gingerninjas

I have a client that is from China and he wants the QR code on his business card.

I personally have never loved these codes and I barely think anyone uses them however he assures me EVERYONE loves them and they are a massive sales tool.

As far at the technical capabilities that all sounds great and I know they can hold more characters of data than a traditional bar code and they take up less space that a barcode as well, however are they necessary or driving any business and if so where do you think they work best.

Personally I have seen them on billboards which I find a little silly when you are driving as it is unlikely there will be a tremendous hit rate however in magazines and print collateral I guess they can work.

I’m of the belief that a website address could be just as effective and get the message across a little better as the idea of scanning can be problematic.

What are your thoughts? Is the QR code a fad that’s dying out or should I be giving it the space my client thinks is needed smack bang on the prime real estate of his business card.

The client is always right of course, but my immediate reaction was it is the QR code is on the way out.

MeelisM

Has it ever been alive?

Lol

I only used it a couple of times at a Bitcoin ATM half a year ago and that's it.

MeelisM

gingerninjas

Well, that's a good point.

So many people were into it that I knew and I never got it really - I get the background of the tech but it was destined for a long and slow death in my opinion anyway.

Glad it's hopefully on the way out - it looks so ugly on marketing material and no one ever uses it anyway I would rather use that space for something useful.

TrumpiaTim

QR Codes for marketing purposes never really took off the way marketers anticipated.

However for more functional purposes such as QR codes on service guides is commonly used, think UPC codes general public has no use for them but they can still be effective in specific scenarios.

NewParadigm

they are extremely useful but the education and adoption by the public has been very slow. if the QR reading capability comes native in your phones camera that might help.

its still the quickest way to augment printed material with digital content. typing in a web address or a long link to a page in my phone? pffffft.

if you take a bit of time and educate your consumer base they can be helpful.

In a moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

bizadpros

I would not say QR codes are totally dead. The problem is, many smartphone users have never installed a decent APP to read the darn codes.

Another problem are the additional steps required to really get to where the QR codes is linking to, ie,

* You need to actually open the Code Reading APP

* Then you need to point your camera at the QR code correctly

* You then need to click the button to "scan" the actual QR code;

* You then need to click again in the APP to go tho the scanned URL

But, if the offer or linked information is worth it to the viewer - then the codes are worthwhile.

Jordan Stark

The QR code is definitely not dead. In fact, QR codes can be a major source of free mobile traffic when you know what you are doing. I can see $300 to $700 per day from well-placed QR codes.

Mobile Money Matrix | House of Harakhti

4webmaster

Almost dead, but could relive now that Google added to its Chrome application read:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/02/go...rcode-scanner/

As you know, Google can help people no longer need to download their QR code scanner, but simply to use Chrome to scan.

Here is a brief history of my old business.

I was one of the first in my country to do QR codes, mobile site, mobile marketing and I made a huge promotion about it. Unfortunately, Qr Code never won the public or the companies. After 3 years I closed my business because of this failure. I do not have any business and I hope that the QR code will be more popular in the future, but I do not have too much hope in its success.

Gary Chapple

"There are a number of reasons why QR codes might be going "out of style," but the most important is probably that they're often misused. They're in subway stations where there's no WiFi, on TV commercials that have an air time of a second or two, and some of them lead to broken links or landing pages that aren't optimised for mobile. Once a consumer is disappointed by the mobile experience behind a QR code, they may never scan one again.

For those of you who use QR codes properly and offer great mobile experiences behind them, this is probably very frustrating. But even when QR codes are used properly by businesses, the bigger issue is that the many users don't know how to use them properly. They have been poorly adopted in the United States and haven't really broke out of the tech-savvy crowd. And although mobile devices incorporated a pre-loaded version of a QR code reader into their system (Apple's is built into Passbook, not the camera itself), that isn't very widely known or used. It turns out that the action of taking out your phone, opening a QR code reader, holding the camera from the app up to a QR code with steady hands, and pressing a button isn't super intuitive -- so you should probably adjust your marketing strategy accordingly."

guitarprince

i can't remember the last time I used it. I am using galaxy A7 2016 and don't know what best apps to read QR code

Jordan Stark

In all honesty....NUMBERS DON'T LIE. QR codes are "dead" only for people that do not know how to use them. The most common uses for QR Codes are accessing coupons, special promotions, downloading mobile apps, and accessing product information. Use a QR code for anything else and your results will suck several sets of sweaty balls. You also have to place QR codes in areas of high traffic and position them in locations that have high visual authority. Do this the right way and you can generate hundreds of dollars every day. If you approach QR code marketing as a type of marketing plan instead of a component of a marketing plan......you will fail.

Mobile Money Matrix | House of Harakhti

VGreg

I personally love qr code, but I think the use is very limited, Ive used it on business cards, for sending payments, scanning offline, but I don't it will ever really work for online business or adding links to it.

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