With little over a year left to 2010, Swisttech looks at the opportunities of two-dimensional bar code (2D) marketing and how local companies may be left behind if they fail to investigate international trends.
In the old days, people said that money was power. Given the current financial crisis, we need to adapt that to information is power and power translates into money.
Companies are scrambling to ensure every time they deal with an existing or potential client, they assemble as much information as possible.
However, with the introduction of powerful new cellphone technology, as well as information-rich 2D bar codes, marketers can now not only gather more information, but increase actual sales by up to 20%.
The old bar codes we are used to seeing on most packaging were based on one-dimensional, vertical formats, which saw information encoded in a linear fashion of black and white lines.
Technology has seen the introduction of two-dimensional (2D) codes, which allows information to be stored both on the vertical and horizontal axis.
The data on these symbols can be anything between a few bits to 2kilobytes, in fact, depending on the size of the symbol, close to 2 500 alphanumeric characters can be represented.
Add to this the power of today's cellphone applications, and suddenly marketers have a new and powerful way of collecting information as well as the ability to process sales right from the handset.
While South Africa is still slightly behind the international markets, we have already seen an uptake in 2D bar code usage with the possibility of far more in the very near future.
One of the key benefits will be seen in the lead-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Many global sporting events are now using bar code ticketing, and airports and airlines are also turning to the technology to ensure paperless, fast and secure ways of getting travellers through the larger-than-normal queues ahead of big sports matches.
The advertising industry has also expressed keen interest in the new technology, especially after many companies have not only cut their ad spend, but also now demand transparent and real ROI on their existing spend.
Now, newspaper and magazine ads can also display the 2D bar code, which can be photographed by the potential client and additional information, redirection to a company Web site, or even a real-time order can be facilitated. This form of advertising also cuts down on the hit-and-miss nature of advertising, where consumers see the ad in a magazine, and can easily forget about it, or not act on it. The immediacy of 2D bar code advertising makes the call-to-action element of marketing a reality.
Bar code marketing is taking off in a big way in the tourism industry. Airlines have led the way in the ticketing department, but now train, bus and cab services have teamed up with hotels and other hospitality venues to offer cross-promotional opportunities. This collective marketing has enormous opportunities for the local market especially for the smaller players, which struggle to wrestle customers away from the large chains.
Now, using technology that is known to foreign tourists, and collective package offerings, these SMEs can truly begin to compete.
There is no doubt that South African companies would stand to gain an enormous amount by investigating this technology, and do not have much time in which to do so if they want to remain competitive.
For more information about this and what Swisttech can offer to your company, please e-mail: 2d-barcode@swisttech.com
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