What do you think about QR codes? Personally I think they’re a great little idea, capture an image with your smartphone and pop straight over to the chosen landing page. However, they were a great idea about 7 years ago and despite an initial surge where they appeared on most advertising collateral, they quickly vanished (although can still be spotted every now and again).
The theory of the QR code made sense but just didn’t catch on with the majority of consumers.
Perhaps it was slightly ahead of its time as the 4G and Wifi network in the country was still growing, perhaps it was the need to download additional software to make it work and the slightly convoluted user journey that just put people off or perhaps the majority of the population just didn’t have a clue what these strange like squares were.
A similar tool, still available, is an App called Chirp, which assigns a tone to a website, the smartphone hears the tone and automatically links to the chosen page. Again as with QR codes a great concept and use of technology far beyond my understanding, just not adopted by the wider public.
So how do marketers differentiate useful tools and strategies from fads and short term trends?
Here are a few tips:
Be patient. It’s ok to not be the first to the post sometimes. Depending on the industry you operate in you can afford to be patient and see what catches on over a prolonged period before jumping on the wagon
Consider the needs of your audience, is this tech relevant to them or are we as a business trying to be at the cutting edge when we don’t need to be? During my time in radio there was a big push to make use of Snapchat, “everyone is using it” however when digging a little into the demographic of the users they were far younger than the target audience for the station and so using the App would’ve been fairly pointless when considering the overall marketing strategy.
Create a champion. Appoint a member of your team to delve into the new tech and report back on how it could be used and if it’s relevant, understand who and how it will be managed if it’s adopted and what will the impact on the business be.
Invest in research. Businesses should do this on a regular basis, but research is important when rolling out a new tool. Will it be used, do people get it, is it a replacement for something existing that will improve process.
Review and adapt. If a new tool is adopted it should be monitored in its early stages as to the beneficial impact on the business. Whilst if something isn’t working straight away it should be given time to breathe and the business should invest in time, if results are not as expected and consistently underwhelming than a plan B should be implemented.
These tips aren’t rocket science, and would automatically be adopted by the majority of marketers, but every little helps.
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