Did you know there are around 330 million businesses worldwide? That’s the same as the US population!
How would you convince people to look beyond all these businesses and choose you?
That’s where strong and strategic branding comes into the picture.
Apple is a classic example of branding and brand loyalty. Statista’s Global Consumer Survey showed that 92% of Apple consumers are satisfied, and 48% aren’t likely to switch to another brand. These ratings are the highest in the sector, with other competitors being Samsung, Google, Motorola, and more.
Now, it may not be possible to build a cult following like Apple, but you can surely build your brand and cultivate customer loyalty. There are many techniques for it, one of the most effective of which is using QR codes.
Here’s a guide to using QR codes to build your brand and brand loyalty.
The secret sauce of branding (it’s not what you think)
Answer this. What’s branding? How would you know if you have a strong brand?
You’ll come across many complex terms and explanations for this, but here’s the simplest and arguably the most accurate one.
“If people recognize (awareness), remember (recall), and speak about your business (advocacy), you have a strong brand.”
So, if you can make people recognize, remember, and talk about your brand, you’re doing a great job at branding.
Now, there are numerous ways to achieve this. How you do it will depend on your requirements and available resources.
If you’re looking for a versatile, user-friendly, and cost-effective tool to enhance your branding, try QR codes.
QR codes can enhance your branding
Before delving into how QR codes can improve your branding, let’s restate the three pillars of branding: awareness, recall, and advocacy.
QR codes help you trigger them all.
Let’s understand it with an example. Suppose you create a QR code for your website and put it on your billboard ad. By scanning the QR code, users can visit your website and engage with your brand.
Let’s see how this simple use case of QR codes can help your branding:
- Awareness: When you create a QR code with a logo, people can instantly recognize your brand by looking at your QR code.
- Recall: When people scan the QR code to visit your website, they’ll get a unique experience. Thus, they’ll remember your brand.
- Advocacy: When people get a unique and memorable experience, they’ll share it with others.
Now, QR codes have a lot of use cases, some of which are highly immersive and memorable. For instance, you can use QR codes to share Augmented Reality experiences and take customer engagement to a new level.
How to use QR codes to build brand awareness and loyalty?
Now that you know how QR codes can improve your branding, let’s delve deeper. Here are the best ways to use QR codes to build brand awareness and loyalty.
Create a QR code with a logo
The simplest way to boost your branding with QR codes is to create a QR code with logo. When people come across a QR code with your logo, they’ll instantly know that the QR code belongs to your brand.
And when people see your QR code with the logo multiple times across channels, your brand will sit in their minds. That’s what brand awareness is.
Align your QR code with your brand’s design language
Branding with QR codes doesn’t stop at your logo. You can customize your QR code using colors and other design options to align it with your brand.
Let’s understand this with the example of McDonald’s. If McDonald’s had to create a QR code, which among the two would better align with its brand?
So, you can boost your branding by choosing the right design for your QR code.
Make your print ads more memorable
Print ads are pivotal for every business’s marketing and branding initiatives. Since print readership continues to grow, brands that want to reach a vast audience and increase awareness should leverage newspapers, magazines, and other print media.
You can enhance your print ads even further by including QR codes in them.
Let’s say you give an ad in a leading newspaper to promote your latest gold jewelry collection. You could include a stunning QR code in your print ad to redirect users to your website, where they could purchase the products.
People who view your print ad can instantly engage with your brand by scanning your QR code. This way, you can make your brand more accessible and shopping more convenient for your consumers.
Make your billboards and signage unforgettable
You can apply the same strategy to outside-of-home (OOH) advertisements like billboards and digital signage.
Billboards and signage are great for increasing brand awareness as they grab a lot of eyeballs. And with QR codes, you can further tune up your branding.
Like print ads, you can put a QR code on your billboard to send people to your website or social media.
QR codes for social media work great here. The primary purpose of billboards is to make people remember your brand. And when you allow them to connect with you on social media, your branding efforts become more effective.
Blend guerrilla and experiential marketing
First, let’s quickly walk through the concepts of guerilla and experiential marketing.
Guerrilla marketing refers to using unconventional, outside-the-box methods to increase brand awareness and sales. One of the famous examples of guerrilla marketing is GoldToe’s Giant Briefs campaign promoting their large-sized briefs.
Experiential marketing focuses on engaging the user in real-time through various techniques. In this form of marketing, users are a part of the marketing campaign. Hence, it’s also known as engagement marketing and participation marketing. Red Bull’s Stratos Live Stream on YouTube is a classic example of experiential marketing.
Both guerrilla and experiential marketing are great for increasing brand awareness, and blending them can take your branding to a new level.
QR codes make that happen.
You can use QR codes to deliver engaging guerilla marketing campaigns.
For example, Walmart set up a Virtual Toy Store and put QR codes for each toy. Shoppers could scan the QR code to reach the website and purchase the toy.
Turn your product packaging into a branding powerhouse
Product packaging is an underrated and one of the most crucial aspects of branding. In fact, 72% of consumers make a purchase decision based on product packaging.
The packaging helps you create an excellent first impression. If your packaging is appealing, people are more likely to buy your product.
QR codes can enhance your product packaging and, thus, your branding efforts. By putting QR codes on product packaging, you can send consumers to various online destinations and better connect with them. This convenience and engagement results in higher brand awareness and recall.
Share AR and gamification experiences
Remember we talked about experiential marketing a couple of sections earlier? Augmented Reality (AR) is another excellent way to leverage experiential marketing.
AR experiences can go a long way in engaging customers and increasing brand awareness. And you can share an AR experience easily with a QR code.
Burberry, a British fashion brand, installed QR codes in their stores to share the Olympia Pop-Up AR experience with their consumers.
Similarly, you can share gamification experiences like quizzes, surveys, and contests.
Share useful information and skyrocket consumer satisfaction
Informational marketing is another proven way to build a strong brand. When you share helpful information with your consumers, they start associating your brand with trust. Therefore, you’ll be their first choice when they have to make a purchase.
QR codes make it effortless to share information in the form of PDFs and multimedia. You can create a QR code for a document, image, or video and share it with your consumers.
Summing it up
Branding is vital for every business in this hyper-competitive landscape. While numerous branding techniques exist, QR codes are one of the most effective tools to build and boost your brand.
QR codes are versatile and enable you to engage users in multiple ways. You can use QR codes to onboard offline consumers on various channels and build meaningful relationships with them.
In all, QR codes help you trigger the three pillars of branding — awareness, recall, and advocacy — and that too effortlessly.
