This well-known luxury cosmetics brand became a runaway success in the 1990’s. The company produces renowned skincare, haircare, and fragrance products for a global audience. For competitive reasons, the company wanted to remain anonymous but this case study outlines their journey from QR code skeptic to QR code expert.
The marketing and product teams went from haphazard use of QR codes to embracing the QR code as a true marketing channel as they implemented their first enterprise QR strategy that now delivers real value to consumers and to their marketing operations.
First, here’s some background on the brand’s approach and how QR codes became an important topic of discusssion among marketing and manufacturing operations.
The company has a minimalist, modern approach to branding, with their logo being instantly recognized around the world. Their corporate image and their approach to prestige branding and packaging is also often cited as an important factor in their success.
The brand’s strategy includes never using traditional advertisements or discount sales to promote its products but rather using public relations to get noticed and talked about for quality and innovative product ingrediants, packaging and design. Their stores, events, and communications also make any interaction with the brand an experience.
Notable designers and architects have been involved in the creation of the company’s brick and mortar locations which place in-market alignment and understatement as a priority in their architecture and overall styling approach. In that setting, it was with trepidation that the company initially embraced the QR code in form and function as an element in ads, marketing materials and events as well as using them to distribute global product information.
The marketing team acknowledged, however, that QR codes were increasingly being used in cosmetic advertising and marketing materials at events, in-store displays, and product packaging espeically since the pandemic. The marketing and product teams decided to capitalize on this trend while consumers were responding favorably. They also decided to go even further by expanding the use of QR codes in creative ways to engage consumers with the brand both inside and outside the store locations and by using QR codes to deliver localized product information globally.
In the summer of 2022, the team recognized the need for a global, enterprise QR code solution. At the time, QR codes were being created by various team members using unknown solutions and there was some risk in not understanding the various technologies being used to generate the codes. Plus the company had no visibility into understanding how many QR codes were being distributed and what the user experience was during each QR code’s lifecycle.
“We recognized the need for a platform like URLgenius that enabled the marketing and product teams to practice good QR code governance.”, said the Global Marketing Director. “We increasingly view QR codes and any QR code implementation as a corporate asset and an important part of the brand experience and consumer journey.”
The marketing and product teams brainstormed current and future requirements for an enterprise QR code solution that delivered on transparency, control and governance. Since the team had experience with free QR codes, they had already formed some opinions on the limits of free QR code generators which inspired a list of key requirements for a true enterprise QR solution.
A new enterprise QR solution needed to address some of the doubts and limitations the team was experiencing with standard QR code generators. The new enterprise QR code platform would need to have the following capabilities:
The team realized there were likely other important considerations that they may not be thinking about and felt they needed enterprise level support that included design and production guidance. They wanted to make sure they would avoid any QR code mishaps as they became more prevalent in use throughout the company’s marketing and merchandising.
Working with URLgenius, the company implemented an advanced enterprise QR code solution that addressed all of their requirements. Key elements of the strategy included:
Enterprise Level Uptime
URLgenius QR codes and branded links for the company’s global marketing team are routed through a high availability cloud-based platform and do not require any technical resources to implement. Hosted at Amazon Web Services, the patented platform features built-in network redundancy, load balancing, and automatic failovers, historically delivering 99.95% or higher uptime.
Dynamic QR Code Routing
The marketing team is provided with complete control over the QR code’s destination and routing by device. The destination of all QR codes can be changed at any time during the lifecycle of the code even after the code is printed and in production.
Language Geo-Routing
URLgenius QR codes are used to power the brand’s internal geo-routing process which routes the user to product information in the local language. URLgenius QR codes can also be set to contain internal logic for an unlimited number of language-geo destinations. When the consumer scans the QR code they’re routed to their preferred language destination in seconds. This is an efficient way for the company to meet key international regulatory requirements for product information in local languages across the world.
Branded QR Code Links
The marketing and merchandising teams can use the URLgenius platform to create a branded domain strategy for all their QR code experience including different subdomains depending on the use case. Using the brand’s domain for all their QR code links extends the brand experience to the ultimate destination and helps convey to consumers that the link behind the QR code can be trusted and they are being sent to the right place.
QR Design Studio
The URLgenius QR Design Studio lets the marketing and graphic design teams generate custom QR codes to match the brand and special marketing campaigns. QR code colors, logo, design elements, and density can all be optimized to maximize scan rates. Allowing the marketing team to control color and other design features ensures the code will scan more easily in relation to the QR code’s use case.
Subaccount Creation for Teams and Brands
The company is also using the URLgenius Subaccount feature to help organize their QR codes according to department and function. Each sub account can utilize its own branded domain strategy. Users, reporting and billing are also kept separate for accounting purposes and to maximize efficiency when managing the lifecycle of QR codes for different departments, purposes or campaigns.
Enterprise Support and Guidance
The URLgenius team presented QR code training and best practices to the Abrand and merchandising teams and is their go-to consultant for QR code design best practices in relation to use cases and marketing channels. QR codes are optimized in relation to size, placement, color, density, call-to-action and channel implementation.
The URLgenius platform delivered everything the marketing, merchandising and product teams needed to practice good QR code governance in combination with optimized QR code design for maximum scanning. URLgenius QR codes were quickly put into production:
URLgenius efficiently delivered on its promise by allowing the team to quickly put into practice a modern cloud-based QR code design and governance solution. The team is just getting started and yet already made a significant impact with their QR codes by optimizing the customer experience with multi-language QR codes that deliver an efficient global process to distribute product information to consumers.
The team here at URLgenius can solve your enterprise QR code challenges and give you guidance every step of the way. Whether your linking to your company’s website or your app, we’ll help you get a QR code startegy in place that will drive a measureable return on your investment.
Contact us for a free evaluation of your use case along with your questions at info@urlgeni.us about your QR code unique requirements.
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