QR Codes - In or Out?

[davidmoon]

The successful dealer will eventually have to figure out the value of social media to move forward and reach their market potential. Consumers are already expect it in place when making their buying decisions. The same goes for a mobile strategy, which obviously QR codes are a connector for.

Dealers do have the advantage of OEMs to initiate the social spark.

 

[yagoparamo]

For some reason it seems that we are mixing QR codes with Soaicla Media. It is almost like anything atb the edge of technology has to be related to SM nowadays.

QRs can be something as simple as to show a Carfax (watch and see how long for Carfax to put a QR printeable thing for dealers to use).

If anything smart phones are on the rise and will continue to grow as well as people like to get their own data/research. QRs are not anoying and seat in there until you are ready-the cosumer-to take one further step in knowing the product.

 

[joe.pistell]

Joe -

Thanks for the swift kick. But before I go, I will defend my feedback in support of the original invitation: "If you have any thoughts about QR codes and their importance, please share them with me".

Alex Snyder stated 95% of the time QR code scans haven't delivered anything that got him excited. The content did not create engagment.

David makes a great point that QR code is designed to move the consumer forward - take the next step.

The solution I discussed is not MY solution - it is one solution for dealers who are prepared to utilize this technology and have a plan to proactively inform, engage and direct their customers to extremely relevant content. Your People - Your Product - Your Dealership.

Simply put - this is what your email signature and business card should be!

BTW - I don't sell SparqME, I'm a SparqME user...

Renee,

I gave you no personal kick. You _completely_ missed my message.

My $0.02
Drop the chatter about the potential of QR, and look at what we have NOW. QR is a fail. Not in concept, but in execution. This is a classic product example where the UI team should have been screaming and throwing rocks to stall the launch as Users en-masse don't get it. The ones that do get it are a rare breed.

Agreed?

In your SPARQ product example, you merge QR and Social Media for Car Dealers. Cool concept, but look around, Car Dealers are _finally_ understanding that FB is not a car sales vending machine. Only the sharpest car sales reps know the how to "work" social media successfully. I estimate this smart group of car sales reps to be less than 1/2 of 1% of the car sales body.

Agreed?

Again, your concept is solid, but I truly feel SPARQ fits a more sophisticated audience (i.e. technical B2B's).

 

[davidmoon]

QR is not a complete fail. Marketers are sure using and investing in it to a mainstream consumer audience. It'll be interesting to see statistics six months down the road.

 

[Alex Snyder]

For some reason it seems that we are mixing QR codes with Soaicla Media. It is almost like anything atb the edge of technology has to be related to SM nowadays.

QRs can be something as simple as to show a Carfax (watch and see how long for Carfax to put a QR printeable thing for dealers to use).

But what if you can link a consumer to that CarFax report on your facebook page - holy crap that would be the coolest things EVAR!!! .....I agree - more business; less fairies.

 

[yagoparamo]

But what if you can link a consumer to that CarFax report on your facebook page - holy crap that would be the coolest things EVAR!!! .....I agree - more business; less fairies.

No fairies here, just need to get your head out of the SM rainbow.

For a customer that has been shopping on the Internet and now is on the phase of visiting a few dealers that have the car/s the he is looking for having some positive data to reinforce the information on the car is good.

We do have several positive feedback from dealers using it and how it led to a sale (FYI- we dont pay for referrals nor we take money for referrals-company policy).

The biggest piece on what we did with the QR code has been the fact that we changed the QR code in the window labels instead of a price. In WA you must sell the car for the lowest advertised price (so you must disclose it even thought the car was priced higuer in the label thasn the Internet as it was done 15-30 days ago). I'm sure that other states are similar. vAuto's push for faster price updates has also motivated this. So what we do is to have something like "scan this to see latest price" and we simple link the QR to the dealer's mobile page for that specific car. The customer can now see the latest updated price--and the Carfax!. In order to promote this we have also encouraged dealers to offer some type of incentive (going back to the SM roots of this...) so we applied the social media value of give me something-for something. So at the bottom of the vehicle information in the QR mobile page there is a $250 discount coupon, oil change, etc. These get used pretty good by the customers.

So while all this will not be a game changer, I disagree with Pistell on the fact that QR codes have been deployed just fine in diverse aspects of the marketting process with a fair ROI effort Vs. benefit.

 

[yagoparamo]

Unrelated to the car biz but interesting as a trend and perhaps even something to look at for those of you still using mailers:

QR Codes: A Growing Force in Driving Online Interaction

 

[davidmoon]

I've flip-flopped my opinion about QR codes, as they are being aggressively pushed by advertisers in just about every mainstream media. But, again, we'll have to look at the numbers in a few months to see if the consumer still gets it.

And talking about social media ... Ha-ha, just kidding.

 

[yagoparamo]

I've flip-flopped my opinion about QR codes, as they are being aggressively pushed by advertisers in just about every mainstream media. But, again, we'll have to look at the numbers in a few months to see if the consumer still gets it.

And talking about social media ... Ha-ha, just kidding.

I can send you some numbers from our experience in a few weeks if that helps.

 

[Walt Kustra]

I really wanted to get excited about these, but just couldn't get anyone else on board. I had to explain to most people what they were, but even when I found myself running into them in stores or in magazines, etc...I just blew past them. I think they fail cause as David just said its just one more call to action. If I didn't get the info I was looking for in the ad or on the box I was pretty much done.