Hospitality Marketing Strategies – QR codes

You’ve seen them but not sure what you’re seeing? QR codes are an alternative to barcodes, a scannable/readable barcode that allows you decipher the information, and encourage sharing of text, data or URLs via social media. QR codes can appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards or just about any object that users might need information about. Anyone with a smart phone and a QR Code reader can scan the image of the QR Code, which launches the phone’s browser to a pre-determined URL.

The importance? Luxury brands around the world are adopting unique marketing strategies to bounce back after the spending slump of the recession. Brands that leverage digital and emerging media to deliver a personalized brand experience will will differentiate themselves.The codes provide an imbedded, immersive brand experience for the consumer. QR Code scanning is increasing, particularly among the Gen Y, affluent or techie markets – If this is your target market, take note.

Brands can utilize visitor information to understand what their consumers spend the most time on and why. This can help with future campaigns, mobile applications, optimized sites and ad placement on the Web and on mobile sites. For example, Lancome’s total ad interactions on all of its ad units for its Tresor campaign from Dec. 17 – Jan. 31 was 3,759,182. Users shared the ad on Facebook 85 times and on Twitter 120 times. The average time spent on the unit was 33 seconds and it had 5,771 total click-throughs.

The potential of QR Codes for the hospitality industry is enormous. From putting out more interactive advertising, to QR Coded guest amenities, signs and giveaways the range of applications is quite diverse. A great use would be creating perpetual links to offers / promotions that change in a timely manner – something that perhaps guests can take away and scan/use whenever the need arises. Of course, novelty is a key success factor at present… but perhaps given ample consumer education and adoption in the next couple of years, using Mobile Tagging will become the norm, rather than the exception.

Have you used QR codes yet? What are your thoughts on it?