How to Use QR Codes – Does Your Audience Use Them?

Following up on yesterday’s article, “QR Codes – Should You Use Them?“, I think it is valuable to talk about who actually uses QR codes. Before you eagerly leap into plastering them across every piece of marketing collateral and ad that you do, or start pushing them to clients,  it pays to understand who uses them. After all, it doesn’t do much good to use QR codes if your end audience doesn’t use smart phones, or if you can’t use it to provide something of value.

Think of a QR Code as a paper-based hyperlink… It’s like taking a simple SKU-type of bar code to a data-rich level.

According to ComScore June 2011 Data

According to a new ComScore report (their first one measuring QR code usage), 14 million US adults used QR codes in June 2011. Most popular was magazines/newspapers, followed by product packaging. More than half of all QR scanners were males between 18-34 years old. Not so surprising, given that smart phone users are 72% male, 27% female, also according to ComScore.

According to a second source, Mobio, use of QR codes has exploded by 1,200% in the last six months as their use has caught on – largely driven by holiday advertising and the increased use of QR technology in print, web and TV ads. Interestingly enough, Mobio’s age and sex demographics contradict ComScore. Specific percentages aside, both seem to indicate the 18-44 age group are the most prolific users. Seniors just don’t get it, and it hasn’t caught on among teens yet.

One more interesting statistic that should interest you – 48% of in-store shoppers surf their mobile device to comparison shop, get information about a product or check reviews. Since QR users are more likely to be those who see their iPhone, Android or Blackberry as a tool, not just a phone, they are the same people most likely to use QR codes. Hmmm.

Are These Demographics YOUR Demographics?

So how do you determine if it applies to your target audience?  These statistics tell me three things:

1. Business people often heavily use smart phones – ergo, business people are likely to “get” the value of QR codes
2. Seniors and teenagers are not likely to adopt QR codes in the near future. They are overwhelmed by smart phones’ complexity (seniors), don’t have the income to pay for smart phones (teens), or simply see their device as a telephone and/or text tool (both).
3. If a large percentage of your audience doesn’t rely on a smart phone, then you need to double-team your tactic. Go ahead and use a smart phone, but include a secondary way to obtain the full information. A shortened hyperlink that can be manually entered to get to the same online coupon, a text call-to-action, something connecting the detail behind the QR code to the REST of your audience.

Still not sure? Survey your customers and find out exactly how many use QR Codes. If there is interest there, use them but be sure and educate the non-users on what they are missing out on.

More resources you might like:

What is a QR Code and Why Do You Need One?
QR Code Marketing: 5 Tips for a Successful CampaignTaco Bell Experiments With QR Codes
How to Combine QR Codes with the Power of Facebook (don’t skip reading comments)
Close Up With Google’s New QR Code Generator
Get your own QR code from BeQRious