??? 它們隨處可見(jiàn)：在雜志里、商務(wù)名片上、以及T恤衫上，甚至在海報(bào)和公告牌上也到處都是它們的身影，更別提現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)博物館（The Museum of Modern Art）里的展覽上了。顯而易見(jiàn)，這類(lèi)所謂的二維碼（QR code，Quick Response code）現(xiàn)如今已隨處可見(jiàn)，它采取小小的正方形圖案，看起來(lái)就像用立體表現(xiàn)的傳統(tǒng)條碼。但我們還沒(méi)搞清楚的是，這類(lèi)黑白方框到底是重大的市場(chǎng)創(chuàng)新呢，還是只不過(guò)是種新興的時(shí)髦玩意而已。

????上世紀(jì)90年代中期，豐田公司（Toyota）的一家子公司為了追蹤汽車(chē)配件而發(fā)明了二維碼。問(wèn)世之初，二維碼提供的信息就多于傳統(tǒng)條碼。這類(lèi)新代碼就像今天的硬盤(pán)驅(qū)動(dòng)器，而傳統(tǒng)代碼則像過(guò)去的軟盤(pán)，二者的容量不可同日而語(yǔ)。無(wú)論從哪個(gè)角度看，二維碼都遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)優(yōu)于傳統(tǒng)條碼：它們不僅可以防塵、防損傷、還能從任何方向讀取。（QR是快速反應(yīng)的意思，意指代碼中的數(shù)據(jù)能夠迅速解碼。）到2002年，日本的市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員已將此技術(shù)據(jù)為己有，利用它來(lái)鎖定消費(fèi)者，因?yàn)樵絹?lái)越多的消費(fèi)者已配備了先進(jìn)的二維碼掃描儀——手機(jī)。

????對(duì)于市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員來(lái)說(shuō)，二維碼的應(yīng)用潛力不言而喻。這類(lèi)代碼幾乎能按任何尺寸，打在任何地方。消費(fèi)者使用專(zhuān)為蘋(píng)果（Apple）iPhone和搭載谷歌（Google）安卓（Android）系統(tǒng)的智能手機(jī)而設(shè)計(jì)的特殊應(yīng)用程序，將其設(shè)備指向二維代碼，只需短短幾秒鐘，就能登錄到相關(guān)網(wǎng)站或者交互式廣告上。這類(lèi)代碼甚至可以撥打1-800電話或者編輯手機(jī)短信。市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員利用二維碼，可以輕易地在在線廣告中增加數(shù)字元素，并能像在線一樣，在現(xiàn)實(shí)世界中追蹤消費(fèi)者。

????廣告客戶對(duì)二維碼簡(jiǎn)直是一見(jiàn)鐘情。兩年前，大凡重要的美國(guó)公司無(wú)不全身心地?fù)肀ФS碼。時(shí)代華納公司（Time Warner）的美國(guó)家庭影院（HBO）電視網(wǎng)在其吸血鬼題材的劇情片《真愛(ài)如血》（True Blood）第三季的電視廣告中，就使用了浸血的二維碼。梅西百貨公司（Macy's）則將湯米?希爾費(fèi)格和瑪莎?斯圖爾特提供時(shí)尚建議的視頻做成代碼，裝飾整間百貨公司。美國(guó)娛樂(lè)雜志Vibe則在跨頁(yè)時(shí)尚廣告中使用二維碼，讀者憑此即可登錄一些站點(diǎn)，購(gòu)買(mǎi)該雜志圖片推介的服裝。其他以別出心裁的方式使用二維碼的品牌還包括可口可樂(lè)（Coca Cola）、達(dá)美航空公司（Delta）、福特（Ford）、蓋普（Gap）、家得寶（Home Depot）、星巴克（Starbucks）、以及威力眾（Verizon）等，不一而足。

????但是，這些代碼對(duì)市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員來(lái)說(shuō)到底有多大的價(jià)值，卻很難說(shuō)。事實(shí)上，盡管這項(xiàng)廣告創(chuàng)新技術(shù)意味著廣告客戶能更好地追蹤客戶，但它卻缺乏可靠的公共數(shù)據(jù)。大型廣告客戶將從自己主辦的活動(dòng)中收集到的信息牢牢抓在手里。同時(shí)，應(yīng)用開(kāi)發(fā)人員則希望增加下載量，他們和小型市場(chǎng)代理機(jī)構(gòu)發(fā)布的數(shù)據(jù)集，就算往好里說(shuō)，也靠不住。

????市場(chǎng)研究機(jī)構(gòu)Comscore公司今夏發(fā)布了其針對(duì)二維碼的首份研究報(bào)告。報(bào)告顯示，有1,400萬(wàn)人，也就是6.2%的手機(jī)用戶，在今年6月份掃描過(guò)二維碼。更妙的是，其中近37%的用戶處于25~34歲這個(gè)最佳年齡段，而且他們中有三分之一的人家庭收入超過(guò)了10萬(wàn)美元。“有很多方法可以將移動(dòng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)有效地整合到現(xiàn)有的媒體和市場(chǎng)活動(dòng)中，以便接觸到目標(biāo)消費(fèi)者群體；二維碼只不過(guò)是其中之一罷了。” Comscore移動(dòng)高級(jí)副總裁馬克?多諾萬(wàn)指出。當(dāng)然，上述數(shù)字會(huì)如何隨著時(shí)間的推移而改變，對(duì)此我們還需拭目以待。

????此外，二維碼還有其他不足之處。由于二維碼采用的技術(shù)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)或多或少是開(kāi)源的，因此幾乎任何人都可以開(kāi)發(fā)自己的代碼和讀取器，因此，消費(fèi)者難免深感困惑。（掃描本文開(kāi)篇處的二維碼，將被重定向至Fortune.com。）同時(shí)，只要有過(guò)多次掃描二維碼的人都深有體會(huì)，有些營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員完全是出于“時(shí)尚因素”的考慮，不假思索地就在所有產(chǎn)品中貼上了二維碼，在掃描結(jié)果上根本沒(méi)有花心思。許多二維碼只是簡(jiǎn)單地將用戶重定向到了公司主頁(yè)上，換言之，這不過(guò)是個(gè)死胡同?？偛课挥诩~約的二維碼掃描技術(shù)提供商Scanbuy的首席執(zhí)行官邁克?威爾斯坦承，在這種情形下，“多數(shù)公司都對(duì)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)活動(dòng)的效果心生不滿?！?/p>

????但是，在二維碼應(yīng)用時(shí)間較長(zhǎng)的地區(qū)，有些企業(yè)也取得了相當(dāng)?shù)某晒?；許多美國(guó)市場(chǎng)營(yíng)銷(xiāo)人員因而滿懷期望，希望自己也能同樣幸運(yùn)。比如，在韓國(guó)，零售巨人特易購(gòu)（Tesco）公司在熙熙攘攘的地鐵站里推出了“移動(dòng)超級(jí)市場(chǎng)”，消費(fèi)者們能夠迅速地掃描需要的商品。晚上，當(dāng)他們回到家中時(shí)，這些貨物早已送達(dá)。憑借這一舉措，特易購(gòu)迅速成為了韓國(guó)在線零售業(yè)務(wù)的領(lǐng)跑者。

????譯者：大海

????They're everywhere: tucked away in magazines, adorning business cards and t-shirts and splashed across posters and billboards, not to mention on display at The Museum of Modern Art. Clearly, so-called QR codes -- small square patterns that look like Cubist renderings of a traditional barcode (right) -- have become ubiquitous. Less clear is whether those black and white boxes are a major marketing innovation or just a fad.

????Created by a Toyota (TM) subsidiary in the mid-1990s to track auto parts, QR codes were designed to deliver more information than the traditional barcode. The new codes were like today's hard disk drives compared to the old barcode's floppy disk -- a drastic jump in capacity. They were better in nearly every way, resistant to dirt or damage and readable in any orientation. (QR code stands for quick response, a reference to how speedily the data they contain can be decoded.) By 2002, Japanese marketers had glommed onto the technology, using it to target consumers increasingly equipped with sophisticated QR code scanners -- their phones.

????The potential for marketers is obvious. The codes can be printed nearly anywhere, at any size. Using special apps designed for Apple (AAPL) iPhones and Google (GOOG) Android-based smartphones, consumers point their devices at the codes for a few seconds and are sent to a website or interactive advertisement. The codes can even dial a 1-800-phone number or compose an SMS. QR codes promise marketers a simple way to ad digital elements to old-line advertisements and potentially track consumers in the physical world they way they can online.

????For advertisers, it's been love at first scan. Two years ago, major companies in the U.S. jumped in with both feet. Time Warner's (TWX) HBO used a blood-soaked QR code in its television ads for the third season of vampire drama True Blood. Macy's (M) decked out its department stores with codes that brought up videos of Tommy Hilfiger and Martha Stewart doling out fashion advice. And Vibe used the codes in fashion spreads to send readers to sites where they could buy clothes pictured in the magazine. Other brands using the codes in innovative ways include Coca Cola (KO), Delta (DAL), Ford (F), Gap (GPS), Home Depot (HD), Starbucks (SBUX) and Verizon (VZ) to name only a few.

????But judging their actual value to marketers in America is tricky. Turns out, the advertising innovation promising better tracking actually suffers from a dearth of reliable public data. Big advertisers have kept the information they gather from their own campaigns close to the vest. Data sets released by app developers looking to drive downloads and smaller marketing agencies, meanwhile, have been unreliable at best.

????Comscore (SCOR) released its first study on the codes this summer, revealing that 14 million people, or 6.2% of mobile users, scanned QR codes in the month of June. Better yet, nearly 37% of users were in the coveted 25 to 34 age bracket and more than one in every three of them had a household income of at least $100,000. "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," noted Mark Donovan, Comscore senior vice president of mobile. Of course, it remains to be seen how those numbers will change over time.

????QR codes have other drawbacks. Because the technical standard behind them is more or less open source, almost anybody can create their own codes and readers, leading to confusion among consumers. (The code in this story redirects to Fortune.com.) Anybody who has scanned more than a few, meanwhile, knows that the 'fad factor' has led some marketers to stick the codes on anything they can find without always putting much thought into the end result. Many simply redirect users to a corporate homepage -- a dead end in other words. Mike Whers, CEO of Scanbuy, a New York-based provider of scanning technology, admits that in those types of cases "most companies aren't satisfied with the performance of their campaigns."

????Still, many U.S. marketers look with anticipation to the very real success of businesses using QR codes in regions where they have been around much longer. In South Korea, for instance, retail giant Tesco rolled out "mobile supermarkets" in busy subway stations, allowing commuters to quickly scan items they wanted to buy. By the time they got home that evening, those groceries had been delivered. In short order, Tesco had taken the top spot among online grocers in the country.