Just for Starters

18th January 2012, 12:06pm

You’ll have noticed that this month’s front cover is a little bit different. Some of you will know what the strange little squares represent and for others they’ll be a complete mystery.

They're called QR codes, short for quick response, and they were first created by a division of car firm Toyota in 1994 to track vehicles during manufacturing. Since then they've become popular in countries such as Japan, where they're printed on everything from food packaging to promotional material for the latest must see film. QR codes are even used by Japan's immigration department to encrypt visas within passports.

QR codes are a bit like barcodes but with a big difference. They're capable of holding quite a bit more data than the standard barcodes we're used to seeing on products in the shops. And it's for this reason that marketers are starting to incorporate them into their strategies. The idea is that instead of typing a long web address or URL into a smartphone or a device such as the iPad, users scan the QR code just like using a camera, and the information is displayed automatically. At the moment, users need a QR Reader app and there are plenty of free ones available via the likes of iTunes. But judging by how quickly technology is moving these days, the functionality may soon be built in to all mobile phones as a standard tool.

QR codes are extremely durable too. In some instances, even if 30% of the code is obscured or damaged in any way, it's still readable. And because the codes are just like a regular graphic, they can be printed by any printer without the need for special resources.

Many who have been working with QR codes for a few years believe that the possibilities are limitless and that's great news for us in the hospitality business. You can program a QR code with any information. So if you've recently launched a Facebook page and want to drive traffic, you can create a QR code and place it on a table tent card for customers to interact with whilst their dining in your restaurant. You could place a QR code on your menu so when a customer scans it they get the most up-to-date nutritional information or a list of ingredients. You could even link the QR code to a video on YouTube of your chef creating the house special or customers talking about how much they enjoyed a recent event at your restaurant.

Read more about how you can jump on the digital bandwagon in our 18-page technology section – with everything covered from apps, social media and free Wi-Fi starting on page 23.

Clare Riley, Editor