Product Content Management and Brand Asset Management is combining as Marketing Technology to improve customer engagement

Brands are faced with a choice.  Embrace new technologies or keep doing what they’ve always done.

The line between brand and product information has been blurred by consumer interaction with modern connected devices. 

Today’s consumers want on-screen interaction with adaptive, rich-media and product information in real time. Marketing departments with the technology in place to deliver this experience will thrive.

Marketing must embrace evolving technologies to deliver great customer experiences.

They want not just great deals but also - convenient, on demand, searchable and personalized product information.

Brands can satisfy this need by exploiting modern marketing technologies to deliver new and better experiences on tablets, mobile devices and other screens, with subsequent increased sales revenue and brand loyalty.

New startup, UnJunk is an example of this new thinking.  UnJunk is a new digital catalogue (developed by the team at e-see®)  that provide brands with a way to connect with customers in an interactive catalogue.

Customers can Save products, Share them with friends and take Buying actions such as finding a local store or linking to an online store.

Customers can personalize the catalogue to suit their needs/wants and it’s portable across various screens.  

Brands and Marketing teams can develop offers, product and information updates, interactive content and multi-media experiences in push these to customers in real-time.

Food for thought? Do you have the right technologies and systems in place to meet this challenge? Are you delivering what a new generation of customers want?

Or are you still doing what you’ve always done?

The QR Code of Conduct

Whilst discussing QR codes over on LinkedIn, one of the members discussing QR codes posted a link to this QR Code of Conduct by Richard Lamb from Midwest Technology Ventures, Inc.

If you’re considering using QR codes then this is a great primer of the things that should be considered.

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THE QR CODE of CONDUCT

QR codes are a fantastic tool to provide online information to mobile consumers.  No longer just a marketing gimmick, when used properly QR codes provide a quick and effective engagement with your brand.  Follow these rules to provide the best user experience and maximize credibility with your tech-savvy customer.   How do you use QR codes?  Do you follow these rules?

1. Make it easy.  

Put a QR code where it can be readily scanned.   Give them an incentive to scan.  Gaining knowledge/info is enough incentive; you don’t necessarily have to bribe them.  But you can.  Tell them what’s going to happen, or what they’re going to get when they scan the code.   Put this in a message surrounding the code.  Encourage them to scan, then don’t waste their time with irrelevancy.

2. Make it quick.

People don’t want to wait all day.  Give them a simple/quick landing page and tell them what they want to know.  Let them decide if they want to download a video or hi-res pictures, musical slideshow or a vcard.  Don’t force it on them.   Not everyone has unlimited bandwidth, or the worlds fastest 4G phone.   Don’t link qr codes to pdf files, let them choose what they want to download.

3. Optimize the code for scanning.  

Size matters! Make it large enough to scan easily, minimize (shorten) the content so the code is less dense and easily printed on materials that don’t support high resolution (like newsprint).  There is a minimum size, at which point the code will no longer scan.  Make sure the color contrast is optimal (black/white is best) for scanning in all types of lighting.  Eliminate gloss, reduce glare where practical.  Test the ability to scan the code before printing it thousands of times.

4. Use a phone-friendly landing page.  

Most QR codes will be scanned with phones.  Linking them to a website that’s not easily viewed on a phone, or has links too small to click with fingers, is just a waste of your customer’s time.  You can provide a link to a desktop site, they can save it and view later on a tablet or desktop.  Think of a mobile website as providing “drive-thru” information.  Minimal, quick, fast.  If they want a sit-down meal, they can go to your desktop site later.

5. Leverage mobile communications capability.  

Provide phone friendly, mobile connection options.  Click to call, click to email, click to map.  Make it easy for people to further engage.  Most phones have built-in features to share, but some folks don’t know how to use them.  So in the short term, you may want to include “forward to a friend” buttons to encourage them to share information, even with themselves, back at their own desk.

6. Be open to Change. 

The world is constantly changing.  Don’t make your QR code static. Encode a URL that can be easily redirected to a different location, or make a mobile site that can be easily updated.  Encourage repeat interaction by keeping the content updated and relevant.  Provide daily specials, updated information.  Nobody wants “old news”.  If it’s not current, it’s not relevant.  If it’s not easy to change, it won’t be current.

7. Track it, measure it, test it, improve it.

Multiple QR codes can link to the same mobile website.  Use different codes to see what/where customers scan.  Signs, ads, vehicles can all have different codes leading to the same information.  Which source gets the most scans?  Using a QR code system with built in tracking and statistics can tell you where you get the most results for your money.  You can even see what happens once the person has scanned the code.  Did they view more detailed information?  Did they click-to-call?  Use QR codes that allow you to measure your results.  You can then adjust things accordingly.

8. QR codes are ugly.  Get used to it.  

They weren’t designed to be pretty, they were designed to quickly link to encoded information. If you want to spice them up, that’s ok.  Just remember they were designed for optimal information transfer, by engineers who know what they were doing.  Anything artsy you do to “improve” their design has the capability of reducing, not necessarily increasing, their effectiveness.  If you change it, be careful, and test it in less-than-optimal scanning conditions.

9. QR codes are not just for advertising.  

That wasn’t their original intent. Marketers have hijacked and abused them.  QR codes are designed to link to information, period.  Practically any kind of information.  User manuals, emergency contact information, recipes.  Anything you put online can be linked by a qr code.  Even funny cat pictures.  It’s ok to use them for other purposes. Be creative.

10. Don’t look dumb.  

QR codes have been around for years.  If you don’t know how to use them properly, consider not using them at all.  You’ll just end up irritating your customer prospect, and above all you’ll look like an idiot OMG, LOL, :) :) :).    Be smarter than a Fifth Grader, and if you’re not, don’t be afraid to ask one.  Otherwise, you’re conditioning consumers to think QR codes are a waste of time.

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Thanks to Richard Lamb’s article at http://qrkinetix.blogspot.co.nz/2013/02/the-qr-code-of-conduct.html

Regards  e-see.com,

You can scan the QR code above to visit our website.