QR Codes Being Used For Marketing Essay

For the purposes of this assignment, a QR code for Coca-Cola was used. The image scanned is to the right. This is a QR Code Coca-Cola places throughout sports websites including ESPN.COM which is where this was found. Analysis of the QR Code’s Effectiveness Having found the image on ESPN.COM it was assumed that the next jump point would be to one of their sports drink brands. In fact the QR Code took me to their Facebook fan page and asked me to â€Å"Like† their page. The page has 58.6 million likes and shows friends who are also â€Å"Liked† the brand. As the landing page was the Facebook fan page for the brand, the call to action was to review and look over their content. As the Super Bowl was just last weekend and Coca-Cola had a series of commercials running at this event, there are pictures, out-takes and other items that show how the commercials were made. There is also a series of videos that are used for further supporting and promoting their brand. The Coca-Cola brand page is one of the more comprehensive in consumer advertising with exceptionally rich, varied international content. There is no overt call to action to buy one of their beverages; there is however an exceptional depth to the history of the brand and its progression over time. Coca-Cola is clearly proud of their history in advertising and branding, and use the Facebook timeline to show this well. They have also shown on their Facebook fan page how to create a community extremely well. The continued efforts on the part of Facebook to create communities and show how Coca-Cola fans all share common bounds together is done well. Conclusion Coca-Cola is maintaining and strengthening its brand with this QR code campaign. It is also showcasing how well it integrates the many channels of customer interaction and communication with its social media efforts. The area Coca-Cola needs to improve on however is the placement of this specific QR code. It was on a sports website which have one assume it was for a sports drink. The branding for sports on the Facebook site used as the landing page was so generic to sports, it was more like a billboard. This QR campaign was designed for a very broad, global audience and for that purpose, did extremely well. It could have been improved through the use of more effective, segmented QR codes to specific Coca-Cola sites dedicated to specific interests. Finally, the call to action was vague and more based on building awareness. What Coca-Cola did well however was create a very effective program for driving people to their Facebook page immediately, driving up Likes. Coca-Cola’s branding is predicated on a spread message of refreshment, and they did accomplish this very well. Finally the company did a great job of showing how it has created entertaining commercials and promotions based on their innate expertise in consumer products branding.