Hoffman Publishing is always looking for ways to improve service for both our customers and our advertisers. Our newest venture is the use of QR Codes embedded within advertising. With the appropriate app downloaded to your iPhone, Android, Blackberry or similar device, you are able to read the code that will then link your device to a web site. The one shown here will link you to our Shore Update web site.

Look quickly through this issue and see if you can locate all the QR Codes. A QR Code is in fact a type of bar code made up of black modules arranged within a square pattern. Encoded within this block you may find data such as links to web sites or to Facebook, email addresses, contact information, and much more.

Look through magazines or newspapers you receive. Begin noticing all the advertisements with embedded QR Codes. In fact, on a recent trip to Home Depot to buy mums, the plant identifier stuck in the dirt contained a QR Code. When I read the code with my iPhone app, it took me directly to the Home Depot site and information about the mums.

QR Codes are just beginning to make their presence known here in the U.S. They have been used for many years in Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and some European countries as marketing tools. In Japan, all cell phones are able to scan QR Codes and QR Codes can be found everywhere, including banners and business signs throughout the country. For example, McDonalds uses them In Japan to display nutrition for it is food products.

The downloaded app for the cell phone is either free or there is a nominal charge ($.99). Once the app is downloaded, reading a QR Code is almost instantaneous and may provide details about a business, show a URL with a link to see a movie trailer, or it may present a coupon to use in a local outlet. The options are many!!

QR Codes truly are very exciting and just fun to use….like any new and advanced technology. Hoffman Publishing is very excited to begin using QR Codes to help our local businesses promote themselves and to make information more readily available to you, our readers.