By food marketing technology consultant and BerryBroad, Juanita Gaglio

QR codes, once thought of as a panacea for connecting with the consumer, have underperformed in getting consumers to scan them. Ubiquitous as they have been, I still have people giving me the 'Deer in the headlights look' followed by the question, 'what is a QR code?'

The squiggly lines in the square are two-dimensional barcodes that were introduced in the Japanese automotive industry in 1994, and they became popular outside that sector due to their capability of storing more information than a standard UPC barcode and the ability to be read quickly.

The original purpose was store product tracking, item identification, document management and general marketing.  With the advent of consumer smartphone use, the QR code crossed over to CPG (consumer packaged goods) as a new channel of marketing to the consumer.

Consumer packaged goods companies were the first to integrate the QR code as part of their marketing and advertising campaigns.  The original thought process was that if the consumer has quick and easy access to the brand's website, it will increase the conversion rate; the chance that contact with the advertisement will convert to a sale.

Besides taking a consumer to a company website, they might also be directed to a URL, to participate in a sweepstakes contest, obtain recipes and product uses, and/or access coupons.

Marketers have a challenge in front of them to be creative and strategic in working with these QR codes. The codes have limited uses and are challenged with advanced connected content - social media. In theory it all makes perfect sense as the best way to reach the consumer, however, for several reasons from packaging to URL links, the QR code has turned out to be a disappointment to both CPG companies and consumers.

Let's start with packaging; companies invest considerable time and funds to identify their brand through packaging. A QR code has limitations in where it can be placed and the size of the product. If we are looking at a stick of butter or kiwifruit, it is not practical to add another item on the package, as well as muddy up packaging that might be considered a work of 'Mona Lisa' to a company. The message on the QR code is only as good as the person designing it.  The basic website on a desktop cannot be used to direct the shopper scanning a QR code. Thus, a new website has to be designed to use with the QR code. Furthermore, if the scan takes the consumer to a website, they will never scan the product again.  Consumers do not have the time to enlarge the website on their mobile screen and search for what they are looking for.  If they are looking for a recipe or what the product tastes like, they want it to pop up immediately on their screen. If the consumer is unable to find what she is looking for in a matter of seconds, they abandon the search.

Next in order of relevance is the limitations of one URL.  Each time there is a new message the company has to develop and print a new URL on the QR code, and it creates confusion for the consumer. Since there is nothing to alert the consumer that the message has changed on the QR code, their behavior pattern of scanning begins to diminish.  There is no motivation to scan again, if the last scan took them to a website.

We all know how fickle the shopper is. A consistently positive experience is what keeps the consumer coming back and this can shape future behavior. QR codes have been the worst offender of consistent experiences. The consumer has a choice of QR readers to download, each offering a different experience depending if it is a third party QR reader or native to the operating system.

Some products have done an outstanding job on packaging their message on the product QR code, however, it just takes that one or a few negative experiences and the consumer will not scan another QR code deeming it a waste of time. I would sum up the low click-through rate of QR  codes as due to a high rate of inconsistent consumer interaction.

It began as a great idea but quickly found too many challenges. With that said, what are the next big consumer trends on the horizon?  Before I leave QR codes in the dust, to give you an idea of its demise, guess where it is growing in some popularity?  Gravesites!  Yes, a Seattle based company called Quiring Monuments is branding a 'Living Headstone' by adding a QR code to a grave marker, enabling anyone to scan the QR code on the grave and learn about the person interred there.

Before I venture out further to discuss technology trends that will shape consumer shopping, it is worth mentioning that there are certainly other areas that will influence the consumer while shopping. Food science and technology will shape how food is marketed to consumers. Novel bioactive compounds, ingredients and technologies, new developments in food engineering, novel processing and packaging technologies will lead the way for food education.

Supermarkets and manufacturers are going to have a formidable task in front of them to keep customers entering their doors to shop. Recently, Business Insider published the headline 'Goldman: Groceries Could Launch Amazon into the Stratosphere', with the company highlighting AmazonFresh was a chance for Amazon to increase its sales volume, adding that online groceries only represented 0.5% of the US$1 trillion industry.

What new trends might entice the shopper to keep coming into the store?  Both Amazon and supermarkets will be relying on highly advanced analytics to optimize customers' shopping experiences. This information will allow them to suggest products they might not have otherwise purchased. In order to compete, supermarkets will employ these analytics to collect purchasing patterns and product searches, how shoppers navigate their stores and compare departmental performance within a store, thus allowing them to improve the shopping experience from marketing to customer loyalty.

Another entity jumping into the home delivery ring is Google Shopping Express, offering home delivery from Target to Walgreens.  The introduction offer is free delivery for the first six months plus a US$10 coupon on the first purchase. The consumer will be spoiled with all this pampered home delivery service.

With fierce competition, what will keep the shopper returning to your product, whether purchased in a 'Brick and Mortar' store or through home delivery?  On the horizon, we are going to see near field communication (NFC), visual recognition (VR) and barcode technology as improved channels of creating a more positive shopping experience. The consumer will be able to touch their mobile phone to a another device or NFC tag to exchange photos, make contactless transactions and/or exchange information through an unpowered NFC chip called a 'tag'.

What better way to capture the shopper but through another new technology that enables static real-world objects to come alive on a smartphone screen simply by pointing a sisual recognition app to the object.  How cool is this to have bananas and kiwifruit dancing in front of you? For a look at how this works, check out the Aurasma app.  Tesco, the British supermarket chain, is already using VR in both their Tesco Magazine and with wine.  I quote, "In a move to avoid placing QR codes on all wine labels, the retailer is embracing visual recognition technology…The beauty of this is that you don’t need an ugly QR code in the artwork". This goes back to my earlier comment about  not using QR codes to muddy up a label. The Tesco wine consumer can either purchase the wine or view a video of the winemaker.

A more recent technology that is available to everyone is barcode technology. Companies can use their product barcodes as prime real estate to send a series of messages to the shopper. Barcode technology is not the magic elixir. It is meant to be integrated with other social media channels. Have you seen all the job postings for internet marketer and/or social media manager?  It is a science that takes at least dedicating one person to skillfully weave the brand message among all these channels to gain a higher click through and conversion rate.

The shopper should be able to obtain a coupon, enter a sweepstakes, take a product survey or purchase the product (e-commerce) all with one scan of the barcode. How are you distributing sweepstakes information? Most likely through email to a database from an e-newsletter. And most likely, that message goes to the recipient’s spam box or the recipient reads the subject line and has good intentions to return to the message, but never does.  If that same recipient scans the product barcode and the entry pops up immediately, allowing them to quickly fill out the fields of information and hit 'send', the likelihood of participating begins to increase. Integrate it to social media and the barcode and it exponentializes the click through rate.

Wrapping all this up is Google Glass, a virtual computer that will be perched on the nose with an optical head mounted display. At US$1,500 per pair, they are coming down the pipeline and will probably be able to enable all the above mentioned technologies.

All these new technologies will be available on products for the shopper to scan or tap; however, again it is only as good as the marketers creating the message. The challenge will be to successfully weave these new technologies with existing channels of advertising and promoting products.

It will be imperative to know the demographics as some age groups will relate more to VR and others to barcode technology. A campaign could fall on its face because the wrong technology was employed. Just think of all the strategy meetings there will be to discuss what to use to reach the shopper - scan or tap? I am looking forward to seeing the first piece of produce that I can tap for visual recognition. With all this fun technology, it should bode well for the produce industry to entice consumers to eat healthier. Let us know, what new technology does your company plan to use?

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