To be honest I never cared much for QR codes until today. I had seen them on
many posters, websites, billboards, airports, shops, etc. but I thought of them
as nothing more than a barcode that linked to business websites. I was terribly
wrong. QR codes can be used is so many ways! Scanning a QR code can not only
link to URLs, they can be used to send emails, initiate phone calls, connect to
a Wi-Fi network, process orders, link to a calendar, and
more.
To make things even better, they are easy to create and easy to use. All you need
is a QR code generating sites such as
Unitag
where you can easily create and design QR codes for your needs. To use QR codes
is just as easy, all you need is a phone camera to scan the code. Unfortunately
QR codes have security holes which you must look out for. QR codes can be
tampered with so that they link you to a malicious site or even worse they can
be used to get access to your
sensitive data and
steal your passwords or other identification information. Be careful when
wanting to scan a QR code, watch out for any evidence of tampering and only
scan from trusted sources.
What makes QR codes more fascinating is its algorithm. QR codes came about
in 1994 in the automotive industry. Created by Denso Wave, they were made to
replace barcodes that could hold little information due to being
one-dimensional. As always, adding a dimension makes everything better. QR
codes are two-dimensional since it can hold information horizontally and
vertically. This allows QR codes to not only hold more information but also
reduce the size of the printing space. Compared to a regular barcode, a QR code
can hold up to a
hundred times
more data and take up one-tenth of the space. All of this leads to fast
readability and high storage capacity which makes QR codes so powerful. The
last powerful feature of the QR code is the
error
correction algorithm. Not only does this allow damaged QR codes to be read
but this is what allows you to design the code the way you want it to look: logos,
pictures, colors, patterns.
QR code is a convenient tool for marketing department to deploy for customers to learn new products. It is very cost effective to extend an existing magazine ad and continue to persuade the benefits the product. For me, it is too much information to handle. I don't want to learn more about the product except health benefits in food.
ReplyDeleteHi Sander,
ReplyDeleteYour post is organized and interesting to read. As a student at SJSU, I never heard about QR code before. You explained clearly advantage and disadvantage of QR code. It is important that every marketer should have extensive knowledge about QR codes for superior execution of the campaign in order to get the incomparable result. Now we can send online SMS text messages to our customer and members at just a click. It is completely free to use and we can generate and track QR codes easily. I believe that QR code is a useful tool.
Very well written and conversational in tone. Your post definitely engages the reader and shows your knowledge and research on the topic, and the introductory sentence immediately grabs attention and makes the reader want to read the rest of the post regardless of their position or knowledge of QR Codes. I also think it was very effective to put the more technical and historical information at the end so it is there for completeness but also doesn't lose the reader if it's not interesting to them since you've already hooked them with the rest of the post. Scattering links to further information is also very useful. Very well done.
ReplyDelete