QR (Quick Response) codes, those little square matrix bar codes that are showing up on marketing materials everywhere, were invented in 1994 by a Toyota subsidiary to track inventory. Their advantage for marketers is that an enabled device can link to a web location just by taking a picture of the QR code.
Clever. Like speed dialing for the internet.
So clever that marketers everywhere have been in a mad rush to put QR codes (or the Microsoft equivalent – MS Tags) on everything from packages to ads to point of sale.
There are two issues though. One is user adoption. First, you need to have a so-called Smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, etc.). About 50% of the population has Smartphones. And, you need to download a QR reader. Though free and readily available, to date, only about 30% of Smartphone users have done so. 50% of users have Smartphones, 30% of those have downloaded a reader. If I do the math right, that’s 15% of consumers with the ability to use QR codes or the like.
Yes, that percentage is growing. More people are buying Smartphones, and more people are downloading QR readers.
But here is the other side of the issue:  most QR codes ultimately send users to the marketer’s website to look at more information about the product they are considering. Or, QR codes send the users to the site’s home page. Great. Cool. Awesome. You’re at the store scanning a QR code and you can go to their website that most likely provides the same information about the product that is probably on the package in front of you. Or, the codes send you to the company’s home page to navigate to learn something.  What? I don’t know, but something, I’m sure.
A handful of usage occasions like that and I’m done with QR codes.
The real issue is that, like the early stages of social media, every company feels they have to do it but few have a good plan. Companies used to slap up a Facebook page and wonder why no one followed then. Now they paste on a QR code and wonder why no one uses it. Perhaps because it does the user no good. Perhaps because there is no real strategy behind the marketer’s use of QR codes. It’s more like “we need to have QR codes so let’s put them everywhere” instead of “what 
would be something valuable for the user to get by accessing our site through a QR code?”
Some smart brands (probably the ones that made good use of social media early) are thinking about the user experience. Something we did recently for MSI plumbing client Fluidmaster involves QR codes on store point of sale that connects the user with a specific web page based on the problem they are having. The web page offers alternative solutions with the product needed, tools required, effort to accomplish, and easy-to-follow instructions provided for each solution. Here’s an example: FixThisToilet.com.
Unfortunately, this example is not common. Most brands are just serving up QR codes because they feel they should with no real thought as to how including QR codes will enhance or benefit the user experience.
Quick access to the web through a little printed matrix? Great idea. Sending the user to worthless information online? Bad idea. And the potential death of QR codes.
