I have to admit that I am not aware of the popularity of QR code after I read the article. I have heard about the QR code about couple of years ago when I was in China. Many products now are using QR code together with barcode. However, when I go shopping, I still scan the barcode more often than QR code. This makes me wonder why QR code is different from barcode. Thus, I looked up the difference between QR code and barcode on Google. The QR code is the short form for quick response code, which can be read faster and contains larger storage capacity than the barcode. Also, because barcode is a single dimensional code, it only can be scanned on a particular reader (the one we often see in the supermarket). On the contrary, since QR code is a 2-demensional digital image, it can be easily read by any camera-equipped smartphone. There is another sort of code called RFID (radio frequency identification), which is more common in B2B than B2C.
Customer side:
Due to the ease of use, QR code is more close to our
practical life than the barcode – we can use it by ourselves. The QR code I
used most recently is on WeChat – I have a foreign friend whose name is hard to
spell, thus, I asked him to show his QR code, which is much easier for me to
add him on my list. Also, I remember last month when I decided to go to Canada
for my summer holiday, I bought the e-tickets for my flight, which had a unique
QR code on my confirm letter. Every time I can the QR code, I can get my fight
number and my e-ticket on the kiosk fast and easily – I do not need to wait in
a long queue just for the purpose of obtaining my tickets. Although I may not
notice, there are a lot of such examples in my daily life.
As Dave mentioned in his article “QR Code Statistics,” the
percentage of scanning QR code at home is the highest. Together with the
percentage of the location of QR cade, and the demographic information, it shows
that most of male customers whose age is between 18 and 34 prefer to scan the
QR code at home in a printed magazine or newspaper, or on the product
packaging. Those suggest that the customers nowadays tend to use and read QR
code for personal use, especially for the product information.
Company side:
The numbers and percentages of QR code users in “QR Code
Statistics” not only display the characteristics of the customers, but also
expose the opportunities for business people. QR code is particularly great for
marketing – both for generating brand awareness, and reinforcing or retaining
the existing customers. For example, a company can print the QR code on the
leaflets or brochures and market that if customers scan the QR code on that
paper, they will gain a coupon for the company’s product. It is more convenient
and faster for customers to do so, because they do not need to type and search
the company’s information manually anymore.
In sum, QR code as a kind of emerging technology is more
close to the end consumers than barcode or RFID. Because of its ease of use, it
will be more widely used in the future. After all, user experience is all about
simplicity.
Reference: Dave Chaffey, QR Code Statistics
Julia, thank you so much for comparing those two code! I like the part you analysis about company side. It reminds me of some QR code in job fair. I think you all remember that in our job fair, a lot of companies sent QR code which included company recruit information to students. This is a interesting and convenient way to give people information.
ReplyDeleteGood job, Julia
ReplyDeleteI like you make comparison between the bar code and QR code. I also like your comprehensive consideration on the both customer and company side.
Actually, we listed same examples, WeChat and e-ticketing. It seems our experiences towards the QR codes are similar, lol.
In the company part, you mentioned it is feasible for company to do branding issue with QR code. That fits what I read from another article, which I shared in my post under your reply. Statistics show that 40% marketing actions on QR codes are video but not online store or coupon. I trust more marketers are utilizing the QR code to do the branding issue.
I agree with you that QR code's future is promising.
Julia, I have to say that I enjoyed a lot reading your blog every time. You have great thoughts and points of view. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI was also thinking of bar codes and QR codes. It seems like that bar code is very popular now. But it still has limits. QR codes contain more information which can be adopted widely. Personally, I love to see QR codes application on e-ticket business. I watched a lot of games and shows, not once did I see the QR codes on those tickets. For plane tickets or tickets which required higher security level, QR codes can be a perfect choice.