If a barcode and a crossword puzzle had a love child, it would be the Quick Response (QR) code.
If a barcode and a crossword puzzle had a love child, it would be the Quick Response (QR) code. A mysterious black-and-white square to those who are unfamiliar with the technology, the QR code is actually a two-dimensional barcode with a series of modules encoded with text, a URL or other data.
To access the encoded information, available only to smartphone users, consumers must open a QR-scanning app and focus the camera screen on the code, which will automatically open up the link, video or image in the phone’s browser.
Developed in 1994 by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave, the QR code has been a staple in Japanese marketing for over a decade, but it has only recently taken off in the United States. With major companies such as Macy’s and Starbucks launching QR campaigns nationwide and more codes appearing on billboards, buses, storefronts and flyers every day, the apartment industry is taking notice.
And rightfully so, it seems. According to eMarketer, a digital marketing, media and commerce consulting company, 31 percent of mobile users (73.3 million people) in the United States own a smartphone. With that statistic expected to climb to 43 percent by 2015, the number of consumers who have the ability to scan QR codes is steadily growing.
Furthermore, a recent survey commissioned by MGH, an integrated marketing communications agency, revealed that 72 percent of those who do own a smartphone said they would be likely to recall an ad with a QR code. Additionally, 32 percent of smartphone users surveyed said they’ve used a QR code. Perhaps most noteworthy, 70 percent said they plan to use a QR code again or for the first time.
“I think any marketing plan that doesn’t include QR codes is missing out on something,” says multifamily housing consultant Lisa Trosien. “I really believe we have reached—or are almost at—the tipping point on these things.”
Most apartment marketers agree that QR codes are “cool” and trendy—but are they useful? Fans say the mystique surrounding the black-and-white barcode has the potential to pique consumers’ interest, increase brand exposure and breathe new life into print advertising. With a variety of websites that create QR codes for free, why not try something new?
Others are more skeptical. Consumers’ time is valuable, and if a QR code just points to a website homepage, rather than something truly unique and special, people may feel fooled. After a few more disappointing experiences, consumers could lose interest in QR codes. What could have been an exciting marketing tool, some argue, instead becomes a short-lived fad. And if the advertising market is flooded with QR codes, the novelty could wear off.
Deciding how (and when and where) to use QR codes is anything but black-and-white, yet one thing is clear: they are only as good as what consumers find at the other end.
Mysterious Marketing
Between innings at Hadlock Field, home of Portland, Maine’s Double-A baseball team, observant (or bored) Sea Dogs fans will notice a QR code on an 8-foot-by-3-foot advertisement located above a walkway that leads to the stadium’s seating areas.
If anyone in the ballpark is curious enough to pull out their smartphone and scan the code, they’ll be taken to a landing page that highlights four Portland apartment communities managed by Princeton Properties.
Sarah Greenough, Princeton Properties’ Vice President of Corporate Sales & Media, says the Sea Dogs’ stadium is one of several places where the Lowell, Mass.-based company is experimenting with QR-code advertising. For the past six months, Princeton Properties has dabbled with the technology on everything from flyers to billboards and stickers.
All of the company’s QR codes take consumers to Princeton Properties’ website or Facebook page. Greenough says she is working on a campaign of codes that will take consumers to a specific YouTube video on Princeton Properties’ YouTube channel, which she believes will be the most effective use for QR codes. “Videos have the chance to speak directly to the scanner,” she says. “You can personalize and direct the marketing message more intimately.”
She also sees the potential benefit of QR codes when prospective residents visit a property.
“I think it would be cool to do an interactive tour in a model unit with several QR codes around the apartment that each offered unique information about the unit’s energy-saving features,” she says.
Although Greenough doesn’t think most prospective residents know what a QR code is, she says that’s part of the appeal. “It’s sexy, it has mystique,” she says. “For example, we’re going to sponsor a restaurant walk and put QR codes on the cocktail coasters and napkins with a tag line next to it that says something like, ‘scan for a free drink.’ I think people are going to be curious and want to know more.”
While it’s too soon to quantify the effectiveness of such advertising campaigns, Greenough believes QR codes are as useful as any other call to action available for marketers—and inexpensive, too. The codes can be created for free on QR-code generator websites, such as http://qrcode.kaywa.com/, and pasted into a print advertisement or printed out on a sheet of stickers. Marketers can then use a service such as Google Analytics to track how many times each code is scanned.
“I don’t know why anyone would have an aversion to it,” Greenough says. “Just because we’re using QR codes in our print advertising doesn’t mean we’re omitting other important information such as our address and phone number. The QR codes are simply an opportunity to tell a big story in a small space.”
Make It Unique
When Mark Juleen, Vice President of Marketing for the The J.C. Hart Company, a Carmel, Ind.-based apartment management company, saw a QR code on a business card, he was curious enough to pull out his smartphone. But when he scanned the code, he was less than impressed.
“The QR code led me to the company’s Facebook page—and the URL for that very page was next to the code,” Juleen says. “That’s something I could have just typed in or Googled in less time, so what was the point of opening the application? I felt fooled.”
While Juleen understands why the apartment industry is experimenting with QR codes, he strongly advises marketing executives to do so with caution. “QR codes already have a limited, finite value because they lose their mystique after awhile,” he says. “If a bunch of marketers are just pointing prospective residents to a website, the format becomes commonplace and people start thinking, ‘I’ve scanned a couple of these things and they’re boring, so I’m not going to use them anymore.’ ”
Instead, Juleen urges marketing executives to make the content at the end of the code unique—something a consumer could not get anywhere else, such as a special landing page, YouTube video or $5 coupon to a local pizzeria. “The QR code is like a rainbow—there has to be a pot of gold at the end,” Juleen says.
After months of observing how other marketers are using QR codes—for better or worse—Juleen says he might try a few small campaigns, including partnerships with local businesses. However, Juleen doesn’t think QR codes will amount to anything more than a one- to two-year fad.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire format gets ruined because poor marketing becomes associated with QR codes,” Juleen says. “The bottom line is QR codes need to be unique or else people are going to get over this platform. Worse still, they may see a bad QR code and in turn think less of the company as a whole. There is way too much potential for using these QR codes to just turn around and ruin the user’s experience, but that’s what I think will happen.”
A self-proclaimed “Google fan boy,” Juleen says the fact that Google used to have QR codes attached to individual locations on its search results and has already dropped the program is a good indication of where QR codes are
headed. “I think a lot of marketers are using QR codes because it is free to create them, but I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon,” he says. “If Google is moving past this, I have to think others will.”
QR codes are more relevant for big-brand companies then they are for the typical apartment hunter, says Todd Katler, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, for BRE Properties, an apartment REIT. “Our industry tends to try and apply marketing practices that are simply not contextual to search,” he says. “It’s like buying a new drill at the hardware store and then walking around the house saying, ‘I know if I look hard enough I can find someplace to use this new drill!’ ”
Campus Buzz
If there’s one submarket where marketing executives believe QR codes have the potential to take off, it’s student housing.
Jessica Nix, National Director of Marketing for Peak Campus Management LLC, an Atlanta-based student housing company, has been using QR codes for property-level marketing since late January. Nix admits the marketing tool is, in her opinion, a novelty, but she sees no harm in riding the wave until it fades out.
“If it’s cool to scan QR codes, let’s make the most of that trend and provide it while kids still think it’s neat,” she says.
Peak Campus Management’s QR codes currently take students to the company website. Nix says she’s experimenting with codes that will automatically open up a specific community’s phone number on the consumer’s smartphone screen—they just need to hit the ‘call’ button.
QR codes do take up space on flyers, a challenge for marketers who have limited real estate as it is, but if the code piques a student’s interest, it’s worth it, Nix says.
“We don’t include any text that explains what the QR code is or how to use it because part of the point is to get students to ask one another, ‘What is this?’ ” she says. “If it makes them hang on to my piece of print advertising for three more seconds—and therefore think and talk about my community for three more seconds—the code did its job.”
Colin Hagan, a third-year student at Drake University and Account Executive for a company that produces walkthrough video apartment tours, frequently sees QR codes on his Des Moines, Iowa, campus.
“If you’re over 30 or 35, QR codes may not ring much of a bell to you, but students are definitely aware of (and using) them,” Hagan says. “There’s a mystique behind them and students love that. If you put a sticker on the door of an apartment building with a QR code and text that says, ‘Tour this unit now,’ it is going to get someone’s attention.”
Hagan has scanned several QR codes in print advertising and says the most effective ones have a call to action next to them, such as, ‘See something you’ve never seen’ or, ‘Why wait?’ “A small QR code in the corner isn’t going to ruin the aesthetics of your ad and students are going to say, ‘Ooh, what is that?’ ” he says.
Although Hagan suggests including text when QR codes are printed in newspapers or magazines, he says guerilla marketing also can be effective.
“I’ve seen stickers on bathroom stalls that just have a QR code without anything else,” he says. “Part of the fun of scanning the codes is that you don’t know where it will take you.”
Lauren Boston is NAA’s Staff Writer. She can be reached at lauren@naahq.org.