Fortune Tellers, New Improved or A QR Code Primer!

Remember recess in the schoolyard during your grade school days and those paper fortune tellers?  The kid holding the fortune teller would ask a series of questions, you'd pick certain numbers or colors?  All of this would lead delightfully to some type of revelation about your love life or how you were going to do on that history quiz.  Now there's a new improved version in town and it's called a QR code.

QR is short for Quick Response because these codes can be read quickly by a cell phone, a smart cell phone that is, and give you access to detailed information.  Although it might not tell you the outcome of your history quiz, it can be configured to take you to chapter highlights.

You've probably seen these intricately marked squares (look right to see one I created) and wondered what they are.  Basically, QR codes are a special type of bar code.  They are a mobile tagging device that can store much more data than a standard bar code including url links, geo coordinates, text, really any kind of information that can be stored digitally on the Internet.

They make everything interactive so you'll see them being used in stores next to merchandise, on business cards where contact information magically downloads, on posters detailing event information or billboards where they reveal a secret, on T-shirts perhaps expanding on a theme or even on TV.

It all started in Japan where QR codes were created for use in vehicle manufacturing and gained rapid adoption and then broke into Europe.  They are gaining popularity in the US as we too become a nation of smartphone users. According to a Nielsen study, 50% of US mobile subscribers (or 142.8 million people) will be smartphone owners this year.

If you're one of these lucky smartphone users, you can download the QR code reader app (from a site like Kaywa or ScanLife) and start scanning.  And you should because these mysterious Rorschach squares can transport you to all types of information including coupons, product information, event details, an explanatory YouTube video, Facebook fan page, or even your daily horoscope.

So you will be able to find out about your love life after all!  Bottom line, a QR code is a consumer portal to more information so the advertising can stay succinct while the offer details if you're curious, are easily accessible.

Want to know more?
Why Haven't You Started Using QR Codes
How QR Codes Can Grow Your Business
Separating Trend from Fad with QR Codes in Social Media
Stickerscan latest articles on QR Codes and NFC technologies
QR Stuff
15 Beautiful and Creative QR Codes (added 7-23-2011)

Picture: Photo by Mitya Ivanov on Unsplash (added 3/30/2019)
June 11, 2011 - Addendum: Here's a great article from a source I trust on Why Marketers Shouldn't Waste Their Time with QR codes but I still think they have a place plus they're fun.

So What's Fido Getting for Valentine's Day?

Valentine’s Day isn’t just about sharing the love.  It’s one of the major spending holidays in the US and an indicator for economic growth and consumer trends.  So I was interested to see a survey published by the National Retail Federation (NRF) that showed that since 2007, the last pre-recessionary year, US retail spending habits for Valentine’s Day have changed.

In particular, there’s a definite upward trend in folks spending on gifts for their pets.  There are also more dollars being spent on jewelry which I hope means that the “bling” you just purchased is for me and not for Spot.  The NRF’s 2011 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey also found that candy and apparel sales should all provide a winter time boost for retailers.  In fact the overall forecast for the total 2011 Valentine’s Day spending is $15.7 billion.  This is an increase of about 11% over 2010’s forecast of $14.1 billion but still below 2008’s of $17.0 billion.

But what about cards you ask?  After all, Valentine’s Day is the second-biggest card-giving holiday in the US.  As it turns out, according to the NRF’s survey, greeting cards continue to be the most popular gift option at 52.1%.  However, in 2009 Experian Simmons reported that eCards were just as popular as the traditional paper ones.  And I imagine that eCard popularity has increased in the last two years along with the adoption of mobile phones.  So I’m betting that this year eCards will probably surpass the traditional ones.

On flowers, the Experian research found that younger and older consumers are most likely to give flowers evidently because they can’t think of another present. This could mean that flowers are either a last-minute gift choice, or that consumers think flowers are appropriate for any occasion which is of course, what florists have been telling us for years.

As usual, men are projected to spend the most on Valentine’s Day gifts.  In the NRF’s survey, men said that they plan to shell out twice as much as women, ($159 versus $76).  But remember this is “self-reported” and in my experience a loved one’s perception and their reality often prove to be two entirely different things. No matter, give a kiss anyway and you have a great February 14th.  As for me, I’m off to buy a nice celebratory chewy for Mellow or maybe I should get her that double-fleece night reflective doggy coat! 

See also Mashable's Post, Social  Networking Americans' Valentine's Day Plans! 

When the Creator Becomes the Creation

This video is part of the fascinating digital ethnography program at Kansas State University directed by Dr. Michael Wesch.

P.S  Look Mom, No Writers!  Narrative Science raises $6 million for human-free stories.  Not a puppy mill a content mill. Also see Content Farms: What are They and Why They Won't Go Away  

The Christmas Card's Story

Recently, I discovered a wonderful card in my Mom’s things when moving her from her Beaumont Apartment into their Health Services division.  The card quoted a passage from the Lexington Herald Leader, dated December 25, 1920.  The cards were hidden among her files and memorabilia, a collection of her life time as a public relations practitioner.  Mom told me that she designed them and had them printed while we were living in England.  Dad was an Army doctor early in his career, you see, and we were stationed in Europe in the 1950’s.

The author of the story in the card was Enoch Grehan.  He was not only a reporter at the Lexington Herald but was also a professor of journalism at the University  of Kentucky where Mom graduated in 1940.  Yes, he was Mom’s teacher. She showed me the journal that she kept during that time, filled with newspaper clippings, self-authored poems and the personal insights of a young educated woman.  College educated to boot, a rarity then.

Her first job out of school was as a journalist at The Leader and I naturally thought that Enoch had recommended her but was surprised when she said, “No.”   She told me that actually it was Uncle Bud, my grandfather’s cousin, who was also a reporter there and had networked that opportunity for her.

Uncle Bud was a writer, and a good one.  You may have even read one of his books; The Way West or The Big Sky.  I think it was the former that won him a Pulitzer.  Mom met Bud Guthrie when she and Dad were dating.  I think Bud found her enchanting.  Mom said, “No, he thought I was smart.”  She told me that they had had some fun times while he visited Dad’s family in Lexington.  She didn't share the details but she has a little book Bud gave her, where he jotted funny observations in the margins on almost every one of the 20 or so odd pages. The book is about the architecture of outhouses.  She keeps it in her jewelry box.

Mom and I have always been friends and lucky circumstances made us partners in raising my girls.  But because of her aging and move into health care, this past year has been marked, for me, by this growing intimacy between us.  I love her stories like this one.  Of course, she doesn't volunteer them, I ask for them and her telling, often prompted by questions, is for me like swimming in chocolate.  So my wish for you is to take the plunge yourself this holiday and ask a loved one for a story. Enjoy!

First Steps to Going Social

You know, corporate America is by nature, not social. Most corporations are still wedded to a traditional marketing approach, based on TV, radio and print ads, and aren't sure how to integrate social media channels or where to start. There is also this sense of panic that comes from ignoring the profit potential of millions customers who are consuming media in new ways. Except for executives with their heads in the sand (like the folks that print checks for example), many fear that the new marketing train is leaving without them and that their missing out on revenues.

The solution? I start with the customer experience because it is, after all where the technology is taking us.  Social media enables marketers to engage the customer through helpful and ethical dialog (not shouting out and hoping they'll hear you). And it goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway, customers are how you make your money. Your customers are the ticket.

First steps should include discovering best practices in your industry. Remember that social media hasn’t been around that long, 3-5 years at best. So keep in mind that your competitors’ efforts are still in “beta”. And when you’re compiling your list of new marketing tactics, focus on non-industry success stories too. Ask if those best practices fit with your customer segments.

To understand your own customers' perceptions and proclivities, next on my to-do list is listening. What are they saying about you? Conduct that customer survey. Equally important is to team up with your customer service reps. Frankly these two items should be part of your marketing plan anyway. When you monitor calls don’t focus on the rep’s response time, focus on what your customers are saying.

Also on my list is finding out about customers’ attitudes in online chatter. Online discussions (groups, forums and complaints) will also help you form an understanding of what social channels your customers use. Not everyone has a home computer but what percentage of your customers use cell phones? Maybe your product isn’t a good fit on Facebook but it’s a great fit for a mobile strategy. Find out so you can “be” where your customers are.

With customer experience improvement as the goal, your marketing strategy will include your tried and true sales methods and now will be improved by offering up social media venues. My suggestion is to start small, in the form of an A/B test. Not only is it less daunting but can lead to some wonderful rollouts and subsequent long term success.

Business needs to understand, that social media is a tool and that waiting to employ it is not an option.  However, this confusion over where to start isn’t surprising. The inherent benefits of social media and networks are so revolutionary that it will take time for the technology, the methods and the key players to solidify. But don't make the mistake of waiting for that to happen. Today, market share belongs to early adopters.

Not Tricks, Just Treats

Walking by a local gift shop's display window in my quaint downtown Berwyn, PA the other day, I saw a black sweater with witches embroidered on it, a motion detecting skeleton and a dried wreath with small pumpkin lights and I wondered, when did this all happen?  Where did the inflatable lawn figures of black-cats, the plastic flesh body parts, those bats with the L.E.D. eyes, even luminaries lining driveways, where did it all come from?  

When I was little Halloween wasn't so, well, notorious.  Yes, we had the costumes and the door to door candy seeking activities (with my dad dressed up as a physician because he was one and had the stethoscope) but we missed out on the festival atmosphere that is injected into this event, today.  Okay, so maybe its a business push, the expansion of Christmas holidays right through Thanksgiving and into Halloween with hats off to good old American capitalism to getting all of us geared up early in the "buying season".  But there's also another element, a new element, tied into the age old "trick or treat" aspect of Halloween.  

My good friend, Donna Guthrie (yes she is my sister-in-law) captured it succinctly in her latest episode at MeetMeAtTheCorner, a site for 7-13 year olds but you'll enjoy it too.  The 2 minute video which highlights Halloween, also highlights this new element, philanthropy.  You know philanthropy, the desire to improve human welfare through charitable or selfless activities.  

Halloween is a great way to get your kids thinking about ways to help others and there's a huge benefit.  Just  take a minute to learn about some of the high school kids that have gotten Jefferson Awards for Public Service because they concocted ways to lend a hand in their communities.  The fruit of this type of action is greater than the gift itself because the kids involved discover how to involve others.  They find out how to organize and plan an event around a focused goal. They learn how to be leaders. 

So when you watch Donna's Halloween video episode, it's really much more than "that's nice".  Its a way to take a silly holiday where your kids beg for candy and turn it into a lesson in developing homespun leadership.  Still fun, but not so silly.  Now where did I leave my broom and the chocolate!

See pictures as my kids fend off the Zombie Hordes and other interesting stories!