Q R Coding

There was a little debate earlier this year among some friends of mine about QR codes.

Will they catch on?

Will businesses use them?

Will people scan them?

Will they be a fad or trend?

and my favorite quote from an advertising agency, "QR Codes are Stupid."

Since I am in the early adopter category when it comes to certain tech and marketing ideas, I need to remind myself to be patient and help others when they are ready to dip their toe and plunge into these worlds.

Here's an update on QR code usage from Mediapost:

QR Codes Best in Magazines, Newspapers & Packaging

A new comScore study on mobile QR (Quick Response) code scanning readable by smartphones, found that 14 million mobile users in the U.S., representing 6.2% of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR code on their mobile device. A mobile user that scanned a QR code was more likely to be male (60.5% of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53.4%) and have a household income of $100k or above (36.1%).

Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile "QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns... "

A demographic analysis of those who scanned a QR code with their mobile phone in June revealed an audience that was more likely to be male, young to middle-age and upper income. More than half of all QR code scanners were between the ages of 18-34. Those between the age of 25-34 were twice as likely as the average mobile user to engage in this behavior, while 18-24 year olds were 36% more likely than average to scan. More than 1 of every 3 QR code scanners had a household income of at least $100,000, representing both the largest and most over-represented income segment among the scanning audience.

Demographic Profile QR Code Scanning Audience (Total Mobile Audience U.S. Age 13+)
Audience	QR Code Audience (000)	% of QR Code Audience	Index (Code Scanners)
Total Audience: Age 13+	14,452	100.0%	100
Gender:
Male	8,743	60.5%	125
Female	5,709	39.5%	76
Age:
13-17	1,076	7.4%	108
18-24	2,402	16.6%	136
25-34	5,317	36.8%	211
35-44	2,827	19.6%	117
45-54	1,798	12.4%	68
55-64	594	4.1%	28
65+	437	3.0%	22
Income:
<$25k	1,193	8.3%	54
$25k to <$50k	2,597	18.0%	79
$50k to <$75k	2,756	19.1%	96
$75k to <$100k	2,689	18.6%	125
$100k+	5,217	36.1%	13
Source: comScore MobiLens, June 2011

The most popular source of a scanned QR code was a printed magazine or newspaper, with nearly half scanning QR codes from this source. Product packaging was the source of QR code scanning for 35.3% of the audience, while 27.4% scanned a code from a website on a PC and 23.5% scanned codes from a poster/flyer/kiosk.

Source of Scanned QR Code (Total Mobile Audience U.S. Age 13+)
	QR Code Audience (000)	% of QR Code Audience (Mult. Sources)
Total Audience: Scanned QR code with mobile phone	14,452	100.0%
Printed magazine or newspaper	7,138	49.4%
Product packaging	5,101	35.3%
Website on PC	3,957	27.4%
Poster or flyer or kiosk	3,393	23.5%
Business card or brochure	1,940	13.4%
Storefront	1,850	12.8%
TV	1,693	11.7%
Source: comScore MobiLens, June 2011

Among mobile users who scanned a QR code on their mobile devices in June, 58.0% did so from their home, while 39.4% did so from a retail store and 24.5% did so from a grocery store.

Location When Scanning QR Code (Total Mobile Audience U.S. Age 13+)
	QR Code Audience (000)	% of QR Code Audience (Mult. Sources)
Total Audience: Scanned QR code with mobile phone	14,452	100.0%
At home	8,382	58.0%
Retail store	5,688	39.4%
Grocery store	3,546	24.5%
At work	2,844	19.7%
Outside or on public transit	1,827	12.6%
Restaurant	1,095	7.6%
Source: comScore MobiLens, June 2011

For additional information from comScore, please visit here, or for additional insights into QR Code usage in Europe, please visit the comScore Data Mine here.

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