ENHANCING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH INNOVATIVE

2D BARCODE APPLICATIONS

Submitted By-

Manisha Panda

Marketing & Finance

SITM,Batch 2009-11

Mob: (+91)7709421215

Email: manishapnd@gmail.com

MOBILE BARCODES

Mobile barcodes are on the verge of becoming a global phenomenon. Mobile Barcodes can be used as medium to connect physical world with digital world . Barcodes were always related to 1D structure. However, the constant requirement for stacking bulkier information has led to the development of the new generation 2D or matrix barcodes which were devised in 1990’s .There have been extensive deployments of 2D barcodes in areas like mobile payments, mobile marketing, social networking, mobile ticketing etc. The mobile barcode readers enable the users to scan any barcode and that scanned image directs to a website. It has proved to be one of the most effective marketing tool for the firms seeking a greater reach to the customers. Besides marketing , 2D barcodes can be used for mobile commerce like mobile payments . Mobile wallet/ digital wallet are based on this concept of mobile payment. However the ecosystem for mobile commerce using 2D barcodes is at a nascent stage unlike the developed countries – US, Japan. The mobile phones can be enabled to read a variety of 2D mobile barcodes which include - QR codes, Data Matrix, Cool-Data-Matrix, Aztec, Upcode, Trillcode, Quickmark, shotcode, mCode and Beetagg. This is a great boon for advertisers and consumers (both of whom are the mobile operators’ customers) because only one software client is required to read any code. For the operators, this translates to greater choice and more competitively priced equipment.The key is that mobile barcodes are a pull technology, a permission-based way for a consumer to engage with an advertiser or medium. This is a very important attribute for dealing with the concerns revolving around consumers angst and regulatory concern about intrusive mobile marketing . Mobile barcodes do not involve any unsolicited spam via SMS or MMS which gives them a chance to experience a greater acceptance . However, if mobile barcodes are to succeed as an advertising medium, a high level of back-office integration is necessary, which reinforces the importance of open standards for processes and interfaces. Now the challenge is that the operators need to demonstrate to the world’s biggest brands that the barcode scanning transactions are accurate, reliable and defendable as the brand will be charged for every click. Mobile barcodes provides an edge to mobile advertising by ensuring that any brand advertiser can run the same ad campaign in Singapore, London and Seattle instead of having to produce and run different campaigns in each country and for every operator. The mobile barcodes can be used to their maximum if a stable ecosystem is developed.

MOBILE BARCODE TREND:

The potential of personalized mobile barcode scanning is virtually endless for consumers, marketers, retailers, and mobile operators. The physical world and digital world come in synch in just one click. That ease of navigation using barcodes is further enhanced with the explosive growth of Smart Phones and such an application embedded with smartphone is driving exponential adoption.

Source: Scanbuy

It is seen that the growth of the barcode technology has been exponential from January 2010, with traffic up over 700% . Starting in July 2010, there were more scans in a single month than all of 2009 combined .The last 3 months have seen the steepest increase which points to accelerated growth for the fourth quarter and beyond . Considering this exponential growth it is believed that it possess a great potential to drive the market in terms of increased revenues for the marketing firms.

MOBILE BARCODE ECOSYSTEM :

Source: Neustar

The mobile barcode ecosystem is full of competing apps that scan codes, code types, and resolution companies but most of the barcodes are incompatible with each other and this market fragmentation makes barcodes confusing for businesses and consumers. The elements that can form a well knitted mobile barcode system has been described as below:

Mobile Network Operators – A mobile network is required to get access to the barcode apps. It becomes easier for the brands to advertise their products and customers get easier access to real time information as operators can play a significant role in distributing barcode apps to a large audience.

Registry – It ensures the companies codes they publish will work with different reader apps and Campaign Managers. The database that tracks relationships between specific barcodes and campaign managers.

Clearinghouse Service – It will ensure that secured routing of apps takes place within different mobile device , minimizing the threat of incidences like mobile fraud and protecting consumer interests .

A universal Barcode Reader to read any format of barcodes –data matrix or QR codes is an essential component that should be present on the customer’s mobile device . The campaign managers play an important role in design of barcode campaigns , developing value added services for brands and advertisers who publish codes. Media Companies are play a critical role of educating the customers and driving adoption of the technology among customers. Advertising Agencies coordinate the use of barcodes with media buys and development of creative user experiences on behalf of brands. Brands are responsible for providing innovative and valuable content based on barcodes for engaging the customers to media.

MOBILE BARCODE APPLICATIONS FOR INDIAN MARKET

I. Mobile Payments Using 2D BarcodesII. Mobile Barcodes For Social Media and Mobile Marketing

MOBILE PAYMENTS:

Mobile payment systems have undergone several up gradation over the years. Advanced and efficient versions of mobile payment systems have been designed with care being taken for issues related to security , fraud and privacy. The m-payment system can be classified into 2 types- a) Account based payment system b) Mobile wallets. Account based systems deal with a unique customer account maintained by a trusted third party(ex: bank) or a telco . Smart card payment systems, Point of sale payment systems (POS), Credit card mobile payment are some of the account based mobile payments. This account is connected to savings account of the customer. Hence all the transactions involving mobile payments –pre paid or post paid are made via this unique account. Mobile wallets are the most popular type of mobile payment option for transactions. Like e-wallets, they allow a user to store the billing and shopping information that the user can recall with one-click while shopping using a mobile device. The new generation mobile devices have been providing rich mobile experience with advanced offerings like touch screens and this has increased the level of customer interaction. However the mobile users demand for applications and solutions

which make mobile commerce easily operable. Hence a 2D barcode mobile solution makes this possible. The mobile commerce system across different countries like Japan, USA, have adopted an innovative mobile payment system based on 2-Dimentional (2D) barcodes for mobile users to improve mobile user experience in mobile payment. Unlike other existing mobile payment systems, the proposed payment solution provides distinct advantages to support buy-and-sale products and services based on 2D Barcodes.

There are two ways to build 2D barcodes in mobile payment systems. The first approach is to build 2D barcode-based Position-Of-Sale (POS) systems to support mobile payment transactions between mobile users and mobile terminals at anytime and anywhere. This type of POS-based payment systems can be used in Parking lots, TAXI, airport and railroad stations. The other approach is to build 2D barcode-based systems to allow mobile users to issue mobile payment transactions using their digital wallets based on mobile payment accounts in a mobile payment server. Unlike existing account based mobile payment system, 2D barcodes payment system provides the ability to have product information easily retrieved from 2D barcodes, secured payment transactions, customer and product verification, mobile security checking, supports product and customer verification for post-sale services, such as delivery and pick-up and improves mobile user experience by reducing user inputs. The entire ecosystem for 2D barcode based mobile payments is as shown below:

Whenever a mobile user wishes to connect to a website for product related information , he can get it simply through 2 click of the URL attached with the barcode. Following steps are involved in 2D mobile payment process:

I) A registered user uses a unique ID and PIN to login to his account. It sends a request of authentication to the mobile payment server which acknowledges the request and replies back with a server certificate ID and secured session ID.

II) The mobile user can be directed to the website of the product by clicking on the URL attached to the barcode (system which was received as an advertisement) after the barcode has been decoded by mobile. This gives information about the product as well as it’s manufacturing details. The user can get access to the information by simply scanning a promotional barcode image and he can be directed to the portal of information easily. All that is needed is a strong internet connection.

III) The mobile client enters the merchant website and raises a purchase request by sending a digital signature ,inform of a 2D barcode. The server validates it the digital signature with the private key. The merchant server sends a purchase invoice with transaction ID to the mobile client. The mobile client reverts with payment request in form of a digital signature and same transaction ID.

IV) After authentication procedure, the mobile client is allowed to connect to payment server where payment process is initiated. After the completion of payment, payment reverts with 2D barcode receipt to the mobile client.

This process of mobile payment can be designed in another way where account based payment is made. All that is required is secured gateway through which monetary transactions can be made. This can be carried out as follows:

i) An application for 2D barcode payment can be installed in the mobile. ii) A pre-installed 2D barcode should be present which would contain all the

secured information like card number, account number and PIN.iii) One can bypass the use of plastic card while making payments at malls or any

other shopping outlet. Instead the payment can be made using this mobile based 2D barcode which would act like plastic card. All that is needed is to scan the 2D picture in your mobile and all the necessary information for transaction gets extracted by the scanner. Hence the payment is facilitated.

MOBILE BARCODES FOR SOCIAL MEDIA AND MOBILE MARKETING:

Often it has been the concern of companies to track the response of the customers towards their brand. When one resides in a competitive market it becomes necessity to stay connected with every pulse of your customer. In short one must know its customer. Hence all the activities like launch of product, post launch , customer experience and customer feedback should be dealt in sensitively. Social media audit, social profile creation, badge creation and strategy, widget strategy and development, community monitoring and community building, negative search engine results removal and social media link building services are some of the upcoming social media services that aid in building a strong brand image in the market. Considering the enormous need of the organization for developing a

strong presence in the society, we propose is an innovative way to help the brands improve their market position by dealing with their customers in an interactive and responsible way. All this can be achieved with the help of a mobile marketing company which uses 2D barcodes for this purpose.

i) The mobile marketing company will generate 2D barcodes which will be brand specific. Such barcodes will be send as an SMS on behalf of the brand to its customers.

ii) The customer will open the barcode picture, will click on the URL contained within barcode and then one gets directed to the portal of the company. The customer can also get updated information of the brands and products at the portal.

iii) The customer can post its views on the portal of the marketing organization and such views will be further used to check the status of the brands in the market.

iv) To motivate the customers to be part of such campaign certain points can be awarded or a discount coupon in form of 2D barcode can be awarded. The discount points can be used for mobile recharge or shopping.

v) In this scenario a close knitted ecosystem needs to be developed which will include participation of brands who wish to advertise their products through this medium, telecom operators to facilitated a network for transmission of 2D barcodes. They can be one of the strategic partners of the mobile marketing firm. Finally there is an end customer who can be motivated to be part of the mobile marketing campaign.

Similarly there are many organizations and firms which are leveraging the power of social media through innovative ways. Japan and US market have been pioneer in promoting social media. Magazines, newspapers in these countries have introduced barcode ads . The use of barcode ads in print media helps the brands to get penetrated in the market easily. Using the device's camera, the viewer scans the code and is redirected to a website, or a video, or some other mobile-enabled content. At the same time, information on where and when the code was scanned, and what actions may have taken place afterward, can be collected. This is more robust than typical "click-through" information commonly used in online marketing and allows greater relevance if the marketer chooses to make use of the available information.

A japan based company 3G vision provides barcode solution called as i-nigma which facilitate the brands with effective marketing campaign , brings deeper audience engagement , better ROI and better return on marketing objectives. Similarly , Scanbuy proves to be an efficient organization in providing barcode solutions for brands like Pepsi co.

It can be said that rather than throwing offers at consumers, it's possible to have a dialogue with them; building and maintaining a relationship that benefits both marketer and consumer over the long term. Engaging consumers in a more effective manner has long

been the dream of marketers, and while QR codes are not the grail of marketing, they offer a significant step towards connecting with consumers in a meaningful way, regardless of location, while offering real-time feedback that no other medium-including traditional desk-bound internet advertising-has been able to provide. The time to invest in this technology is now, while it's growing in awareness. Success will require a change in go-to-market strategy: no longer can one toss out an ad and hope for a response. Connecting at this level will require the ability to provide relevant, engaging content that the consumer wants, rather than the traditional "interruptive" model of advertising.