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

????上世紀90年代中期，豐田公司（Toyota）的一家子公司為了追蹤汽車配件而發明了二維碼。問世之初，二維碼提供的信息就多于傳統條碼。這類新代碼就像今天的硬盤驅動器，而傳統代碼則像過去的軟盤，二者的容量不可同日而語。無論從哪個角度看，二維碼都遠遠優于傳統條碼：它們不僅可以防塵、防損傷、還能從任何方向讀取。（QR是快速反應的意思，意指代碼中的數據能夠迅速解碼。）到2002年，日本的市場營銷人員已將此技術據為己有，利用它來鎖定消費者，因為越來越多的消費者已配備了先進的二維碼掃描儀——手機。

????對于市場營銷人員來說，二維碼的應用潛力不言而喻。這類代碼幾乎能按任何尺寸，打在任何地方。消費者使用專為蘋果（Apple）iPhone和搭載谷歌（Google）安卓（Android）系統的智能手機而設計的特殊應用程序，將其設備指向二維代碼，只需短短幾秒鐘，就能登錄到相關網站或者交互式廣告上。這類代碼甚至可以撥打1-800電話或者編輯手機短信。市場營銷人員利用二維碼，可以輕易地在在線廣告中增加數字元素，并能像在線一樣，在現實世界中追蹤消費者。

????廣告客戶對二維碼簡直是一見鐘情。兩年前，大凡重要的美國公司無不全身心地擁抱二維碼。時代華納公司（Time Warner）的美國家庭影院（HBO）電視網在其吸血鬼題材的劇情片《真愛如血》（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?希爾費格和瑪莎?斯圖爾特提供時尚建議的視頻做成代碼，裝飾整間百貨公司。美國娛樂雜志Vibe則在跨頁時尚廣告中使用二維碼，讀者憑此即可登錄一些站點，購買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（Coca Cola）、達美航空公司（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，這些代碼對市場營銷人員來說到底有多大的價值，卻很難說。事實上，盡管這項廣告創新技術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據。大型廣告客戶將從自己主辦的活動中收集到的信息牢牢抓在手里。同時，應用開發人員則希望增加下載量，他們和小型市場代理機構發布的數據集，就算往好里說，也靠不住。

????市場研究機構Comscore公司今夏發布了其針對二維碼的首份研究報告。報告顯示，有1,400萬人，也就是6.2%的手機用戶，在今年6月份掃描過二維碼。更妙的是，其中近37%的用戶處于25~34歲這個最佳年齡段，而且他們中有三分之一的人家庭收入超過了10萬美元。“有很多方法可以將移動營銷有效地整合到現有的媒體和市場活動中，以便接觸到目標消費者群體；二維碼只不過是其中之一罷了。” Comscore移動高級副總裁馬克?多諾萬指出。當然，上述數字會如何隨著時間的推移而改變，對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標準或多或少是開源的，因此幾乎任何人都可以開發自己的代碼和讀取器，因此，消費者難免深感困惑。（掃描本文開篇處的二維碼，將被重定向至Fortune.com。）同時，只要有過多次掃描二維碼的人都深有體會，有些營銷人員完全是出于“時尚因素”的考慮，不假思索地就在所有產品中貼上了二維碼，在掃描結果上根本沒有花心思。許多二維碼只是簡單地將用戶重定向到了公司主頁上，換言之，這不過是個死胡同。總部位于紐約的二維碼掃描技術提供商Scanbuy的首席執行官邁克?威爾斯坦承，在這種情形下，“多數公司都對營銷活動的效果心生不滿。”

????但是，在二維碼應用時間較長的地區，有些企業也取得了相當的成功；許多美國市場營銷人員因而滿懷期望，希望自己也能同樣幸運。比如，在韓國，零售巨人特易購（Tesco）公司在熙熙攘攘的地鐵站里推出了“移動超級市場”，消費者們能夠迅速地掃描需要的商品。晚上，當他們回到家中時，這些貨物早已送達。憑借這一舉措，特易購迅速成為了韓國在線零售業務的領跑者。

????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.