Here’s an interesting interview in The Smart Van from one our own, Aylie Fifer, on how the aging workforce may put companies at risk and what they need to know about technology trends.
The interview highlights areas on how service firms are using social, how the older generation can learn from the younger ones and the role of mobile devices and what impact they will have moving forward.
Yesterday, Aylie Fifer from Sonnhalter gave us an overview of what QR codes were and how they can be used. Today she’ll talk about the differences between Microsoft tags and Traditional QR codes.
If you want to see how it works, print out this page, download the app and scan the tag with your phone to see where it takes you. Or, if you already are familiar with this, scan the tag off the computer screen.
In our last post, we explained what QR codes are. Today, we want to tell you about the proprietary Microsoft Tags and what advantages they have over the traditional QR codes.
Microsoft Tags:
A Microsoft Tag IS a QR code – QR code means “Quick response code” and is a 2-dimensional, scan-able code. By definition, a Tag is a QR code.
The MT is a “High Capacity Color Barcode.” What this really means is more information can be packed into the code and can be used in color or black and white. This is what allows users to create an image over the code if wanted.
QR Codes vs. Microsoft Tags:
QR Readers:
You need to download a QR Code reader app to your phone in order to enable this to work and not a lot of people know about it, know how to do it, or want to spend the money on the app. Here are some recommended ones. Please note that not all QR readers will read all QR codes. For instance, Microsoft Tags have a special reader called “Tag Reader” that does not work on generic QR codes or vice-versa.
A lot of the phones that are currently being manufactured are being built with a reader built in. We are going to see this surge over the next 6 months – 1 year, I would guess, but it really is quite simple to download an app. We also will see the acceptable platforms expand. As I mentioned, this is already a huge phenomenon in Japan and is a more developed market for use of QR codes meaning people are more accustomed to seeing and using QR codes over there versus the U.S which is a less mature market at this point in comparison.
Metrics:
The other major difference with most QR codes and Microsoft Tags is the metrics. With most QR codes, you can track traffic by using Google Analytics to track the codes with unique URLs for each Tag. However, Microsoft Tag Manager actually will track the scans of each code. This way, we have one more level of information. With just Google Analytics, we only see how many people went through to the URL. With the added layer of information, we can see if someone scanned and stopped mid-process or had another issue.
Microsoft Tags actually have a lot of reporting available in the free version too. Here is a list of the reports available with the MS Tag Manager:
In addition to all the reporting, it also provides the option to set a date limit for the Tags. And, of course, you can change the URL on the fly, an attribute which we find especially helpful.
Even though the Microsoft Tag has only been out for a year, I think it is going to rise to the top not only because of its innate high-capacity to hold information (it was developed to be more robust), but also the added tracking and reporting features and the fact that you can also brand each Tag by overlaying a picture or a logo over the Tag and it will still be readable. I think that once the market gets used to using QR codes in general, this feature will become more appealing to users and publishers/marketers, so I think it is a better long-term option. And because it can hold more information, the Microsoft Tags can be printed much smaller than most QR codes. There are micro QR codes, but a micro QR code only lets you hold 35 characters of data – which really doesn’t allow you to do a whole lot.
The other nice thing is that it has a high tolerance for reading damaged tags. For a lot of the QR codes, if the code is damaged in any way, the phone camera cannot translate the code. When developing the Tags, Microsoft took into consideration the low-quality of most cell phone cameras (blurred shot, lack of autofocus) and adjusted the tolerance for a bad photo or camera so you don’t need an exact scan or a perfect picture like most QR Code scans require.
As far as the readers go – that is my other concern. Not all QR readers work on all QR codes. Most QR generation sites provide you with a listing of acceptable phone platforms. Some of the major ones, in defense of the QR readers, do support the more popular phones like iPhone and Android, and Blackberry. Microsoft Tag Reader supports all the major phone platforms and is rapidly adding new platforms. It is a free download for the Tag Reader versus some of the better QR code readers you have to pay for (usually $1.99 or less, but still…).
While there have been a lot of companies using QR codes, I would argue that there are the same amount using Microsoft Tags. Fox for instance, used them to promote Avatar. Publications like Food & Wine, Details, Conde Nast Traveler, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Golf Digest, Ladies Home Journal, Lucky Magazine, Self, Seventeen, Traditional Home, and TV Guide have used tags. As well as some big companies and brands such as Campbell’s, Dominos, Dr Pepper, Ford, General Mills, Goodyear, Kraft, Mazda, Mountain Dew, Procter & Gamble, Porsche, Sprint, Toyota and Whole Foods.
At the end of the day, each have their own merits, but at this point in time, to me the better long-term choice seems to be Microsoft Tag because of its innate capabilities. No QR code (as of this moment, I know there are some sites in the works) can offer as much as the Tag can.
If you missed Part 1, click here to view.
B-to-B Marketers need to take advantage of every marketing tool, especially if your target market is the professional tradesman. Most of these folks are on the move and depend on their cell phone, not only to stay in touch, but to get valuable info that will help them do their job. One tool for mobile smart phones that probably is overlooked is the QR code.
More and more these days, we are seeing the use of QR codes in the consumer market. But QR codes are fairly new to arrive in the business-to-business sector. Since we see these as a great way to build a bridge between print and online presence, we thought we would take the guesswork out of these strange little codes.
Today Aylie Fifer, Relationship Architect at Sonnhalter will hopefully take some of the mystery out of this potential marketing tool with this 2-part guest post:
What are QR codes?
A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response,” as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.
This 2D bar code that stores URL information (or other information) so that when scanned with a smart phone reader (using the mobile’s camera), it directs you to a specific URL (or other location such as a video, a v-card, etc.)
These are very, very popular in Japan and are starting to catch on it the U.S., but mostly in the CPG market right now – we are starting to see it enter into the business-to-business world.
Here is a site to show you how QR codes work (you have to have a phone that has a QR reader on it or download an app):
http://www.google.com/help/maps/favoriteplaces/business/barcode.html
The creation of QR codes:
Usually synonymous with mass production, the quick response (QR) bar code was originally created by Japanese company Denso-Wave to keep inventory. However, because QR codes allow for more data than the standard 10-digit bar code, and because scanning requires less effort than typing a URL, the QR code has taken a turn for the personal. Denso has the patent to the QR code but as of yet, has not chosen to enforce it.
Denso-Wave website: http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/index-e.html
From Bar Code to QR Code – from the website http://www.denso-wave.com/qrcode/aboutqr-e.html
Bar codes have become widely popular because of their reading speed, accuracy, and superior functionality characteristics. As bar codes become popular and their convenience universally recognized, the market began to call for codes capable of storing more information, more character types, and that could be printed in a smaller space.
As a result, various efforts were made to increase the amount of information stored by bar codes, such as increasing the number of bar code digits or laying out multiple bar codes.
However, these improvements also caused problems such as enlarging the bar code area, complicating reading operations, and increasing printing cost.
2D Code emerged in response to these needs and problems:
2D Code is also progressing from the stacked bar code method (that stacks bar codes), to the increased information density matrix method.
About QR codes:
QR Code is a kind of 2-D (two-dimensional) symbology developed by Denso Wave (a division of Dens Corporation at the time) and released in 1994 with the primary aim of being a symbol that is easily interpreted by scanner equipment.
QR Code (2D Code) contains information in both the vertical and horizontal directions, whereas a bar code contains data in one direction only. QR Code holds a considerably greater volume of information than a bar code. Thus allowing for more sophisticated information to be encoded than just numbers such as a web link or a vcard.
Tomorrow we will talk about the difference between Microsoft tags and traditional QR codes.
While there are many different variations of QR codes such as Microsoft tags or Shotcodes, the premise is the same – a quick-reading code that takes you to more information. In our next post, we will discuss what Microsoft tags are and how they compare to traditional QR codes.