86% of US marketers plan to use 2D barcodes

Rating: Results of study for Scanbuy amongst US marketers

A quantitative study amongst US marketers across a wide range of industries has shown that 86 per cent of key decision makers in the USA plan to use 2D barcode technology in the future, whilst 50 per cent of are already using 2D barcodes as a part of their overall marketing strategy. This survey was conducted through uSamp’s SurveyBuilder platform which includes an audience of over five million panellists worldwide. Representing more than 100 marketers from both large and small businesses in industries such as healthcare, retail and entertainment, the study illustrates high awareness and adoption of 2D barcodes. The study reveals new data from the marketer’s perspective that can be used to gain a better understanding of current adoption rates, and how campaigns are being implemented and assessed.The survey is interesting because it reveals which type of 2D barcodes are the most popular.

Although many regard QR codes as synonymous with 2D codes, they clearly aren’t.

In fact, only 61 per cent reported using an ‘open source’ code format with QR Codes leading by a large margin at 45 per cent.

That is opposed to Datamatrix with 16 per cent whilst other popular formats include EZcode with 12 per cent and Snap Tag with 11 per cent.

“We’re excited to see the continued growth in awareness among marketers, and we expect both the quantity and the quality of QR Code marketing to grow considerably in 2012,” said Mike Wehrs, with Scanbuy.

“Codes are working for the majority of marketers, but clearly platforms like ScanLife can add business intelligence tools and dynamic content generation to make the experience more valuable,” Wehrs added.

The Top Three content choices that the codes link to are: – product details; promotions and coupon offers.

The Top three media placement choices included magazines and newspapers, direct mail and product packaging.

Curiously in the UK, GoMo News sees many QR codes promoted on public transport sites.

Of the 50 per cent of respondents currently implementing 2D barcodes, the most important factors for a successful campaign included: -

The code format (ie QR Code) should be compatible with the largest number of mobile barcode scanning apps.

Whilst access to analytics from the scans themselves including basic usage and demographics of users is also crucial.

Obviously, 2D barcode supporters aren’t cheapskates given that 69 per cent of respondents reported using a paid 2D barcode service, as opposed to 39 per cent who reported using a free service.

When asked if they were happy with their experience, those that used a paid service were 50 per cent more satisfied than those using a freeware generator.

The survey also found that the degree of awareness between large and small businesses is relatively minimal with 95 per cent and 89 per cent respectively.

What we think

It is refreshing to see a major player in the 2D barcode space effectively admit that QR codes have still not won the quest for dominance amongst the various 2D barcode types.