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QR Codes - In or Out?

Agreed David. I think QR might be a short lived with near-field-communication (NFC) chips. Though there are features QR has from a marketing aspect that NFC could never have. I do see them co-existing but IMO we will all be using NFC scanners very soon. Andriod and new to be released BlackBerry's are the first to offer this.. Soon there will be reason to sport a wallet butt. :)
 
In Japan both NFC and QR are commonly used everywhere often at the same time. One for info (QR), and one for purchase (NFC). I think we will see QR adoption continue to grow rapidly in 2011 and NFC start to appear more in 2012-2013.

We are seeing QR Codes being used by most major advertisers, and heavily adopted in places like Best Buy.

The dealers we have using QR Codes are seeing 5-10 scans a day on average (based on location and brand), with a nice increase on Saturdays and Sundays (especially if the store is closed).
 
We decided to work with them a few months ago so there are some of the things that we have done for some clients:

The system ads a unique QR (the one in the example may not work as the car may have been already sold) to the photo sequence so the customer can scan this while looking at a car in Autotrader, cars, etc. WSe liked this idea so customers could bookmark the dealer's address without having to take notes, print the ad, etc. Example here: QR Code in photos

We added a QR to the window labels so the customers could always check the dealer's latest price. Dealers in our are use vauto so their prices are competitive on the net. Prices didn't update that way at the lot (for that 15% that doesn't use the net!). Here are a couple different solutions: New label type with QR Code AND QR Code label with price

Last we created templates for Craigslist that will also show the QR code. 'Fishing' customers out of CL is one of our main concerns so we thought this would help: Craigslist QR Code Templates

Over all we have had good feedback and no negative complains at all.
 
Alex,

I think that suddenly you are more aware. I went thru the same thing, one day I realized that they are all over the place. Pehaps that is bad though, why didn't I notice them before? Perhaps is good; once I noticed them now I'm aware.

Just came back from Vancouver Canada and they are all over the place there too.
 
We started last week adding QR Codes on magnets to a new Focus. There are also written bullet points too (for the non tech savvy). We have 3 YouTube videos, 1 DealerRater link & a link to our current Focus inventory.

Twitter follower from the local newspaper popped in on Wednesday to check them out and will be featuring our "Easy Shopper Sunday" codes.

The videos are just quick 15-20 second tidbits of very specific info (one is the Active Grill Shutters YouTube - ‪Active Grill Shutters | Cheat the Wind | 2012 Ford Focus Nanaimo‬‏ ).

This video has been viewed on Mobile device 11 times since the 8th, and the Bit.ly tracking gives us a count of 12. The surprise was that the video is being watched on YouTube randomly, it's not been promoted anywhere else other than the QR Codes on the car itself. (although, that has only translated to 1 visit to our site from the YouTube video)
 
Karen Ann,

I could be completely wrong, but IMHO it looks like you missed the most important step in launching a QR Code campaign. It appears that you don't have a mobile strategy. Sending consumers to inventory on a desktop site from a QR Code defeats the purpose. Before spending time/money/effort on QR Codes, I would implement a strong Mobile site.

If I'm a consumer scanning a code on a vehicle, I expect a lot of info on that specific vehicle, photos, carfax, comments, contact info, maybe videos, etc.

I do have one question, how are you getting the QR Codes on magnets?