Japan is known for being the king and birthplace of the QR code usage but U.S. companies are increasing product awareness with huge market campaigns that have awakened a hunger for more. The marketing possibilities of this two dimensional code are now being used in movie trailers, as seen with Disney’s campaign to promote Tron, all the way to nonprofit organizations in an attempt to increase donations.
In a report from Scanlife, an industry leader in mobile code readers, U.S. citizens scanning has doubled during the holiday season from the last quarter. Also, showing an approximate 30 to 40% of Smartphone owners have downloaded some form of a barcode reader application and more than ninety percent of them reported having them found very useful…enhancing their general shopping experience.
People seem to be most interested in saving money with the QR codes, coupons and prices comparisons have been all the rage: stats show 81% for price comparisons, 63% for product reviews and 63% for special offers. Along with a huge increase in nutritional information, where most companies are showing one of the highest in “click through rates”.
Also trends are showing, in the past, more men used the scanning code apps, but now women using the code’s capabilities have increased by 13%. And it’s not just for the younger generation anymore, with age groups of 35 to 54 increasing as well by 25% – the ease of the scan is becoming more and more appealing to all.
Here are some other key points from the report:
- 2010 saw a 1600% increase in overall traffic
- The biggest traffic days were November 26th (“Black Friday”) and December 25th (Christmas Day)
- On average, a unique user scans 2-3 barcodes per month (includes UPC and 2 definitional codes)
- Android continues to grow as the leading OS with over half the scans, mainly taking share from BlackBerry
- iPhone increased 20% from the previous report
Note: Demographic data is representative and based on a voluntary user survey from the ScanLife application
Scanlife conducted their survey in December of 2010 on Twitter and Facebook, plainly showing an upward moving trend in the industry. Many companies are getting on board, small and large, finding all new possibilities for their own market niches. In fact, one of the biggest industries using QR codes are real estate agents…the concept continues to be brought to the masses for 2011.