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If no-one told you anything about Quick Response Codes, you probably might have no idea what those awkward looking black and white symbols meant. Unlike more traditional UPC bar codes, qr code service Codes have not been widely used in the country until relatively recently. And, while you might expect, they have been largely ignored by consumers.

Until very recently, QR Codes have been mostly generic. They carry no obvious call to action, company identification, or any other clues as to why they appear and the way consumers are supposed t react to them. So unless the consumer is tech savvy, the code appears to have no added value to the message in which it appears. Most readers just turn the page, drive through the billboard, or disregard the postcard and never provide the code a second thought.

One reason behind this is that the codes were originally employed by Japanese car manufacturers to keep track of thousands of parts. The Japanese didn't even start using them in marketing until the late 1990's.

Eventually, Japanese companies wised up to the potential marketing power of these unique codes. (Marketers in the united states are already much slower to catch on, even though.) Now American marketers are finding ways to leverage this information-rich tool with customized QR Codes. Quite simply, a customized code is just one which uses all of the same technology of the generic ones but with the added value of image-driven graphics. By adding logos, color, photographs, as well as other tools custom codes tell the consumer that there might be more to the message than first meets the eye.

QR Code design starts with the technical aspects; the utilization of precisely placed black and white areas of the code. But with a custom code, artistic elements are added. QR Code art takes that plain looking, but highly technical, piece of imagery and adds distinguishing elements such as a logo or color or possibly a photo to make the code relate to the rest of the message. The result is that the consumer feels more compelled to use the code, to scan it with a picture phone and find out exactly what the hidden message is.

Some companies use custom codes strictly as a way to obtain the consumer to a site. Others depend on customized QR Codes to make special offers to an elite component of their market, like smart phone users. A small company might choose a custom code to provide contact information as well as a map to their whereabouts. Still others might change their customized codes weekly to try different appeals or special offers. The application of customized QR Codes is additionally changing. Once found only in print advertisements, the codes now appear on billboards, postcards, t-shirts, and also, in at least one case, tattooed onto the shoulder of a fitness trainer indulging in certain guerrilla marketing.

As the utilization of these unique codes is growing as well as the codes show up in a growing number of places, differentiating the code will become a growing number of urgent. Drawing attention through QR Code art in keeping with the company image will go a ways to making custom QR codes a lot more useful as a mobile marketing tool.

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