This new, strange-looking symbol looks like a bar code, but there are no bars. It's a square with an odd array of black and white areas. What is this thing and what can it do for legal marketers?
Well, it's called a QR code, short for a Quick Response Code. Wikipedia defines it as " a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers, telephone cameras, and to a less common extent, computers with webcams."
I spent some time looking for these interesting objects around town and finally found one on a flyer put out by CVS. There was the code, in the bottom left corner, accompanied by a brief notice: "Learn more using your mobile phone."
So I went to my BlackBerry applications screen to find the best application and rooted around on the Web for background. I found that the QR code is actually not such a new technology. It's been around since 1994 and was originally used to track automobile parts during the manufacturing process. Now it has many more uses.
The basic idea is that if you have a camera phone of any sort, you can use your phone to scan the image of the QR code to display text or similar information, or to open a web page in the phone's browser. It took me a few tries, but I was finally able to center the QR code in my smartphone's camera viewer perfectly, and at that point, I was taken to a CVS web page about the "online pharmacy."
So, I was able to create a link from a physical object, the flyer, to an electronic object, the web page. This is known as "hardlinking" or "object hyperlinking." That's the essence of the QR code - to establish a link from a physical object to a web site.
How can this clever but strange-looking technology be used in legal marketing?
Minneapolis-based consultant Donna Erickson has written, "We expect to see the number of law firms using QR codes expand dramatically during 2011 as the technology continues to evolve and savvy law firms recognize the benefits."
By bridging the gap between printed materials and web sites, the QR code may actually help to rejuvenate the tired old printed law firm brochure. As Erickson points out, a QR code can be used in printed materials to open a smartphone browser to attorney profiles, practice area descriptions, articles, alerts, or newsletters.
A business card can contain a QR code, or a law firm or vendor could put a QR code on a trade show display to direct visitors to a particular part of the firm's website, saving the user a certain amount of time and trouble. In our metro area, for example, Odin Feldman & Pittleman in Northern Virginia has already given its attorneys the opportunity to have a QR Code printed on their business cards. These can lead to the attorney's bio or contact information. See here.
A sample QR code is below. See if you can make it jump in the right direction.
By Jonathan Groner a Washington, DC legal marketing consultant for the July/August 2011 Issue of the Capital Ideas Newsletter