Smartphone Codes Let Consumers Easily Find Stores and Enter Contests
By scanning Quick Response (QR) codes on mobile devices, consumers can quickly get customized information and special promotions from International Trade Routes, the exclusive importer and distributor of Naturtint® natural permanent hair color in the U.S.
Women consumers of fashion and beauty products are embracing these codes that enable instant, direct and efficient communication and engagement.
Custom QR codes are being used successfully in ads for the natural permanent hair color appearing this winter in Glamor, Vogue, Elle, Women’s Health, Oxygen, Cosmopolitan and Natural Health magazines.
The QR codes used by Naturtint allow consumers to go directly to a store locator, where they can quickly find retail stores and online merchants that sell the natural product. Another code used in some ads lets consumers automatically enter a contest to win a year’s supply of Naturtint hair color product.
Using an app to capture the code eliminates the need for consumers to type in a long URL address on their phones. In a study conducted in May, the Pew Internet Project found that over one third of American adults – 35 percent – own smartphones. Archrival, another research group, recently surveyed 500 students at 24 colleges and universities across the U.S. and found that about 80 percent of students owned a smartphone.
More than 32 percent of the visits to Naturtint’s new website have come from the QR codes.
According to Ken Blass, president and CEO of Blass Communications, the marketing agency responsible for creating the Naturtint USA ad campaigns, it is important to use QR Codes in the right way.
Blass offers these tips for effectively using QR codes:
• Make sure the code leads to a unique landing page versus just a website home page. In the Naturtint campaign, each of the QR codes goes to a landing page for the publication where the ad appeared. This allows for the tracking of results, and it allows consumers to get the information they seek instantly, without having to hunt around a large website.
• Deliver value – scanning the code should deliver some added value to the consumer. With the contest code, consumers can enter to win 12 boxes of Naturtint in the color or colors of their choice and also sign up to receive promotions and other offers. The store locator is particularly useful for shoppers who rely on finding what they’re looking for via their mobile devices.
“When used properly, QR codes are a valuable tool to give consumers exactly what they want rapidly,” Blass said. “It also allows the advertiser to track feedback. QR codes deliver instant information gratification, which we see as a huge trend in the coming year.”
About Naturtint
Naturtint is a line of natural, ammonia-free permanent hair color developed by Laboratorios Phergal in Spain. Since 1999, it has been exclusively distributed in the U.S. by International Trade Routes, where it is the market leader in the health food segment. Visit www.NaturtintUSA.com.
