QR Codes: Kiss of Death or Everlasting Hydrangea Love?

Dear Reader,

Have you seen a QR code lately?  I’ve seen them all over.  I scan them all to see how they’re being used.  I’m fascinated and curious.

I do wonder if non-marketing people know what they are.

Think they are new?  Think again.  QR codes have been used for over a decade in Japan.  Toyota developed them as a new way to ID their cars.

What is a QR Code?

QR stands for Quick Response.  It’s a barcode that links to multiple kinds of data, addresses, text and even videos.

To access these QR Codes, you need a smart phone with a QR Code Reader application.  Once you’ve downloaded a QR code reader, you scan the code using your phone camera.  The code directs you to a website URL.  Businesses use these to provide coupons, offer customers more information, have contests, and replace business cards.

Do all of your customers have smart phones?  Probably not, but they will in the future.  I read somewhere that only 43% of Americans have smart phones, but the study didn’t say WHO those 43% are.  I’d put money on the fact that majority are college kids and people under 50.

That being said, I have faith that it will catch on, so my experimentation continues.  While running around the country scanning every code I see, I must admit, I haven’t seen too many codes that actually help the consumer because they’re not used properly. For these codes to catch on, they must provide valuable information, or some sort of entertainment.

Here’s the problem…

They don’t.  Often, they direct you to a company homepage or literature not necessarily related to the product you want to buy. You would never put a link on an advertisement that takes you to a website homepage instead of a dedicated page for that product, right?  Sadly, I see this in our industry ALL the time.

I’ve seen many codes on tags for coneflowers in a big box store go to a page on coneflowers.  Imagine me looking at coneflowers.  Ha!  That’s all fine and dandy if they are new to coneflowers, but what if the customer already knows what a coneflower is, and what they really want is information on why this coneflower is different or improved?

You’ve just failed them and that’s when my marketing brain says it could be the kiss of death. They so badly wanted you to tell them why they should buy this $20 coneflower when they could buy the pink one for $6 sitting right next to it on the same bench.  You didn’t convince them to spend the extra $14, so you just lost that money.

Not only have you left money on the table, but if they don’t find the information they wanted – if the page you took them to doesn’t answer their question, you’ve failed them again and this is an even larger fail.

ALL QR codes on plant tags should lead to specific information, but like I said, I’m finding petunia tag codes goes to a page for “Annuals”, not a specific page for petunias.  Most customers don’t know petunias are annuals. You are giving them way too much credit.

You only have one chance here folks, there’s no mulligan.

If you don’t make it useful to them the first time, they’ll never try again.  They don’t want more information about annuals, they want to know about the petunia or the coneflower they have in their hand; the one they might buy if you convince them it’s cooler than any other petunia on the market.

You feel me?

If a company doesn’t take the time to make a dedicated page for each item– are they really trying to give customers the information they seek?  It’ll only get worse as GenY and Millennials become our target consumers.  They want info, specific info, and they want it NOW.

They’ll go somewhere else if they don’t get what they need.

You MUST have a dedicated web page or video for each product – otherwise, you are wasting their time.  That means you need lots of content and lots of web pages.  You need one page for each item.  Surprised?

And that ‘s not all.

You should also have a dedicated page for each QR code.  Yes, that means two pages for each item you have a code for.  Their regular page and their QR code page.

Why?

Otherwise you can’t easily track how many people are scanning the code, and if you can’t track it – why waste the time?

I can hear it now, “So, you are telling me I need two web pages for every plant or item I sell that will be advertised or marketed through a QR code?  That means twice the work!”

It’s called CUT-AND -PASTE, my friends.

It takes a few minutes more to create a copy page with a unique URL.  This unique URL will allow you to track how people are getting to your website.  Are they scanning the QR codes or finding it the old fashioned way – through the search engines?

Think of it this way…

How many times have you gone online to research a product and found a sad, one sentence description?  One sentence?

Come on peeps, you know the products; let’s hear you wax poetically about each and every one. Make each item a page or at least a well structured, information packed paragraph or two.  If you have more than one item on a page and you link a QR code to it – how will you know which item caught their attention?

It really is important. Future generations will demand it, so get used to it.

The best use I’ve seen was in a Patagonia catalog and it was for a new down jacket/shirt that goes from being in your pocket to keeping you really warm in various climes in seconds.  It’s small, lightweight and easy to carry around.  They had a video to show you how it works.  Of course, I recycled that catalog long ago, but here’s a link to the Patagonia video that was in the code.

Now that’s useful information!  If that info was accessible on a tag, I think it would help sell more jackets – IF the potential buyer has a smart phone and a QR code scanner handy.  If not, they’ll just have to try the jacket or seek out a salesperson for help.

I wonder…

Is finding the app on your phone, scanning it and waiting for the URL to load faster than typing in the URL on your web browser?

I suppose it depends on how fast you can type.  Is this technology really saving us any time or allowing us to find information faster?

I’m not sure it is.  If consumers aren’t tech savvy enough to type a URL into their web browser – do you think they are tech savvy enough to download a QR reader app and scan QR codes?  Are we giving them too much credit?  Is this technology being driven by marketing tech geeks like me and my husband?

Will today’s consumers ever get it?  Do they even want it?  We know future generations want this, but will new technology be invented that kicks the QR code out by the time the next generation is our consummate consumer?

Is it worth a try?

Of course it is.

Like Internet marketing pioneer, Seth Godin says,

“If you’re doing important work (and I’m hoping you are), then you owe it to your audience or your customers or your co-workers to learn everything you can. Feel free to ignore what you learn, but at least learn it.”

So, try it…I am giving it a good college try.

As I’ve written before, our house is on the market in the middle of one of the worst real estate markets in Baltimore since 1997.  Good times, eh?

I’m making a video all about what we’ve done to improve the house and gardens in the last 6  years.  I will describe all the gardens and add seasonal shots to take the fear away because most people are afraid of taking care of a garden like mine.

I need to do this because my agent is doing nothing fun, creative or unusual to sell our house.  I’m a bit disappointed, to say the least.  In this day and age when you can so cheaply and easily reach your target audience online, I find it appalling.   We’ll have a QR code on a sheet that they can take people touring the house can take with them.  I might even make a big sticker for the sign out front advertising the code.  Why not, right?

Another experiment…

QR Codes can be printed on almost anything and they can even be made with logos embedded into the design.  A new twist on modern art, perhaps.  I even saw one as a tattoo on a guys arm.  Where do you think that link goes?  A Facebook page, or even scarier – his match.com page?

It should go to a link with information about him – otherwise – what’s the use, right?

The real truth today…my first big experiment was a complete failure.

I made a QR code for every plant that we featured at the recent Ohio Florists Association Short Course trade show.  Very few people scanned them.  Very few people visiting our booth had smart phones.  Those who did try it seemed embarrassed to pull out their phones and scan the codes.  There were a few geeks like me who were very excited to scan them, but that certainly wasn’t the norm.  I worked hard on those and I was terribly disappointed in the response.

Was it worth the effort and the all nighter I pulled getting all of the codes ready for the show?

Sure it was. Now I have a code for each plant and I can use them forever.  Perhaps I’m ahead of the curve, but that’s how we roll at Plants Nouveau.  I’m always testing.  I challenge and question our marketing strategies everyday to make them the best.

I’m a marketing geek, so it’s also fun for me to learn.  I’m a plant geek too, so that makes it even more fun.  I want to give people information.  I want to give small garden centers the tools to access our information to help them sell plants.  If they don’t sell plants, I’m out of a job.  What I really want is for people to have smart phones so they can scan these codes.  It is a cool tool, but I’m afraid our industry and our current consumers aren’t quite ready for this technology.

In summation – can QR codes help you get more customers?

Probably not, but if done right, they‘ll educate the customers you have and keep them long-term. Future shoppers won’t ask questions, they’ll expect direct access to answers. QR codes can give them access and they are a hell of a lot cheaper than constructing a computerized kiosk in a garden center.  Plus, we all know how hard it is to find knowledgeable employees who want to to stop watering plants or stocking shelves to answer questions.  QR codes are free once you have the URL.

If you have a smart phone handy – give this a try and let me know what you think about the content on this page.  Is it worth the scan?

Would someone reading it know more about the plant they have in hand?

Would it make them want to take it home?

Happy weeding,

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
Partner, Plants Nouveau

PS…The most exciting new group of plants we featured at the OFA Short Course were the new Everlasting Series of Hydrangeas we are introducing for 2012.  We will have a crazier than ever, attention grabbing display at the Garden Writer’s Symposium in Indianapolis in a few weeks.

Yes, a tutu will be involved, but this is truly a tutu of a different color.  It’ll be fun, as usual.  Along with my fabulous new business partner, Linda Guy, I inherited the likes and talents of her amazingly creative GWA sidekick, Jim Martin.  Look out…with the two of us in charge you know it’ll be show stopping.

If you haven’t heard about the Everlasting Series of Hydrangeas, you are in for a treat.  This is a super tough line of Hydrangea macrophyllas (big leaf hydrangeas) from our wonderful friends at Kolster BV in The Netherlands.

These stellar new selections were bred for the cut flower market, so they have amazingly tough stems, strong, deeply colored, think leathery foliage and the strongest, longest lasting mop head blooms I’ve ever seen.

You can seriously bang someone over the head with these and they will not loose one floret.  I’ve done it – trust me.

Everyone is searching for the next re-blooming hydrangea, but what about a hydrangea that grows three feet tall and has blooms that start one color and then take a journey to maturity that may involve three or more color changes along the way?

These are better than re-blooming, they’re Everlasting.

A fairytale like journey starting with various shades of green and aging to multiple shades of green, pink, purple, blue and red and then finally back to green with a hint of the previous color.  They’ll satisfy even the most demanding princess with their mélange of colors.

What’s more, they were bred to be sturdy and well branched,  so they make the prefect pot crop for the gift plant market AND they are all hardy to zone 5, so this could truly be the very first successful Gift-to-Garden line that also encompasses the cut flower trade.

Can you tell I’m excited about these?