What is a QR Code?

Have you started to see strange, digital squares in restaurants, in stores, and on advertisements lately?  Do they seem strangely familiar yet oddly, well, odd  and out of place to you?

Welcome to the age of QR Codes.

And just what is a QR Code?  "QR" stands for Quick Response and these Quick Response Codes are popping up everywhere because they are essentially bar codes...but of a very special kind.

No longer just about keeping inventory or tracking products on assembly lines, these QR bar codes are a way for marketers to generate a unique code that will allow anyone with the proper bar code reader to scan the code and be taken immediately to a website or URL of their choosing.  Most times this will be a web page with more information about the product, an online video, or some additional information regarding the product or service that the marketer is offering.  By taking you to a URL via the QR Code the marketer is able to provide a much more detailed and often multimedia-enhanced experience that otherwise would be space or cost prohibitive.

And just why are these things cropping up everywhere?

That would be because more and more people are carrying fancy bar code readers in their pockets and purses.  These fancy bar code readers are called smartphones.

So now you know.  When you see these QR Codes they are intended for people with smartphones who will scan these codes with their phones and then be taken immediately to an online web page to learn more about the product or service.

Let's Lift the Human Spirit

Many advertisers and marketers seem to have lowered their standards to the least common denominator when creating and communicating their messages. Far too many in our profession seem to appeal to the dark side of the human psyche.

Many marketers feel that no message or style is too raunchy if it provides shock value in the quest for increased awareness and profits.  Although these tactics might be providing short-term bumps in sales and brand awareness, they might be damaging brand equity in the long-term. Further, the messages sent are often socially irresponsible or have no lasting moral value.

As marketing professionals, we create brands and ad campaigns intended to appeal to emotion and elicit behavioral change. Since we are doing the work anyway, we should appeal to positive emotions and seek to elicit responses that lift the human spirit and, perhaps, maybe even bring out the best in others...

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Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/branding-brand-development/4682984-1.html#ixzz1ndkElYUv

By The Marketing Guy Who Drives Sales

U.S. Economy Declines, Dollar Store Concept Soars

From:
http://moneyland.time.com/2012/01/27/why-shoppers-and-shopping-centers-alike-now-embrace-the-dollar-store/

Social Media Myths

 A good white paper from OhMyGov.com

http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2010/08/24/ohmygov-research-social-media-myths-5-roadblocks-to-discovery.aspx