I have been awaiting the arrival of QR-codes in Europe for several years after hearing about how popular they were in Japan in a presentation at ESOMAR (in Lisbon). Having noticed that they seem to be popping up in an increasingly wide number of places and that free readers are available for most smartphones, I posted a message in QR-Code format in a number of places, including Twitter, Facebook, my blog, and NewMR.
The code is shown below, followed by the message embodied within it.
“Email your suggestion for how to use QR-Codes for Market Research to [email protected]. The best idea will win a copy of my book.”
Would I be deluged with answers? Or, would nobody contact me?
Well, a few people contacted me, probably about ten in total, but the clear winner was from Claire Banbury, who suggestions included using them with visitors to locations (e.g. tourist locations or events) in order to link to online surveys (amongst the things that can be embedded in a QR-Code is a URL, which in turn could be a survey) and possibly using them in mystery shopping.
I will be contacting Claire to send her a copy of my book.
Having conducted this exercise my feeling is that QR-Codes will make an impact and my suspicion is that it will take an innovative brand to really get behind QR-Codes and create a 'reason' for people to want to read the codes, probably to either win something or to compete in some sort of game.
Hi Ray
I read an article in Metro last week on my commute to work about these codes, and I got to thinking the same thing as you - QR codes have a lot of applications for market research.
In addition to the above I have a couple more to add. I do a lot of automotive research and my first thought was to leave a sign with the codes on at dealership exits to pick up dealer feedback (similar to Claire's idea above).
Also, when conducting surveys with paper questionnaires or sending out invitation letters, a QR code could be used to linked to the on line version of the survey instead.
Another way they could be used is at the back end of surveys if you have an on line reporting portal for a publishing results, you could have the code printed on business or plastic cards so clients can access up to date results wherever they are.
And of course thinking of business cards, you can have a QR code printed on them to link directly to your company website.
It will be interesting to see where they pop up in MR in future!
Liz Hardman
Northstar Research Partners (UK)
Posted by: www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawm5NcGYkZ348eYAqSh0yK9MhZfomdYC3SE | January 27, 2011 at 04:21 PM
Ray,
I think that one great use for QR-Codes is as a way to embed URLs for customer feedback surveys on the actual product.
Instead of printing a long (or even short) URL that a customer has to enter into their PC or device just print a QR code on the product itself. That way the customer just has to scan the QR code on the product and they get automatically directed to the product feedback site. The variations in codes means that you can embed simple product line information in the URL as well, eliminating the need for the customer to enter this data themselves.
Adam Ramshaw
http://genroe1to1.genroe.com/
Posted by: Genroe | January 18, 2011 at 10:15 PM