For
those of you wondering what those strange looking square boxes
containing black and white pixels that seems to be popping up in
magazines and advertisements, let me solve the mystery. They are
known as QR codes or Quick Response Codes to give them their full
title.
QRcodes are similar to the standard barcodes that have been around for
many years and appear on packaging all over the world; however, QR
codes can hold a lot more information than the standard twenty line
horizontal barcode. These QR codes have been used in Japan and Europe
in the past few years and are now starting to become more and more
popular in the United States as well, especially within the marketing
and advertising sectors.
Just
think of a QR code as a hyperlink in paper form that allows your
mobile or tablet to connect to the internet without the need to type
out the web address. QR codes allow businesses to advertise their
wares as well as their websites, and these codes can be located
anywhere, such as billboards, posters, clothing, bus shelters,
packaging, flyers and much, much more. This integrates the print
world with the virtual world and is an affordable means to advertise
products and services as everyone can use these from the small
business owner to multi-national companies.
You
access the information by simply using the camera on your phone or
tablet to scan the QR code, providing you have an application that
allows the device to decode the information contained within the QR
code. These QR code reader applications are usually free to download
and can be found for most iPhone and Android enabled devices.
There
is a whole host of practical uses for QR codes as a marketing and
promotional tool. QR codes can be used on a whole host of different
printed materials such as, event and conference banners and displays,
flyers, business cards and posters.
The
QR code can link you to a number of different things, not just
websites but also email, SMS messages, a social media profile or it
can even get your phone to dial a specific telephone number.
