize the recipient’s information to ensure the gift is
being sent to the correct person. This method of QR scanning helps reduce
cases of lost mail or delivery failure.
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Other Uses In Brand Marketing and Industries
Furthermore, the entertainment industry is a key player when using QR
codes. The QR codes provide access to users interested in the entertainment
industry for the latest news and updates. For music, concerts, film festivals,
and venues, QR codes provide list building and lead captures for users to
interact and share information and opinions. Information sharing is an
efficient method to review certain events in the entertainment industry for
people to stay connected. Social media sites have landing pages enabling
users to link to websites when they are scanned. Event marketers use
scanning to drive traffic to events for users to view and make purchases for
easier customer use. Event organizers can easily achieve extra traffic
whether to entice customers to purchase tickets or to leave their contact
information (i.e. email) for future notifications. Call to actions can be used
to learn more about events the organizers or venues plan to promote in the
future.
Entertainment and event venues utilize QR codes for customer service
to make quick access to hotline services. They can be used to send pretext
messages and emails drafted and ready to send with the recipient as well
as the subject line already in place. The only action the customer needs to
do is to hit the send button. Pre-sale promotions for music festivals and
events often draw the most customer attention. Hence music event
organizers appeal to customers by allowing them to link to discount
coupons for a limited period of time. The QR codes can be used to combine
with the coupon’s advertising slogan or tagline that prompts customers to
scan their QR codes. As long as the discount coupons are available, the QR
scanning will continue to function. Sometimes when tickets to events are
incredibly popular and selling quickly, venue and event organizers can
continue the discount coupons by adding extra discounted tickets on a first-
come and first-serve basis by QR scanning.
Similar to subscribing by conventional email, QR codes can be linked
to signing up to newsletters for event organizers and marketers to gather
customer information. What is additionally efficient about QR-based
newsletters is distributing a survey with questionnaires to identify what
customers want and need for future events and how future events can be
improved (Patel, 2019). Surveys can function as lead generation keeping
frequent customers and perhaps venues can develop preferred customer
programs. Customers can continue being updated about the availability of
tickets and related products. QR codes provide options on whether
customers want to make the selection of notifications. Alternatively,
venues and event organizers may link QR codes to feedback forms to
render tracking and understanding customer behavior.
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QR codes can be deemed as a social visibility tool where they are linked
to social media profiles. QR codes drive users to social media to gain more
attention and reviews of various venues and entertainment streams where
customers with similar interests can share their views with others.
Sometime venues and music festival reviews vary depending on the
musical theme and the venue itself. A poorly managed venue will surely
bring negative reviews to a concert. A renowned venue may invite a
renowned musician. But if the performance is lower than customers’
satisfaction, the performer may receive negative reviews over the venue.
QR codes have their usages shared by virtual transfer through social media
or cloud computing.
QR Code Use in Music Marketing
Although QR codes for music has been somewhat aforementioned, the
following literature will be more extensive and detailed. For some users,
offline marketing is more effective than online marketing. Music fans do
not always simply register online. They often have their mobile phones and
use them wherever there is a convenient time. Seemingly music fans also
use their phones more frequently with entertainment-related themes
instead of taking pictures. Music fans use their mobile phones in any
convenient place to use QR codes for music marketing. Several viable
areas for QR codes can be used for music marketing, whether by a band,
venue, or even music fans themselves.
Tour flyers and band posters are usually the foregrounds of music
events. They display the band appearance, the tour date and the venue. The
QR codes can be scanned to provide the latest details of the band and the
band members. The codes can be scanned to obtain information not always
easily found online. To promote their tours or their images, bands often
arrange to have merch tables at concerts or at local retailers. Not all
merchandise is always readily available at concerts. Some specialized
merchandise is only available through auctions. QR code scanning is a
useful tool to obtain rare band merchandise. Otherwise, QR code scanning
is available to provide updates on the merchandise that will be available at
the concert venue (O’Neill, 2019). It saves music fans the trouble of
waiting for long periods of time in line-ups to merch tables. Fans could
discover ahead of time what merchandise is available.
Email sign-up lists have become a long-term and advantageous tool to
keep informed about any music festivals or following a specific band.
Traditionally, e-mails were simply means to contact people if they cannot
be contacted by phone. All that was required was a quick line to send for
an intended recipient. But emails needed to be more functional than simply
sending messages. Emails evolved into electronic validation systems
meaning emails often have to include ways to verify identities and ensure
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the message was sent to the rightful recipients to gain admission into a
music venue. Following purchase, an email confirmation is sent with a
ticket and a QR code to be scanned when the ticket is presented at the music
event. This is also to verify and reassure music fans that they have made
the purchase are entitled to their seats and locations, if provided, at the
music event. For music events, a host of data scanned through QR codes is
needed to be included in a confined space.
Music fans have the benefits of QR codes at hand because they allow
information to be stored in different locations, which actually provide more
free space for graphics or other elements to be added by branding. For
popular venues with a high volume of people as is generally with music
events, codes allow for streamline admission to identify guests with a
straightforward scan. Guests attending music events may use their phones
instead of using paper tickets, which has become a means of going
paperless. The use of smart phones over printed tickets is significantly
increasing and saves the trouble of printing. Some QR promotions include
upgrades to achieve more streamlined access to updates and events.
Facebook is one of the most prominent social media sites that promotes or
announces a music concert arriving. When venues plan for musical
performances, Facebook somehow frequently becomes one of the first
social media outlets to reveal the information. Venues add Facebook QR
codes to tickets as an expedient way to inform music fans to follow
developments about a band before they arrive at the venue. Alternatively,
for example, if the band cancels a scheduled tour or evening from the
venue, and the venue is searching for replacement band, fans may scan QR
codes for suggestions. Although band suggestions may be on short notice,
QR codes may be scanned for the bands to receive notifications of the
demands for them to accept replacement offers to a specific venue.
The 2011 Pepsi Music Festival in Argentina is an example fans
provided to share their information and experiences. Each of the tickets
was labeled by QR codes allowing fans to immediately share videos and
images of various musical acts. Some venues or music events offer contests
to win tickets. For most fans, keeping track of the duration during the
contest is impossible. But a scan allows contestants to check their status to
discover whether they have won the contest. Music event organizers
deploy QR codes in multiple locations and add them to email lists or virtual
tickets. By scanning the event code, fans may instantly receive more
information about where the various venues have taken place, the means
to commute to the venue, ad the time of the vents. Some venues are
complex with multiple events, and event organizers can plan events to
occur more smoothly.
One major purpose to QR code scanning is to track many loyal
customers or preferred customers that frequent music venues. Hence
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offering a premium back to music fans provides incentives for fans to
return to the venues or buy tickets. Adding coupon QR codes to tickets may
provide fans with future discounts or customer first-choice incentives.
Some venues offer pre-sale incentives to loyal customers and allow them
to make first selections when attempting to buy tickets. For example, some
sections in renowned venues have sections only for customers who carry
American Express Cards or MasterCard’s over customers who do not have
these options of payments. QR code scans can provide such preferred
customers with pre-sale incentives and a seating plan where customers may
select their preferred seating.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of QR Code in Marketing
QR codes can be observed with the best of practices or the worst of
practices depending on the implementation. Similarly with any advanced
tool, QR codes experience pitfalls and promises, strengths and weaknesses.
The use of QR codes can depend on the campaign they are being scanned
for. A compatible campaign can enhance QR strengths while the wrong
campaign can render QR codes susceptible to mistakes.
Advantages
One aspect about QR codes is their versatility. They can be added to
virtually any tangible or intangible product such as advertising, magazine
pages to billboards, music posters, and entertainment events. In actual
practice, any physical object can display an interaction point for viewers to
be taken toward a digital experience or accomplish a digital task. QR codes
can be used to bypass many steps of a transaction and carry messages or
payments for music events. Online access to used to be by computer only,
where it has been mostly, if not all replaced by mobile tactics. If music fans
need to take immediate action, QR code scanning is available on their
mobile phones instead of searching for a computer where time is of the
essence to make a purchase.
QR code scanning is known to be one of the pioneers of seamlessly
linking online and offline domains for music events. Marketers can drive
merchandise and tickets online to offline sales or use an offline campaign
to promote musical venues by an app or digital vessel. As with the example
of purchasing tickets in a timely manner, QR code scanning provides more
prompt updates as to when tickets are available for sale. Evidently mobile
phones require an optimized app or landing page. But the QR codes can
enable updates for upgrades needed to utilize the latest apps. This can draw
customer attention at the exact point where they have expressed interest in
an ad or video and prompt them to sign up to the email list. Signing up to
the email list provides a noncommittal channel to offer updates without the
pressure of selling customers products they do have any interest for.
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Web analytics functions positively in tandem with QR codes for various
placements, and marketers can gain valuable information about the status
of a music event campaign. The analytics coupled with QR codes can
determine whether certain aspects of a music campaign works. The
analysis provides a better forecast of cost-effectiveness. In other words, the
cost is virtually zero, but the value is immense to music fans.
The first impression with QR codes is its appearance and lack of color.
But advancement in apps and similar accessible tools can enhance their
prominence. QR code images can be illustrated with images, logos and
many other forms of related artwork. They are either recognized by the QR
code to convey the right information or are ignored due to error correction.
A specific aspect of a QR image may convey a specific message, but
interprets the remaining code on the QR image. Having various scans on
the same image provides a wide variety of creative uses in music marketing
and advertising. QR codes can be illustrated as visual marketing or be part
of a larger visual such as carrying a brand logo or colors.
Disadvantages
Unfortunately along with advantages, there also disadvantages of QR
code scanning despite its versatility and usefulness. Music fans and
consumers may wish to attempt other types of methods to connect online
or offline domains with mobile phones. While this section will
acknowledge the problems with QR code scanning, QR codes will also be
compared to other methods of improvement.
Near Field Communication (NFC) enables contactless payments when
music fans are purchasing tickets. Several mobile or smartphone models
have this type of capability used by apps for payments. NFC has several
uses as QR codes such as providing product information, activating
promotions, or launching a digital experience. In some locations around
the world where QR codes have a negative reputation, NFC is faster and
provides better experience than QR code scanning, in spite of NFC and QR
scanning used in conjunction with each other. But many locations still do
not have Wi-Fi or similar enabling technology. Hence NFC has the ability
to provide for access where QR scanning does not. Even if music merch
tables are available at concert venues, not having Wi-Fi available will
render QR code scanning useless. Compared with NFC, QR codes may be
difficult to scan, and NFC does not need a full signal for access.
Additionally excess information on a QR image requires extra pixels.
Augmented reality (AR) joins the physical world with the digital world.
Several brands have already experimented with innovative augmented
reality adding interactive dimensions to the rest of the world. With
augmented reality, it does not require downloading special readers to
interact with the physical world. Additionally QR code readers are not
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exactly on all mobile phones or related mobile operating systems.
Augmented reality creates more interactive experiences providing user-
friendliness and immersive access. In spite of production costs for
augmented reality being high, it generated a more positive return on
investment especially if the desired result is reached. Its potential traverses
users beyond online pages or locations to overlaying the physical world
with digital features. Hence if music fans are searching for music tours and
dates, augmented reality provides the recognized reading and connection
between the physical and digital world, rendering a better marketing tool.
In regions where specific apps are unavailable, utilizing the QR code
adoption requires downloading separate apps prior to access in order to
scan codes. The scans can interfere with momentary QR code interactions
if users do not already have a code reader installed. Therefore, users either
need to wait for an app to download or until a new app is available. If the
app is available, there is the tedious task of waiting for the app to download
especially in areas of poor connectivity. Waiting for extended periods of
time renders users to abort the download. However with the assistance of
Google Chrome by adding the native QR code support into various apps,
connectivity improved. Yet the majority of users have Android phones, and
downloading the apps through Google Chrome do still pose a problem
especially for new apps.
In spite of QR code scanning improving significantly since its
popularity grew in marketing campaigns, scanning still requires precise
physical manipulation and unobstructed view of the code being scanned.
In addition the time to scan can again be a tedious and time-consuming
task. QR codes require being placed in visible locations and can negate
prominent locations such as billboards, railway or subway platforms,
moving vehicles, and quick-changing displays. Marketers may have the
means of deriving ingenious methods of QR code scanning, but they are
not always promising and not always user-friendly.
The use of QR codes have also faded in popularity because of poor
implementation, lack of native support, and with limited mobile web
experience. However, as of the current year (2019), QR codes are to be
possibly re-launched by all of the aforementioned learning errors, yet the
enthusiasm of utilizing them is not as expected. QR codes are still reputed
as being slow scanning, inconvenient, and had poor user experience.
Hence, NFC and AR may be dominating the mobile web world. Perhaps
QR codes will still be available for marketing campaigns if they can at least
be brought up to the criteria as NFC and AR.
Conclusion: The Future QR Code
QR being the most commonplace and most popular scanning code is
actually a fallacy. Most technological-savvy users and marketers recognize
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QR codes, but do not utilize them as frequently as expected. Even if the
number of QR users increases, not many users following the entertainment
industry are aware of them, let alone use them. But the potential uses of
QR codes are immense for Wi-Fi connections, code payments, digital or
virtual stores or website URLs. Except the heavy use is not well known
enough. One of the crucial setbacks on QR codes is the fact that they are
actually a one-way exchange and transaction (Sammonds, 2019). They can
be printed on any advertising board and adhesive label with incredible
benefits, but they cannot collect information from the actual person using
them. In the modern-day data-driven age in marketing, lacking the ability
to acquire information from the actual user is a drastic setback. The reason
is QR code users are demonstrating active interest in branding and
campaigning and shall be reflected in the form of data collection. QR codes
usage for uploading landing pages would be beneficial, but would also
hinder the experience to the number of users.
Hence so as not to generate the same errors as those who have the
mistaken idea that QR codes were the latest trend, the development of NFC
identifier tags resolves the major problems with QR codes. An application
shall be required to read them when accessed. In order to achieve the same
result of opening apps to access and read the QR codes, NFC users are
enabled on their mobile phones to tap the device against the NFC tag. NFG
tags have demonstrated tighter security, flexibility, and convenience more
than QR codes. However NFC tags improve in the future, it appears
unlikely that QR codes will revive themselves. It is not because QR codes
are becoming less efficient than NFC performance, but because a multitude
of users are unaware of QR codes or simply ignore their significant uses.
But respondents of brands using QR codes have displayed higher interests
in purchasing areas than using NFC tags (Kavanagh, 2018). The statistics
of respondents in search engines, television ads, and word-of-mouth
information may be less than 50 percent in each category compared to
NFC, but it is still more promising for QR codes to be utilized for
convenience. Just because another method of scanning may prove to be
more advanced than QR code scanning, it does not necessarily imply it will
surpass QR codes. With apps relying on testing new platform features,
utilizing QR codes renders easier usage for people.
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at: Apr 23, 2019. https://qfuse.com/blog/qr-codes-growth-in-use-
across-industries/
Kavanagh, D. Will QR Codes Make a Comeback in 2019? Global Web
Index. Dec 17, 2018.https://blog.globalwebindex.com/trends/qr-codes-
2019/
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Lane, B. How Are QR Codes Used and What is Their Future? Pass Kit.
Reached at: Mar 23, 2019. https://blog.passkit.com/how-are-qr-codes-
used-and-what-is-there-future/
Lucas. How to Use QR Codes to Promote Your Event. uQR.me. Jun 30,
2017. https://uqr.me/blog/qr-code-event-marketing/
O’Neill, M. What is a QR Code and How Does it Work? Small Business
Trends. Reached at: Feb. 12, 2019.
https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/05/what-is-a-qr-code.html
Patel, N. 5 Genius Examples of QR Codes in Marketing. NeilPatel.
Reached at: May 27, 2019. https://neilpatel.com/blog/genius-qr-codes/
Sammonds, C. What is the Future of QR Codes? Innovation Enterprise.
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future-of-qr-codes
