QR Code Consumer Scanning is on the Rise

August 15, 2011

According to research by comScore, 14 million U.S. consumers scanned QR codes (Quick Response codes) from their mobile devices during June 2011. That’s just 6.2% of the total U.S. mobile audience, so there is still a lot of room for growth.

The research provides some interesting demographic statistics about the people who scan QR codes. It appears that young, wealthy men are the most frequent QR code scanners.

Check out the statistics below:

Gender: 60.5% are male.
Income: 36.1% make $100,000 per year and above. Another 18.6% have incomes between $75,000-$100,000.
Age: 36.8% are between the ages of 25-34. The next biggest QR code scanner group is the 35-44 age range at 19.6%.

Now that you know the best audience to currently target with QR codes for maximum response, let’s take a look at the sources where people are scanning QR codes according to the comScore research:

Printed magazine or newspaper: 49.4%
Product packaging: 35.3%
Website on PC: 27.4%
Poster on flyer or kiosk: 23.5%
Business card or brochure: 13.4%
Storefront: 12.8%
TV: 11.7%

Another insightful part of the report tells us where people are primarily scanning QR codes. Surprisingly, most people in the study scan QR codes at home. Here is the breakdown:

At home: 58.0%
Retail store: 39.4%
Grocery store: 24.5%
At work: 19.7%
Outside or on public transit: 12.6%
Restaurant: 7.6%

It’s important to remember as you review these statistics that QR codes are still very new to most consumers. Early adopters are primarily young, wealthy men who scan QR codes from magazines while at home. However, if you base your future QR code strategic planning on those statistics, you’ll be selling yourself short.

The key to QR code success in the future is to move beyond these early adopters and motivate your target audience to scan them. That means you need to find the right motivational offers to encourage them to actually do the scan. For people who aren’t already scanning QR codes, you need to educate them about how easy it is to do so and what they get when they take a second to do the scan.

In other words, there is still an important education phase related to QR codes, and there is still much to be learned. As with all marketing, if you teach consumers the value of scanning QR codes first and then provide offers that are actually meaningful to them in places where they’re likely to see them and have an opportunity to scan them, you’ll boost your chances of success. These aren’t new marketing rules. They’ve been around for a long time. You’re just applying them to a new medium.

Have you used QR codes to promote your brand yet? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: MattsLens

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Susan Gunelius

President & CEO at KeySplash Creative, Inc.

Susan Gunelius is the author of multiple marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and blogging books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, a leading blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com, a featured writer for Forbes.com, and the Guide to Blogging for About.com. Additionally, her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, FoxBusiness.com, WashingtonPost.com, TheStreet.com, SmartMoney.com, TodayShow.com, BusinessWeek.com, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Small Business, and more. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Susan also appears at in-person and virtual events where she speaks about marketing, branding, social media, and more (visit www.SusanGunelius.com for more information). You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.