QR and NFC technologies in your marketing strategies

How many times have we seen those little squares full of geometric shapes in black and white, pasted on a container or on a poster on the street? You probably already know that it is the famous QR code, and you will also know that it can be scanned with a mobile phone and that it directs you to a website. These codes are already quite well known, but do you know all the uses that these codes can have in your marketing strategies?

First, let’s investigate what exactly this technology is all about:

What is a QR code

A QR code (Quick Reponse) is a content storage system within a two-dimensional barcode, which, when scanned with a device, automatically accesses that information, which is usually a web page.

QR codes were created by Toyota’s Denso Wave brand to encode the parts of the vehicles they manufactured; however, the trademark has not registered patent rights and they are still considered open source today.

In the case of marketing, QR codes are most commonly applied to achieve interactive ads, which connect the online and offline worlds, making the destination the corporate website of the product where the code is stamped. However, such use can be boring and of little use to the user. For that reason, the best option to include QR codes in your company’s marketing plan is to target professionals in this sector, rather than consumers; for example, adding QR codes to business cards so that the contact is saved directly on the phone that scans it or so that it redirects to the LinkedIn profile automatically, creating coupons with discounts and gifts for customers, showing a video of the making of an advertisement…

Some free apps and tools that can be used to create, customize, and read QR codes are:

• Bit.ly, which automatically generates a QR code for a URL.
• Social QR Code, which easily integrates social networks and even discount coupons.
• Kaywa, to create codes and link to websites, texts or phone numbers.
• JumpScan, to generate custom codes.
• Beetagg, software to read codes on old generation mobiles.

A very interesting use that can be made of the QR code is thanks to those that are able to recognize the mobile operating system, the country of origin, the language and even provide detailed statistics of readings and results. For example, we at ComunicaGenia work with smart QR codes, and one of our projects for the Tourism Area of the Malaga City Council consisted of installing QR codes in different tourist spots in the city so that the tourist could receive all the information about a monument or a specific museum in their own language.

Advantages of using QR code in marketing

• They can be used on any support.
• They are customizable.
• User responses can be measured and analyzed in statistics.
• They help to create and extend a community on social networks.
• They integrate campaigns across multiple channels.
• They improve and enrich the user experience.

But, at this point, we have to talk about another technology closely related to this:

What is NFC?

NFC is not about any complex system or a computer program, but NFC technology is used in our daily lives. For example, when we get on the bus and bring the voucher close to a reader, or when paying with contactless credit cards when we bring them close to the POS terminal.

Well, that’s what NFC (Near Field Communication) is all about, a short-range wireless technology, whose operation is simpler than that of QR codes, since no prior scanning is needed, but the data travels to the device instantaneously to obtain some type of interaction or multimedia information.

As with QR, if you want to incorporate this technology into your company, you have to be more creative: for example, install machines in a store that record customers’ purchases and provide some kind of reward for loyalty, add information points about a company or an institution in places close to the business, or even to include as a support tool in a transmedia campaign.

The possibilities are endless, but if you want to become specialists in QR and NFC marketing campaigns, it is not enough to just use these technologies, but also to take care of the personalization of the QR code with the corporate image, and implement these technologies correctly and creatively in advertising actions. You just have to use your imagination so that the use of these resources is the key to your differentiation.

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