Peter Drucker once wrote, "Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation." This was true years ago and is even truer today. Innovation is still the product of free-thinking, but technology has changed how we market ideas to customers.

Marketing professionals have recently developed an interest in a phenomenon that has been popping up on billboards, print ads, and websites alike: QR Codes. While those who aren’t familiar with them may dismiss them as a benign curiosity; as with many successful, up-and-coming marketing strategies, they are sure to increase in popularity as the general public becomes more aware of them.

Quick Response codes, or QR Codes, are two-dimensional, pixilated barcodes containing data that can be retrieved via a mobile phone’s built-in camera. Using a barcode scanner application, a user can “scan” the barcode with their phone in a way similar to how a supermarket clerk would scan UPC codes on groceries. The barcode scanner application would use the data encoded within the barcode to display information to the user like text, Web pages, contact information from vCards. QR Codes have been in widespread use for years in countries like Japan, and are rapidly gaining popularity stateside, as they are now commonly seen in magazines, signs, public transportation vehicles, and practically anywhere that users may need to retrieve additional information.

Over the last several weeks, marketing professionals have been blogging and tweeting about the marketing trends and strategies that they expect to be big in 2011. There have been many blog posts on the growth of social media and 2011 being the year of mobile advertising. Other marketers are talking about the impact that personalized, printed marketing collateral will have as consumers begin to require the tangible, relevant, and unique touch offered by a piece of mail specifically meant for them. Still, others are questioning how successful email campaigns will be as prospects begin to receive more and more emails on their smart phones. Needless to say, all of this can get a little overwhelming and you may find yourself wondering what is it going to take to make your organization stand above the competition in 2011?

In the last several blog posts we have talked about how “today’s marketing professionals are faced with an ever expanding marketing mix”(Post #2) and that “effective communication typically includes a cross functional approach”(Post #3). In other words, utilizing multiple channels of communication (direct mail, brochures, flyers, email, text messages, and social media) is more important than ever if you plan to effectively engage your target audience and grow new revenue streams.

Imagine what this means for the organization who has made a commitment to their shareholders to run a highly efficient lean organization. Not to mention, the impact on the marketing professional who is expected to be both an expert in the traditional forms of marketing and the new marketing options invented nearly every day. In today’s fast paced, information driven economy, time has become the scarcest resource – hands down! So finding ways to make the most out of your time and become more effective and efficient, is not only the job of the organization and marketing professional, but also of your service provider.

Today’s marketing professionals are faced with an ever expanding marketing mix (where to spend their marketing dollars). Not only are they expected to be experts in the traditional forms of marketing, but also continue to master the new marketing options invented nearly every day. There is so much opportunity, yet still the same amount of time in the day and in today’s economic climate, fewer resources to execute on the overall marketing strategy. All these conditions warrant a very serious look at marketing program efficiencies.

One of the key aspects of marketing is to create, mold, and protect the brand. Luckily the marketing professional now has tools to accomplish this key initiative in a self service manner. What do I mean by self-service? I mean that a marketing program can now be launched across a large community and the brand control is built into the program. Local resources are able to access marketing programs, execute on initiates, in a self service manner, under centralized brand control. The focus of the marketing professional is then on strategy, innovation, and creativity – not on day to day monitoring and troubleshooting.

A good marketing program is the right mix between ideas and execution. As resources are constrained throughout organizations, marketing departments, like everyone else, are expected to do more with less.

August 19, 2010