Michael’s to engage holiday shoppers with new QR code campaign

Earlier this year, Michael’s Stores Inc., a specialty retailer catering to the artistic community, announced plans to engage in mobile marketing. The company is quite popular amongst artists for their offering of high-quality supplies and accessories, but has had little to no Internet presence. As consumers become more immersed in mobile technology, the company is in danger of being left behind. One of the tools that could help Michael’s catch up with consumers is QR codes.

During this year’s Mobile Marketing Summit 2011 in San Francisco, California, Anthony Price, senior director of digital marketing and PR for Michael’s, unveiled plans to incorporate mobile marketing into the company’s overarching marketing strategies. As the holiday season inches ever closer, the company is nearing the launch of this new QR-powered marketing campaign, hoping to boost sales along with their presence in the realm of mobile technology.

The company will be introducing QR codes to many of their printed advertisements in newspapers and specialty magazines. The goal is to ramp up consumer engagement and direct them to online “how-to” videos produced by the company. Thus far, Michael’s has yet to launch a website that is optimized for mobile viewing. This may hamper the company’s goals somewhat as the lack of mobile optimization will prove to be a barrier for their mobile marketing stratagem.

The company’s new marketing campaign could be launched by the end of next month, in order to take advantage of the holiday shopping season.