Have you recently made the decision to place a QR code on your product packaging? Maybe you’ve had a QR code on your packaging for a while now and you’re concerned it is not delivering value to you or your customers? Are you already thinking about the implications of QR codes replacing barcodes on all packaging from 2027?

In any case, there are three key questions you need to be asking yourself:

1. Is my call to action compelling? Learn more about this here.
2. Is the QR code easily scanned? Learn more about this here.
3. Where should the QR code send consumers who scan it to?  

This blog post covers the final question but we will shortly cover the other two topics elsewhere on the SeeGap blog.

Where do Other Brands send Consumers who scan the QR Code on their Packaging? 

To start with, let’s take a look at the most common things other brands are doing:

1. Corporate/brand website

Most brands simply point QR codes on product packaging at their corporate website, or if they have multiple brands, they’ll point it at the brand website. This is the easiest thing to do from the brands perspective, as there is no additional workload, time or cost involved other than changing the packaging to include the QR code. 

There is some benefit to the consumer, as it saves them the time of typing a URL into their browser, but it is far from delivering a wow moment in terms of customer experience. Corporate websites are not typically designed to function as an extension of a product’s packaging. They are usually more promotional than informational. The consumer normally has to look for specific information related to the product they have in their hands, assuming the information is even on the website. 

Pros:

• Easy and cost effective to implement
• Consumer doesn’t have to type URL into their browser
• More site visitors

Cons:

• Site design is typically more promotional than informational
• Corporate website may not provide product specific information
• Consumer may be left wondering why they bothered scanning the QR code

2. App Store / Mobile App Download

CocaCola, arguably the world’s greatest consumer brand, is a proponent of this option (at least they are/were in Ireland in January 2024 when the below images were taken).  

Getting people to download mobile apps is one of the great challenges in the digital world. Outside entertainment and media, few traditional businesses (i.e. not digital first businesses) have been successful at getting mass consumer adoption of their apps. The app needs to offer a huge level of convenience and utility to deliver the value to the consumer.

In CocaCola’s case, the QR code does not even inform you in advance that the app store will be the destination. And before the consumer gets any value at all, they have to register for the app. Having scanned the code myself out of curiosity, this was a very poor consumer experience. 

Image 1. The CocaCola Experience

Pros:

• Good way to get more mobile app downloads

Cons:

• Is there value to the consumer in downloading the app? (i.e. does it help them achieve something they want to achieve?)
• Potential to annoy customers as downloading apps can be a clunky experience (particularly if you haven’t signposted this in advance) 

3. Social Media Profiles

Some brands choose to send consumers to one of their social media profiles rather than their website. There are definitely circumstances where this makes sense, but there are some significant downsides that brands should be aware of.

The best reason to do it is if your brand generates a lot of sales and leads through a particular social media platform at a low cost of acquisition (i.e. you’re not having to pay for expensive ads on the platform to generate engagement). For example, if your food product does extremely well out of viral recipe videos on Instagram and you can demonstrate how that drives repeat purchases, then doing everything you can to drive more engagement on Instagram might make sense.

The downside is you are sending your customers to someone else’s digital real estate and you do not control what happens once they get there. Once your customers view the videos that you’ve done well out of in the previous paragraph, Instagram will automatically start showing them similar content that may well result in a loyal customer trying out a competing product.

Pros:

• Good way to get more social media followers / likes
• Creates the opportunity for follow up promotions via social media
• Potential to use social media pixels for future paid promotions

Cons:

• Sending your customers to a third party website rather than your own runs the risk of them seeing competitor products as well as your own
• Most data is lost to the third party
• Most engagement on social platforms is now of the paid variety (who is really benefiting?)  

4. Promotional Microsite

Many brands use QR codes when they are running an on pack promotion and may exclusively use them for that purpose. There is no doubt that this will increase the engagement with the promotion and all brands running promotions should consider adding a QR code to their packaging. The issue here is more a case of the opportunity that is being missed rather than doing the wrong thing. However, if implemented poorly, it’s very easy to turn a positive into a negative as you will see in the example below. 

The question with on pack promotions is more about the goal of the promotion and the mechanism that is being used to deliver it. Which one or more of the following are you trying to achieve? The set up of the promotion will vary depending on which of the above you are focused on.

(i) Boost sales by giving consumers a reason to choose your product over others on the store shelf.

(ii) Reinforce a wider advertising campaign or sports sponsorship to improve brand image and awareness.

(iii) Capture customer data for future advertising campaigns or to drive direct to consumer sales. 

(iv) Get customers to interact with your social media profiles to boost online follows and likes etc.

One of the most common pitfalls of such promotions is the dreaded closing date. What an awful customer experience it is to scan a QR code (or enter a URL etc) only to be told the promotion has ended and deliver no other value to the consumer for the effort they have taken to interact with your product/brand. One way to avoid this is to use a product specific microsite (see option 5). 

Image 2. The WD40 Experience

Pros:

• Great way to increase promotion engagement.

Cons:

• Nearly always a short term implementation as promotions tend to have a limited validity period.
• Not maximising the benefit from your efforts to engage consumers directly from your packaging.
• When promotion has ended the consumer experience can be awful.  

5. Product Specific Microsite 

A product specific microsite is a site dedicated to a particular product or even a variant of a particular product. The idea behind such sites is to deliver an immersive customer experience that addresses multiple consumer needs in the most frictionless and efficient way possible. 

For example, a product specific website for a chocolate spread might address what the ingredients are and where they are sourced from. It might include a video detailing the backstory of the company and/or the founders if that’s interesting. Links to recipe videos for a chocolate cheesecake or muffins offer a far better consumer experience than a 2D serving suggestion image. You can also facilitate different types of communication such as feedback or social media engagement. And of course, any active promotions or news updates can also be promoted there.

To take full advantage of this set up, you should be tracking consumer interactions to learn more about their interests and what they think of your products.

Image 3. The SeeGap Experience

 Pros:

• Delivers a great consumer experience.
• Creates opportunities to increase brand and customer loyalty.
• If you track consumer interactions you can build valuable insights.

Cons:

• This option requires more effort than the options above, but services like SeeGap provide an efficient and affordable solution.

Conclusion

In our experience, many brands focus on what they want to get out of the QR code and the subsequent consumer interactions. This is totally at odds with the advice any knowledgeable  customer experience consultant would give. We encourage brands to focus on the needs of the consumer and how you are going to meet them. This is the key to driving engagement and only when engagement is happening can a brand expect to get much benefit out of the on pack QR code.