Tag: 2d barcodes

QR codes used by Boone library to help connect with the past

| January 28, 2013

qr codes libraryThe hope was that the smartphone friendly barcodes will help to help locals learn their history.

As the use of QR codes increases among historical buildings and sites, the Boone County library has implemented the barcodes to help to link the community with their local history.

The project is being called the Chronicles of Boone County and works as an online local encyclopedia.

Kaitlin Mullikin, a local history associate, is at the heart of this project, which employs QR codes to provide information to local smartphone users. She explained that the barcodes have already been seen on historical roadside markers all around Boone County, and that they are also on a number of Burlington historic buildings.

When the QR codes are scanned, they link the user directly to the Chronicles mobile website.

There, the smartphone user who has scanned the QR codes will be able to see an overview of the building, event, or person that is related to the location of the barcode, and will provide links to the sources that were used to provide that information.

According to Mullikin, the links that are provided within the descriptions themselves help to demonstrate the connection that exists among the events, places, and people throughout Boone County. She said that she first came up with the concept when she was a Northern Kentucky University public history graduate student.

She explained that she was looking for a capstone project and that one of her co-workers at the library had recently attended a webinar that had provided her with information about location-based digital collections that use geolocation through GPS coordinates. The library had already implemented QR codes for other purposes at that time.

Mullikin explained that it was “the path of least resistance” for providing this information to the public. She stated that “the most interesting part of studying history is reading primary sources – sources from people there at the time or first person accounts.”

She also pointed out that people who are interested in learning more about the information that they have seen, after having viewed the general description that is provided by scanning the QR codes, it is possible for users to look at the sources. Then, they can read more by using the books that were identified on that list.

QR codes enhance consumer experience for audio tech products

| January 26, 2013

German Maestro revealed its latest support for retailers through in-store mobile marketing.

German Maestro, a company that specializes in audio technology such as speakers and headphones, unveiled its latest consumer experience enhancement at CES, when it announced its latest program for helping to educate customers through QR codes located on product displays.

This is a continuation of last year’s “Ask Me” program which empowered retailers to educate consumers.

The Ask Me program was created to provide the sales reps at the retail locations with an improved capability for educating consumers who are interested in the brand or products, or who have questions that need to be answered in order to make a purchasing decision. The success of that program has encouraged the company to extend it with the assistance of consumer smartphones.

This year, German Maestro revealed that it would be using QR codes that lead to videos, as well.

The president of the company, Ray Windsor, explained that German Maestro is hoping that the consumer will be able to experience the brand in an enhanced and interesting way right from the moment that he or she enters the store, even if the sales rep has not yet had the opportunity to reach the point where that individual happens to be standing.

According to that company, the answer they were seeking was in the smartphones that those consumers carried, in combination with QR codes that could be strategically positioned within the stores. This allows the brand to combine the mobile and in-store experience for an improved overall experience for the customer.

The QR codes are positioned on the product displays for German Maestro products within the retail stores. Therefore, regardless of whether or not a representative from the retailer has reached the consumer in order to assist him or her, additional information about the brand and the specific product is available.

When a customer uses a smartphone to scan the QR codes for the products, they will be automatically directed to a 90 second video that will provide general information about the brand as a whole, as well as its partners. Once that is complete, it will bring the customer to the brand’s website, on a page that provides information about the specific product that has captured the attention of the shopper.

According to Windsor, what the company is aiming to achieve through the use of the QR codes is to “try to herd the consumers into the brick and mortar guys, because that’s where the value add comes, we believe, in delivering our brand to market.”