When a small business adopts QR codes for their marketing efforts they tend to attract a lot of attention, especially if that business is in a small town. Such is the case in St. Joseph, Michigan, where Richard Daly, owner of a local theater, has plastered a large QR code on a billboard. While QR codes have proven successful in a variety of marketing campaigns, Daly’s code has been met with a vast amount of uncertainty.
The problem lies in the fact that most residents of St. Joseph have never seen a QR code before. Complicating the issue is that Daly’s billboard QR code is accompanied only by the question “Why?” and does not offer any guidance as to how the code can be used. While many are curious as to what the code actually is, Daly has yet to successful reach out to the community and raise awareness of barcode scanning applications for smart phones.
QR codes have become popular for small businesses with limited marketing budgets. The codes can often been generated for free online. This has enabled small businesses to reach out to mobile consumers who are entrenched in technology. However, the codes come with their own subtle pitfalls, such as linking to content that is not optimized for mobile viewing. One of the major drawbacks of the codes is that relatively few people know what they are or that they can be scanned.
Until this can be remedied, small businesses may see only modest results from their use of QR codes.
