Need QR Code ideas? Here are three great QRC campaigns
January 12, 2012 by Rita Marshall
2012 is supposed to be the year of the QR code, but not everyone has figured out how to make their QRC provide value to customers.
Looking for ideas? Here are three great and innovative ways companies have made their QR codes stand out.
Tesco’s South Korea subway campaign
What makes it great: Convenience. Mind-blowing convenience.
I actually had this idea first. Exhausted in the subway station, hungry but with a lack of groceries at home, I would dream of being able to touch the posters of food I passed in Toronto’s PATH system and have them appear at my house.
Tesco improved on my idea (which involved magic powers) with QRC-embedded posters of groceries on the wall instead. South Koreans scan each picture with their smartphones and the food is delivered to their homes. Click above for a demonstration.
Ethical Bean’s Back of Bag Story
Why it’s great: builds Ethical Bean’s eco-friendly, fair-trade brand, provides unique information, showcases the company’s social responsibility efforts
When you scan the back of a bag of Ethical Bean coffee, you are treated to pretty much an A&E Biography of your coffee. “This QR code contains the unique story of your coffee–from where it was grown and who picked it, to cupping, scoring and roasting information,” writes the company on its website.
Ethical Bean even takes their QR code beyond smartphones — typing in the number underneath the code into an online app lets you see the same information from your computer.
Heinz Ketchup’s “Our Turn to Serve”
Why it’s great: Engages customers, builds customer goodwill, showcases company’s social responsibility efforts and charity work.
Customers could scan a code on specially marked bottles of America’s favourite ketchup to send a digital postcard to US troops. Heinz would also make a small donation to the Wounded Warriors project for every message.
But even the best marketing idea needs near-flawless technical execution — over at Consected blog, Phil Ayres found Heinz’s QR code unwieldy for older smartphones. Read his analysis of the problem and suggestions for improvement here.
The possibilities of a QR code seem endless. What are some of the best uses of QR codes you and your smartphone have come across lately? Which are the worst (or most boring) ones?
Top 17 awful business buzzwords and their alternatives
January 9, 2012 by Rita Marshall
In December, CareerBuilder.com released the 17 most odious business buzzwords as decided by a survey of 5,300 people.
Here’s the list in descending order of offensiveness, along with their definitions and what someone thinking outside the box might say instead. Also check out which words I actually don’t mind. I make my case for which ones we should keep and which ones will outlive the cockroaches in a later post.
Outside the box
What it means: creative, creatively
What to say instead: creative, creatively
Low-hanging fruit
What it means: an easily attainable goal
What to say instead: the easier goals, the simple things
Synergy
What it means: better value or better results from combining resources or using teamwork
What to say instead: better results through teamwork / combining resources
Loop me in
What it means: keep me updated
What to say instead: keep me updated
Best of breed
What it means: the best of a certain type of software, hardware or business
What to say instead: the best
Incentivize
What it means: motivate, strongly encourage
What to say instead: motivate, strongly encourage
Mission-critical
What it means: critical, the most important
What to say instead: critical, the most important
Bring to the table
What it means: has or have
What to say instead: has or have
Value-add
What it means: an extra or enhancement to a product which is either free or low-cost
What to say instead: An extra or enhanced feature
Elevator pitch
What it means: A quick, succinct definition of an idea, business or product
What to say instead: I actually like the poetry of “elevator pitch”, the idea so compact you could recite it during the seconds you spend in an elevator.
Actionable items
What it means: Tasks or objectives that a business can complete on its own, immediately
What to say instead: The things we can do now, the things we have control over
Proactive
What it means: Show initiative
What to say instead: I don’t mind proactive either, actually.
Circle back
What it means: Come back to
What to say instead: come back to, return to
Bandwidth
What it means: The time or ability to perform a task
What to say instead: I’m not able to do that right now (instead of “I don’t have the bandwidth”)
High level
What it means: the big picture
What to say instead: overall, the big picture
Learnings
What it means: lessons
What to say instead: lessons, what we’ve learned, so far we’ve learned
Next steps
What it means: things that need to be done next
What to say instead: I don’t mind this either, actually.
Sources: johnsmurf.com “Where business jargon goes to die”, online dictionaries merriam-webster.com, the freedictionary.com, businessdictionary.com and learnings.org “where corporate buzzwords go to die”
photo by Dalbera