Special Services | Your costs | Communications Home 

Advertising is the greatest art form of the twentieth century.

Marshall Mcluhan, Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar

You may noticed that "strange looking images" are starting to show up in all sorts of printed literature, like: brochures, printed ads and even on business cards.

It’s called a "QR Code".

A QR Code (it stands for "Quick Response") is a cell phone readable bar code that can store website URL’s, plain text, phone numbers, email addresses and pretty much any other alphanumeric data (up to 4096 characters, anyway).

There are may versions, however. The most commonly used is like the one on the right, which will access a website.

Another form that looks for all the world "similar" is the one at the beginning of this paragraph. Instead of a website, it will launch a device’s email program to allow a message to be sent to the address encoded in the graphic image.

There are a lot of advantages to including such graphics on "traditional" marketing materials.

For one thing, they totally eliminate "typing errors" from potential clients trying to access a website through a keyboard.

They also "suggest" a business/organization is "keeping up with the times." Something that cannot be overlooked these days. Even if the usual patrons to a business or organization never uses them, there will be some of what’s called the "younger generation" -- that might!

Encouraging them to visit a website with "high-tech" simply adds to the possibilities of getting better results.

That bears repeating: even if your regular patrons never use them... Where do you think new clients come from?!

QR Codes are also extremely flexible. UPS uses them as part of their shipment tracking system (take a closer look at the label next time you get a package). Among other things it can represent:

• Just plain text; maybe something like: Mention "Spectacular" when ordering to get a 10% discount -- or something similar
• A Google map location -- this should be on your Contact page, but it saves QR Code scanners the trouble of "drilling" through a website to find out where you are located.
• A PayPal "Buy Now" link -- oooo, what a concept! A "micro shopping cart -- on the go..."
• Access to a YouTube video
• And a whole gaggle of other possibilities!

HirMon creates and uses these codes in the printed materials for our clients for the reasons stated above and include them in all our Graphic Design work, when it is appropriate.