International Cosmetics Leader Streamlines Product Information Distribution with Enterprise QR Code Strategy

Published on September 13, 2023

This well known luxury cosmetics brand became a runaway success in the 1990's. The company produces reknowned skincare, haircare, and fragrance products for a global audience. For competitive reasons, the company wanted to remain anonymous but this case study outlines their journey from QR code skeptic to QR code expert.

The marketing and product teams went from haphazard use of QR codes to embracing the QR code as a true marketing channel as they implemented their first enterprise QR strategy that now delivers real value to consumers and to their marketing operations.

First, here's some background on the brand's approach and how QR codes became an important topic of discusssion among marketing and manufacturing operations.

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The Brand and The Company

The company has a minimalist, modern approach to branding, with their logo being instantly recognized around the world. Their corporate image and their approach to prestige branding and packaging is also often cited as an important factor in their success.

The brand's strategy includes never using traditional advertisements or discount sales to promote its products but rather using public relations to get noticed and talked about for quality and innovative product ingrediants, packaging and design. Their stores, events, and communications also make any interaction with the brand an experience.

Notable designers and architects have been involved in the creation of the company's brick and mortar locations which place in-market alignment and understatement as a priority in their architecture and overall styling approach. In that setting, it was with trepidation that the company initially embraced the QR code in form and function as an element in ads, marketing materials and events as well as using them to distribute global product information.

The marketing team acknowledged, however, that QR codes were increasingly being used in cosmetic advertising and marketing materials at events, in-store displays, and product packaging espeically since the pandemic. The marketing and product teams decided to capitalize on this trend while consumers were responding favorably. They also decided to go even further by expanding the use of QR codes in creative ways to engage consumers with the brand both inside and outside the store locations and by using QR codes to deliver localized product information globally.

The Challenge

In the summer of 2022, the team recognized the need for a global, enterprise QR code solution. At the time, QR codes were being created by various team members using unknown solutions and there was some risk in not understanding the various technologies being used to generate the codes. Plus the company had no visibility into understanding how many QR codes were being distributed and what the user experience was during each QR code’s lifecycle.

“We recognized the need for a platform like URLgenius that enabled the marketing and product teams to practice good QR code governance.”, said the Global Marketing Director. “We increasingly view QR codes and any QR code implementation as a corporate asset and an important part of the brand experience and consumer journey.”

The marketing and product teams brainstormed current and future requirements for an enterprise QR code solution that delivered on transparency, control and governance. Since the team had experience with free QR codes, they had already formed some opinions on the limits of free QR code generators which inspired a list of key requirements for a true enterprise QR solution.

Learn more about how the strategic implementation of QR codes in your marketing campaign can be a great way to increase sales, boost app engagement, and/or drive app installs:

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Key Requirements

A new enterprise QR solution needed to address some of the doubts and limitations the team was experiencing with standard QR code generators. The new enterprise QR code platform would need to have the following capabilities:

Enterprise grade uptime and performance to prevent broken content journeys due to down time, unscannable codes and broken links.
All the brand's QR codes needed the ability to send the customer to their localized destinations based on language which was a product regulatory requirement.
The QR codes needed to be dynamic in that the marketing and local merchandising teams needed control over the destination even after the code was printed.
The link behind the QR code needed to use the brand's domain to create a secure, branded experience to the QR code’s destination.
The team wanted certain design related control over the code including color, density, and logo.
The solution needed to be privacy forward, secure and have a policy against droping pixels or tracking consumers around the internet.

The team realized there were likely other important considerations that they may not be thinking about and felt they needed enterprise level support that included design and production guidance. They wanted to make sure they would avoid any QR code mishaps as they became more prevalent in use throughout the company’s marketing and merchandising.

The Solution

Working with URLgenius, the company implemented an advanced enterprise QR code solution that addressed all of their requirements. Key elements of the strategy included:

Enterprise Level Uptime

URLgenius QR codes and branded links for the company's global marketing team are routed through a high availability cloud-based platform and do not require any technical resources to implement. Hosted at Amazon Web Services, the patented platform features built-in network redundancy, load balancing, and automatic failovers, historically delivering 99.95% or higher uptime.

Dynamic QR Code Routing

The marketing team is provided with complete control over the QR code’s destination and routing by device. The destination of all QR codes can be changed at any time during the lifecycle of the code even after the code is printed and in production.

Language Geo-Routing

URLgenius QR codes are used to power the brand's internal geo-routing process which routes the user to product information in the local language. URLgenius QR codes can also be set to contain internal logic for an unlimited number of language-geo destinations. When the consumer scans the QR code they’re routed to their preferred language destination in seconds. This is an efficient way for the company to meet key international regulatory requirements for product information in local languages across the world.

Branded QR Code Links

The marketing and merchandising teams can use the URLgenius platform to create a branded domain strategy for all their QR code experience including different subdomains depending on the use case. Using the brand's domain for all their QR code links extends the brand experience to the ultimate destination and helps convey to consumers that the link behind the QR code can be trusted and they are being sent to the right place.

QR Design Studio

The URLgenius QR Design Studio lets the marketing and graphic design teams generate custom QR codes to match the brand and special marketing campaigns. QR code colors, logo, design elements, and density can all be optimized to maximize scan rates. Allowing the marketing team to control color and other design features ensures the code will scan more easily in relation to the QR code’s use case.

Subaccount Creation for Teams and Brands

The company is also using the URLgenius Subaccount feature to help organize their QR codes according to department and function. Each sub account can utilize its own branded domain strategy. Users, reporting and billing are also kept separate for accounting purposes and to maximize efficiency when managing the lifecycle of QR codes for different departments, purposes or campaigns.

Enterprise Support and Guidance

The URLgenius team presented QR code training and best practices to the Abrand and merchandising teams and is their go-to consultant for QR code design best practices in relation to use cases and marketing channels. QR codes are optimized in relation to size, placement, color, density, call-to-action and channel implementation.

URLgenius Enterprise QR Codes Deliver

The URLgenius platform delivered everything the marketing, merchandising and product teams needed to practice good QR code governance in combination with optimized QR code design for maximum scanning. URLgenius QR codes were quickly put into production:

The team has implemented QR codes on 150 product SKUs and growing.
URLgenius QR codes are currently applied to product packaging, in-store displays and various marketing materials with unit sales reaching 4 million units globally.
Dynamic geo-routing allows the QR code to present and control product information destinations in the consumer's preferred local language while also meeting important regulatory requirements
Marketing teams now have trust and visibility and control over all the company's QR codes for the duration of the each code's lifecycle.

URLgenius efficiently delivered on its promise by allowing the team to quickly put into practice a modern cloud-based QR code design and governance solution. The team is just getting started and yet already made a significant impact with their QR codes by optimizing the customer experience with multi-language QR codes that deliver an efficient global process to distribute product information to consumers.

How to Get Started with QR Codes

The team here at URLgenius can solve your enterprise QR code challenges and give you guidance every step of the way. Whether your linking to your company's website or your app, we'll help you get a QR code startegy in place that will drive a measureable return on your investment.

Contact us for a free evaluation of your use case along with your questions at info@urlgeni.us about your QR code unique requirements.

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