New Survey Reveals Use Of QR Codes

About 6.2% of 14 million mobile phone users have scanned a quick response or bar code on their mobile device, according to a new ComScore survey.

Among 14,452 users surveyed during the month of June that have scanned a QR or bar code, 58% of them scanned a code at home, while 39.4% and 24.5% of respondents have scanned codes at a retail store or grocery store, respectively. As far as what they scanned, 49.4% said they scanned a QR or bar code found in a newspaper or magazine, while 35.3% scanned product packaging.

The study also found that a mobile user that scanned a QR or bar code during the month was more likely to be male (60.5% of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18 to 34 years (53.4%) and have a household income of $100,000 or above (36.1%).

Source of Scanned QR Code*
June 2011
Total Mobile Audience U.S. Age 13+
Source: comScore MobiLens
QR Code Audience (000) % of QR Code Audience**
Total Audience: Scanned QR code with mobile phone 14,452 100.0%
Printed magazine or newspaper 7,138 49.4%
Product packaging 5,101 35.3%
Website on PC 3,957 27.4%
Poster or flyer or kiosk 3,393 23.5%
Business card or brochure 1,940 13.4%
Storefront 1,850 12.8%
TV 1,693 11.7%

“QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns to help reach desired consumer segments,” ComScore SVP mobile Mark Donovan said. “For marketers, understanding which consumer segments scan QR codes, the source and location of these scans, and the resulting information delivered, is crucial in developing and deploying campaigns that successfully utilize QR codes to further brand engagement.”