Using Quick Response Codes to Promote Your Business

Fatheadz has long used race car sponsorships to promote its line of oversize sunglasses. But because racing fans didn’t often connect to his website while at the track, Chief Executive Rico Elmore felt he was missing a marketing opportunity. After learning about Quick Response (QR) codes earlier this year, he slapped some of the squiggly squares on the Fatheadz autograph cards he hands out at races. Now, fans with smart phones use them to get information instantly about their favorite drivers—and a look at Fatheadz’s glasses. Although data is still coming in, Elmore says, June is shaping up to be the Indianapolis company’s best sales month ever.

Quick Response codes were developed about 15 years ago, but they are just starting to be adopted by small U.S. companies like Elmore’s, says Jared Smith, CEO of Talent Evolution, a digital marketing consultancy in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Smith spoke recently to Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein about using the codes.