BUSINESS EDU
QR Codes Are Cool Again: Turning Scans Into Sales by Cathryn Castle Garcia , Owner, ClearStoryCoach.com, The Azores
L OOK AROUND AND YOU’LL notice QR codes everywhere. Those pixelated black-and-white squares have quietly become one of the most versatile marketing tools available to small business owners. But for many dive center operators, QR codes remain an underutilized oppor- tunity. If you haven’t thought seriously about integrating them into your marketing, sales, and customer engagement strategy, let’s get started. A Brief History of the QR Code The QR (Quick Response) code was invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara, a Japanese engineer at Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota. Hara was frustrated with traditional barcodes, which could only hold about 20 characters of data and required precise scanning angles. He wanted something faster and more forgiving and found inspiration in an ancient board game called Go, whose grid-and-stone aesthetic influ-
enced the QR code’s distinctive square structure. (Incidentally, Go is a great “boat” game. You can purchase a travel version online.) The result was revolutionary. A standard QR code can hold up to 3,000 alphanumeric characters and can be scanned from any angle. Denso Wave released the QR code standard publicly and royalty-free, which accelerated worldwide adop- tion. Initially, QR codes were used exclusively in automotive manufacturing to track parts during assembly. By 2012, QR codes were appearing on everything from magazine ads to cereal boxes. Marketers were enthusiastic. But then, something went wrong. The QR code endured death by a thousand cuts, including the need to download a third-party app before using a code, poor execution by marketers, links to non-mobile-optimized websites, and lack of consumer education. Then, 2020 happened and COVID-19 changed everything. Virtually overnight, contactless interactions became the global standard. Restaurants adopted QR code menus. Healthcare providers used them for contactless check-in. Retailers used them to enable touchless payments. The entire infrastructure that had been missing in 2012 was suddenly in place. Three structural shifts made the comeback permanent: Native smartphone scanning: Apple added native QR ▪ code scanning to the iPhone camera app in iOS 11 (2017), and Android followed. No app download re- quired. Just point and scan. Mobile-first web design: The internet finally caught up. ▪ The vast majority of websites are now mobile-optimized. Consumer familiarity: Now we understand what a QR ▪ code is and how to use it. Static vs. Dynamic QR Codes Not all QR codes are created equal. Before you start generating and printing them, you need to understand the difference between static and dynamic codes. Static QR Codes - A static QR code encodes information permanently at the time of creation. The destination URL (or other data) is baked directly into the code’s pixel pattern and can never be changed. If you print 500 brochures with a static QR code pointing to a page that no longer exists, those codes become permanently broken. Static codes are best
If your marketing message isn’t CLEAR, all you’re making
is NOISE. I can help. Hi, I’m Cathryn. I specialize in branding and marketing strategies for the scuba industry. Visit my website for a FREE Brand Messaging Guide. Email me at hello@clearstorycoach.com to schedule a call.
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