Tapping into Quick Response Marketing

Home Textiles Today Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 5/5/2011 5:00:47 AM

Jennifer Marks EDITOR-IN-CHIEFTAPPING INTO SMART PHONE SHOPPING is the holy grail for many retail marketers, and at the New York Home Fashions Market two weeks ago we saw stirrings of smart phone marketing coming from home textiles manufacturers - QR initiatives.
     QR (quick response) is a printed code that looks like a jazzed up bar code. Consumers can scan the code with their smart phones and connect to enhanced product information.
     At Royale Linens, packaging for the new Vicki Payne brand will carry QR coding that will provide information about how to decorate around the bedding (paint selection, for example). When Vicki Payne towels launch later this year (with American Dawn) QR on the tags will provide consumers with bath décor ideas, such as how to select tiles.
     Hollander showed QR coding on some of its upcoming Back-to-School packaging that will tie into a broader Hollander social networking campaign that teaches consumers about how to "Live Comfortably," a Hollander tagline.
     Primaloft is using QR in advertisements and offering it to retailers to use on packaging and point of sales materials. Its QR connects shoppers to information about Primaloft fiber and how it is used in the product being scanned.
     Broadly, the idea is to serve a new consumer who, as one Hollander exec put it, has a "bring it to me" philosophy about shopping.
     For Mohawk Home, it's part of an aggressive new initiative that involves a new website and social media. Mohawk's QR coding can link to a variety of information like what size rug mat should go with a particular rug, what size rug is suitable for a specific room or how to care for rugs.
     American Textile Company is also calling out its QR initiatives this week, with QR codes on stands next to each new product introduction group. Some of the ideas being offered to retailers are QR on packaging or at POS to provide expanded product information, customer reviews or videos about use and/or care. Protect- A-Bed unveiled new product launch packs with QR codes on the packaging that link to product information and educational videos. The company has also started incorporating QR codes on marketing materials.