You are fascinated by a painting you’ve discovered and want to see more of the artist’s work. You’ve been pricing a new toy at Best Buy, but need to see which stores carry it in hot pink. You are walking past a billboard for the hippest band in town and want to add it to your digital calendar without skipping a beat. Did you know there's an existing technology for your smartphone that can make all these things happen instantly? 

Meet the QR code.

A QR code (quick response code) is a simple 2D barcode that holds 4 to 10 times more information than the standard barcode format. While QR codes were first used for tracking inventories in Japan, the uses of this openly standardized barcode format have become almost limitless, especially in the marketing world. QR code readers are available for most every smartphone platform (free apps include ZXing’s Barcode Scanner for Android, Ricoh’s iCandyMobile for iPhone and iPod Touch, and BeeTagg for BlackBerry), and with a simple point and snap with your phone’s camera, you can be transported to a URL to find out more about a new product or automatically add a colleague to your contacts list.

At Springbox, we pitch QR codes to clients who are looking for the coolest new way to connect with new and existing customers and attract public interest to their campaign. We most recently used QR codes to announce our free holiday‐themed wallpapers for mobile devices and in a contest for Central Market's chocolate festival.   

If QR codes are so great, why doesn’t everybody use them?

Simple: we haven’t crossed the chasm yet. In the marketing book Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore describes 5 primary segments of technology adopters, each having their own traits, and each called to action by something different. Each segment adopts technology changes in their lives at different rates, each segment building on top of the momentum created by previous segments.  While there is already huge value to using QR codes across the web, print, mobile and social mediums, we’re still very much in the early adopter phase, and there is a chasm between early adoption and the beginning of the mainstream. The story is no different than the advent of CDs or the daily usage of Facebook.  

If you want to help cross the chasm, start scanning. 

Barcodes are not readable to humans, so they may seem overwhelming to many people who don’t realize how this barcode scanning technology can improve their lives. When users discover how they can create their own QR codes from major websites like Google’s ZXing project and Kaywa, or send them as coupons in their email newsletters using MailChimp, they will not only better understand what is available to them, but innovators will keep pushing the envelope with the capabilities of the technology. This is demonstrated by the evolution that has already occurred, where barcodes for scanning automobile parts have been repurposed for other industries and consumed by the general public on advertisements, hockey game programs, t-shirts, and not surprisingly, food.

So if you want to help take QR codes from “that’s cool” to “I gotta have it”, just start scanning! Show your friends and your family what you’ve learned, and help them get a reader on their mobile device so that this time they can enjoy showing up early to the party. Be a champion amongst your co‐workers by suggesting some of the many business applications of 2D barcodes, and proving how much value QR codes create for your company and your customers. Check out this list of free reader apps for your device to get you started.