QR Code Advertising

A creative QR code advertisement of a budget airline in HongKong

In general, we consider all ads with the icon of a two-dimensional code in it and a certain degree of advertising effectiveness (communication effect and sales effect) the QR code advertising. Strictly speaking, QR code advertising is a smartphone-based marketing and advertising strategy which combines the mobile Internet, automatic identification and data capture technologies, and is capable of delivering promotional information to targeted consumers, for the process of purchase, consumption, discount coupon, and other business. It’s a form of commercial advertising that sellers or advertisers make use of outdoor advertising, space, facilities and networks to introduce their products or services directly or indirectly through the QR code platform.

Business Model

Information disseminating model

Whether digital certificates or museums, media or product information, are in fact the concept of information dissemination. With a mobile phone scanning a QR code, a user can enter its corresponding URL and obtain complete data about a product or service. Vendors build a complete business model by sending digital certificates and sending code-scanning hardware to local business.

Interaction experiences creating model

For example, you scan the QR code to receive coupons, or to vote, to register, to participate in a research or get in touch with the social media account of the company, returning the information about customers to the company or communicate with the company directly. So that the company could maximize the delivery effect of advertising, and gain the valuable user interaction data. Such a model has started to be used in the fields of movies, television, magazines, brochures, advertising and so on.

Purchase completing model

The original need to enter the physical store or online purchase process, has been able to achieved by scanning Qr code, you can use the mobile payment process to complete the shopping. Such an approach can make up for the need to consume in the spaces that were previously beyond reach.

Background and Consumer Motivation

Media convergence

With the media technology innovating, fast-paced life makes people more and more inseparable from the network. Under this assumption, all kinds of media platforms started integrating with each other. More of transmission is inclined to digital, and relies on mobile and network. Electronic software applications are developed in many different forms in order to serve customers’ needs. Corresponding with the media convergence and the increased use of smartphones and other mobile devices equipped with a camera, quick response (QR) codes have been introduced.

Consumer intentions to use QR codes 

Offered promotion "Scan this QR code to get your free coffee".

A predictor of consumer intentions to use QR codes on ads are both the utilitarian and hedonic benefits. This means that consumers are motivated by getting some sort of promotion offered by the producer when they scan a QR code on ads. They are also looking for getting to a useful link where they can obtain relevant product information and see customer reviews. Getting information through QR codes on ads is efficient because it is easy and free of charge.

Consumers also scan QR codes on ads because it is entertaining. Scanning an interesting looking tiny square on the colorful pages of an advertising by an electronic device is an appealing and exciting way to get information and being entertained at the same time. Therefore, creative marketers may consider having games or other interesting instruments as an added incentive to entertain the consumers who scan QR codes on their ads.

Interactive QR Code Advertising

QR code Interactive advertising allows consumers to interpret advertisements in unique ways and understandings, and shows the increasing significance of the consumerng campaigns in modern society.

The addition of a QR code, if properly applied, means the potential target audience can now engage with the brand, and be alerted or connected to any related content or promotions at the moment the advertisement is most likely to have piqued their interest.  Not only this, but they can now take the brand/promotion with them on their smart phone and continue the interaction (perhaps through an app) or ensure a later purchase.

For example, say there was a digital display on a kiosk in a mall, and the display included a QR code.  Next to the QR code in large writing a call-to-action might clearly tell potential customers that if they scan the code they will receive a coupon that is usable only for that day.  The customer can then scan the code and take the coupon with them to said store in the mall and make a purchase that they otherwise might not have made.

Adding QR codes and using them in this sort of way to capture customers attention and provide them with incentives to make additional purchases is the best way to make a physical advertisement live up to its potential and drastically increase its value. 

Dissemination Problems

Security Problem

The most frequent scenario of attacks on QR code is social engineering . The most popular action of social engineering is phishing or QRishing, by doing this “attackers use malicious QR codes to direct users to fraudulent web sites, which masquerade as legitimate web sites aiming to steal sensitive personal information such as usernames, passwords or credit card information”.

Phishing and the effects of malware are considered to be more threatening to mobile phones rather than computers. “The management model, long patching cycle, limited screen space, and myriad of input types and sensors found on mobile devices make mobile oriented malware particularly distressing”.

How the attackers exploit QR code?

Modifying individual modules of a QR code

-by replacing the entire QR code (creation of a new QR code with a malicious link encoded, after what attackers paste it over an already existing one on e.g. a billboard advertisement);

-by modifying individual modules of a QR code (attackers modify the encoded content by changing the color of specific modules of the QR Code to which the user will be directed after scanning the code.

QRishing attack requires much more resources than a typical email oriented phishing attack, but the cost of conducting such attack is minor. Still, indirect costs as physically being caught, provide significant additional risk over traditional phishing mechanisms.

Several researches were conducted by Seeburger et al. and Vidas et al. in order to find out “the importance of human-computer interaction aspects in QR code security”. Both suggest that curiosity influences people to scan QR code. Moreover, by decoding unverified codes users still can not distinguish the code from trusted and untrusted sources. The researches highlight that most QR code readers still do not provide tools to detect attacks and to minimize the impact on the privacy and security of the user.

So the best way to combat QRishing is to raise user education together with introducing automated detection systems for QR codes.

Perception Problem

A reality of limited interaction, QR code advertising is a kind of interactive advertising that need attract the consumer to scan the QR code, QR codes have no way of perceiving the existence of consumers, has to be requested by consumers. But the most QR codes are nothing special to look at: black and white squares, it is no different between the various brands and products, Is doesn’t attract consumer. And the information of QR code cannot be directly identified and consumers cannot get perceived usefulness from most of the QR code campaigns. QR codes bringing consumers to sites or other online content that have no useful information or bringing them to a website that is not adapted for mobile browsing. Consumer will not  to keep scanning QR codes in the future.

Future

QR Code scanning frequency is on the rise, as well. In 2014, Scanbuy data showed 4.0 scans per person. In 2015, this rose to 4.3.  That’s growth of 7.5%.  Due to very short history of QR Code marketing, consumers’ beliefs may still be evolving.  QR code in ads still need to improvement  in the areas of effective application. The future of QR code advertising could be extended to explore QR code usage pattern in various other media like product packaging, flyers, banners, in-store etc. Retailers need to  explore the perception about use and the right strategy of QR code advertising, to increase a product’s awareness and  drive the engagement between a company and its consumers, to understand mobile users’ awareness level of QR codes followed, to have proper understanding of consumers’ adoption of QR codes. It can also assist in building customer database aiding customer relationship management (CRM).

External links

1. Advertising with QR Codes "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYDbFTai0iE" at YouTube.
2. Is it time for a QR code comeback? "https://www.clickz.com/is-it-time-for-a-qr-code-comeback/112196/" at ClickZ