Knovolo Mobile Marketing Reviews
QR Codes at Shopping Mall Potomac Mills
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It’s only been about a year since I was last at Potomac Mills mall in northern Virginia, but a lot has changed. Some stores have gone out of business, there are new vending machines (my faves being mini ice cream scoop dispensers and stuffed Angry Birds), and retailers are using social networking and QR codes all over the place!
Last summer, most shoppers and retailers had never seen anything like a QR code anywhere except on UPS shipping receipts.
I took the liberty to snap a few pictures, scan some QR codes, and evaluate the consumer experience of this new technology.
Spencer’s
Spencer’s had a nice poster at the entrance to the store which prompted shoppers to Like them on Facebook, and provided a QR code to facilitate.
My Take: it’s great! I’ve griped before about Facebook not directing mobile users to their mobile site, but this seems to be fixed now! Easy user experience and appropriate use of QR code.
Pepsi Cup
I was going to buy a smaller drink, then saw that this 21-ounce Pepsi cup had a QR code on it! It didn’t tell me why I should bother scanning it, but I did anyway. Or rather, I tried. My phone couldn’t detect the code. I didn’t have any other devices to test on, but I think that the image was stylized (the little black squares are quite rounded) in a way that makes it difficult for mobile cameras to read. Perhaps the roundness of the cup was a factor.
My Take: No dice. It would have been good to know why they wanted me to scan the QR code in the first place (game? coupon?), and it should have worked!
Comfort Advertisement
I couldn’t figure out which company put up this ad board, but props to them for adding a QR code! Negative points, however, for directing it to a non-mobile website. That’s right, they include this code so you can scan it with your phone, then they send you to a website that you can hardly read on your phone.
I’ve ranted before about the extreme shortsightedness of pointing QR codes to non-mobile sites. I guess they didn’t read my blog.
