Posts Tagged "Bar Codes"

As if it were not hard enough for marketers to know where to begin with respect to mobile marketing, companies like SnapTag and JagTag are creating confusion around one of the most talked about mobile applications: bar codes.

This January 7, 2009 post on MobileMarketingWatch.com describes an offering by a new company called JagTag that offers a very similar service to SnapTag (which we blogged about here back in October of 2009).

These services appeal to marketer’s fears about the limited reach of smartphones capable of reading bar codes.  This is due to the somewhat real issue of handsets often needing special software to interpret the codes.  When marketers think about bar codes on mobile devices, they should break down the options as follows:

• As a coupon delivery and redeeming method.
• As a replacement for plastic cards (like your grocery store loyalty or video store cards).
• As a means of communicating information and/or pointing consumers to rich mobile interactions.

What Jag and Snap Tags do is imply that by using relatively ubiquitous MMS-enabled camera phones, consumers can be called to action as follows: take a picture of a code, send it via MMS, then receive of something of value – pointers to websites, a text message, offer, coupon code, etc.

I fail to see how this adds value to an interaction in the mobile channel versus even more common SMS text messaging.  The only case I can identify is when a brand wants to create an arguably fun activity for a consumer whereby they have a chance to use the camera feature/MMS sending capability of their phone.  That is a very weak scenario in my view.

Today I came across a link on ChiefMarketer.com to a blog post titled “Coupons.com Extends iPhone Grocery App to Loyalty Cards.”  Almost daily, stories are appearing about mobile couponing and loyalty, but this one is unique in how mobile is being stitched into a coupon program strategically and ultimately in line with the customer’s point of view.

Similar to how Interactive Mediums client Newser recently extended its service to mobile via an iPhone application as part of an ongoing mobile channel strategy, Coupons.com is also making progress beyond its initial steps.

Although the notions of replacing loyalty cards with mobile devices and presenting digital coupons or bar codes at the point of sale are very sexy, in practice these face all sorts of challenges – technically and process-wise.  Coupons.com appears to have learned how to overcome them by focusing on the mobile customer experience.

“…integrating digital coupons with loyalty cards is the most practical solution to enabling downloadable discounts in busy stores where consumers often have multiple purchases eligible for discounts.”

“We’ve seen the [couponing] industry flirt with all things of digital format for some time, all the way from the absurd—the notion of presenting barcodes on phones in high-volume checkout lanes—to the legitimate and tested, including digital loading onto loyalty cards.”

With a shopping list iPhone application already under its belt, in taking its mobile strategy to the next level Coupons.com has done the following:

• Offer traditional and mobile optimized websites which allow consumers to register their loyalty cards, browse coupon offers, and elect to have certain offers digitally attached to their accounts so at the point of sale they are redeemed as a group, as opposed to one at a time.
• A revised shopping list application which allows consumers to take photos of product bar codes to automatically have items added to a grocery list.  The application also integrates with the coupon program so that eligible products are flagged for addition to the consumer’s loyalty card account.
• Recognize the difference between coupon redemption associated with multi-product purchases (grocery) versus those associated with one large purchase (restaurant).  To that end, the mobile site allows selected offers to be saved on mobile devices for presentment at checkout without need for a loyalty card or account.

The last point is notable as it recognizes that coupons and offers may not be one in the same, and can have different practical applications:

“Mobile presentment has been a technology looking for a use…Where it works best is in low-volume, high-margin transactions—consumer electronics and things like that– and at the local level. We have over 12,000 offers with restaurants, dry cleaners and professional services, and phone presentment works very well there.”

“It’s all about moving people quickly through those checkout lines…Searching for multiple coupons on your phone, then showing each one, perhaps dropping your phone in the process—those are not conducive to speed.”

What is speeding up is the rate at which mobile marketers are learning from, evolving and improving upon their initial experiences.  Exciting times for mobile marketing.

In this recent post, I described my disappointment in trying to use an iPhone application called CardStar in place of my plastic loyalty cards at the point of sale.  The application allows you to key in account numbers for supported cards, then produces a screen based bar code which replicates the data available from card codes or magnetic strips.

When attempting to use this with my Jewel/Osco grocery preferred card, it failed to work, leading me to conclude that widespread adoption was far from certain.  This evening I had a chance to try the application again, this time with my Blockbuster account.  And it actually worked.

Perhaps Blockbuster stores have more advanced scanning equipment.  No matter why it worked in this case, the experience would have been enhanced further by connecting my debit or credit account so I would not have to separately pay for my DVD rentals.

Assuming other cards may work as well as this example, you could say the application is redeemed.  Just like like mobile codes at the point of sale should.

If you were not careful in reading an article titled “Welch’s, Uncle Ben’s, Johnsonville activate print ads with mobile bar codes” on MobileMarketer.com today, you might think a breakthrough consumer engagement solution with widespread applicability was being unleashed upon marketers.  That was my initial response, given recent experience with an actual bar code iPhone application and its inability to function at the point of sale.

The article describes a technology called SnapTag which is a unique coded circle intended for placement around a company’s logo, then printed in magazine advertisements and presumably posters as well.  This coded circle corresponds to a pre-defined mobile interaction which is instantiated when a consumer takes a photograph of the logo with their device then sends it via MMS or email to a number or address posted alongside the logo.  Read the story quickly and you envision a ubiquitous bar code-like technology which does not require special software on the mobile device, as is the case with Quick Response 2D bar codes.

Step back a moment though, look more closely and in fact what SnapTags actually do is make a mobile interaction more complicated than it needs to be.  The encoded circle serves the same function as an SMS keyword.  In the case of SnapTag, a photo must be sent via MMS to some phone number or mobile email address.  In the case of a traditional text message communication, a consumer instead texts a keyword to some shortcode number.  In both cases, the action causes a response to be sent back to the consumer, potentially driving a visit to the mobile web or triggering an email.

Where I can see SnapTags being useful is in connecting a brand to mobile by virtue of combining the two in a single image a consumer must capture with their camera in order to engage in the interaction.  However, given the greater ubiquity of SMS text and the added steps involved for the consumer with SnapTags, I think the same is possible simply by placing a keyword and shortcode alongside a logo.  Real bar codes encapsulate data which is interpreted on a device and potentially contains information, pointers to mobile web or text communications — all independent of the transmission of data over the network.

A few days ago I blogged about the “death of loyalty cards,” given reports of the greater effectiveness of using a mobile device in lieu of a static piece of plastic at the point of sale.  I fully buy into the concept, but like anything new, the experience on the ground today is what matters to most consumers, myself included.  So I was rather excited when someone commented to my post that I check out an iPhone app called CardStar, which nicely aggregates many of the cards I carry in my wallet, such as my Jewel/Osco and Blockbuster cards.

Setup was a snap.  I simply keyed in the numbers on my cards and the application generated visual bar codes that presumably serve the same function as the code or magnetic strip on the cards.  I had visions of being pushed discounts and special offers to enhance my shopping experience.  So it was with this excited point of view I stopped at Jewel last night to pick up a few things and try out my new mobile loyalty card.  I handed my iPhone to the cashier, they hovered the device’s brightly lit screen over the scanner, and…

Nothing.  It didn’t work, so I had to fish the plastic card from my wallet for the cashier to scan as usual.  If Jewel needs to replace its scanners and point of sale systems for this to work, we are a long ways away from replacing plastic with mobile devices.  My hope is that there was just some kind of glitch, but if not, then it suggests ubiquitous SMS text message-based loyalty programs and coupons have a strong future in enhancing the shopping experience.