The first time I used a Quick Response (QR) code, it completely clashed with everything I knew about them. Theoretically, this technology was a stargate, transporting a customer or consumer nearly anywhere, from a recipe page to a video directly to the farm.
But the app to read the code was severely delayed in loading the destination—if the camera could find the code at all—or crashing entirely, leaving me frustrated and in want of more. Yet, the beauty of technology is its potential to evolve. Endless amounts of cyberspace can be molded and reshaped at one home URL, creating a newer, better destination within the same address. And, when 2020 brought a need to mitigate contact, the technology gods saw fit to revisit QR code applications and give them renewed life.
The space I have seen the most significant shift in is restaurants, where the fundamental expectation has changed from being served tangible menus to immediately opening the menu on your phone using a QR code. At the same time, the code is more easily picked up on mobile applications, swiftly connects the user, and delivers the convenience earlier iterations denied us.
This combined improvement and frequent implementation have ensured something vital—the interface’s commonplace use.
Now, when I see a QR code, I take a snap to uncover what it will show me. I don’t even have to be interested in the item, article, or tag before doing so. The code hints that there is more to know—a clue I can’t help but follow. Packaging, ads, even the skin of a produce item are open opportunities for our industry to explore. In fact, QR codes have been pointed out as one of the catalysts of mobile shopping becoming such a key channel in retail, especially as its usability has advanced.
Behind the shelves, they are becoming a regular part of trade show tech life and will probably continue even more so, as DMA Solutions observed in its trend forecast for 2022*.
Even so, parameters may yet exist according to research. While the pixel barcode is now in a space to easily deliver more with less on-pack information, one survey showed marketers should not use QR codes indiscriminately, but alongside an emotional appeal if their objective is to induce purchase intention in low-involvement settings. Advertisements for high-involvement products reportedly need to combine QR codes with an informational appeal**.
QR Codes already have such potential to serve the ag-food industry that attaching them to curved-shaped products to improve traceability and increase customer satisfaction is a challenge currently being taken up using response surface methodology (RSM) analysis***.
Everyone loves a good comeback story, and in this case, I think it is safe to say the QR code is returned and ready for its encore.
** emerald.com
