They’re generally overused, poorly thought out, and face-palmingly executed. It’s an easy way for a marketer to slap something inexpensive onto an existing campaign, and make it seem as though they’ve added some incredibly innovative and interactive depth to their boring little print ad. However, so few marketers ever seem to stop and consider things like:

• Why would someone scan this? What is the incentive for them to do so?
• Where will they be when they scan this? Is this a reasonable environment for this medium?
• What is the experience like after they scan? Is this good, valuable, mobile friendly content?
• Are we going to be able to track how this performs?
• And while we’re at it, did anyone actually test this, to see if it even works AT ALL?

Knowing that these obvious considerations are never even taken, I almost always scan QR codes when I see them. Even if only to shake my head at whatever happens next. So when I started flipping through Erica’s Real Simple, and noticed that every other ad contained a QR code, I started scanning.

Here’s what we saw.

• J.C. Penny – The call to action here is “meet the Liz Claiborne designers”. The landing page is a pretty clean, simple mobile site, with fully functional eCommerce capabilities. Looks like I could actually browse products and make purchases within the mobile site. Well done overall.
• Pandora Jewelry – Oh jeez. It’s one of those special dotted mobi tags. “Get the free mobile app for your phone” it says. “No”, I say. Mind you, there is no other articulated reason as to why I should do this. It’s just asking me to take at least two more steps in order to interact further. My guess is that the end result will be disappointing.
• Cooking Light/Real Simple/Health/Southern Living Cooking Apps – A full page ad, from the publisher itself, touting its wonderful line of cooking apps for my phone. A scan of the QR code goes to a page hosted on RealSimple.com. The content on the page? White page, with one word….”test”. Wow, hop into the failboat, let’s go for a ride.
• Cuisinart – This one doesn’t tell me why I should scan, but I scan it anyways…because that’s what I’m doing here. Simple mobile site, showcasing the product from the print ad. There is a “buy now” link, but that link takes me from this slick mobile site, over to a far less mobile friendly full site, from which to purchase.
• Cooking Light – It’s an app download. Scan and download the Cooking Light mobile app. This is actually a really slick app.
• Maidenform – Code was tiny and way too dense. Was also crammed up against the page-fold, which made it unscannable. And this was a QR code for a bra ad, that promised to show me more, so you know I really tried to make this one work. Fail.
• Luden’s Cough Drops – No call to action, just a floating QR code. The scan took me to a page where I could download a Luden’s branded app/game, the object of which seems to be “slinging drops” at “professors” using a slingshot. No thanks.
• Arm & Hammer – This was an ad for one of those weird pots that you use to pour stuff into your face, in order to clear up nasal allergies. Something that requires a little more explanation than a 1/4 page print ad can explain. The text asked me to “see how this works and where to buy”. A video makes sense here, and that’s what they did. Sent me to YouTube. Only 844 views of the video though.
• Carmex Lotion – Strong call to action (“learn more and save” – offering me coupons). Scanned…404 page! The second total and complete fail, and not even ten codes in. Well done Carmex.
• La-Z-Boy – This was an odd one. A scan of the code brought up a slim mobile site, with some of the products in the print ad highlighted, but those were pushed way down to the bottom. The primary content, was a visual of…the print ad I just scanned. And really strangely, the ability (on my phone mind you) to open a PDF of the print ad I just scanned. YO DAWG!
• “Bulbs” – Not even quite sure what this ad is for, and there certainly was no explanation as to why I should bother to scan the code. I think the ad is just for planting bulbs. The scan goes to a website, not mobile friendly really. Required lots of pinching and zooming and scrolling followed by lots of boredom and leaving.
• Aetna Health – This code was WAY too dense and as a result, was really difficult to scan. The call to action, was scan to download the app, but they send you to some awkward non-mobile site as an interim step, and not just right to the download like I’d expect.
• Rachel Ray Dog Food [hold this place for joke I haven't thought of yet] – Call to action is “learn more”. A scan lands on a fairly nice and clean mobile page. “More info” video at top, and simple signup form below. The signup form is a bit long for mobile though…do I need to give you my full postal address here? Especially when there is no information around the form, telling me what it is that I’m signing up for.
• Zippo – No call to action, and a really tiny, really dense code. Tried a few times and couldn’t scan it (using RedLaser on my iPhone. Assuming that I’m more motivated than normal here, I’d say the likelihood of an average user scanning this successfully, is pretty slim.
• Velcro Brand Picture Hangers – No indication from the print ad as to what I should expect from scanning this code. It pops me right to YouTube, where i see the same woman in the print ad, showing me how these things work. Do I need 1:20 seconds of this though? It’s just a piece of Velcro tape, isn’t it?
• Expressionery.com – This personalized stationary store gets props for including some direct response style tracking on this scan, but loses big for dumping me on an AWFUL site for mobile.
• Sterling Vineyards – Again, no indication from the ad as to what the scan will do, and again, right to a YouTube video. I’m starting to think that this is fairly standard practice and expectation. This one is a 90 second video of Padma Lakshmi talking to me about Sterling Wines.
• Real Simple Cooking App – Right to the app store, nicely done. Not sure why this ad worked, and their earlier one didn’t. Maybe it’s two different QA departments. Wait, $4.99 for this app?
• The Vintage Pearl – Now we’re in the back pages, and only one of these grouped, tiny ads, has a code. And the Vintage Pearl does little more than toss me to its full website. Yawn.

Sadly, this is pretty par for the course. Broken pages, unscannable codes, poor experiences, no calls to action, and little or no additional benefit to the person scanning.

Marketers, this is your brand…take some pride in (and think about) what you’re doing here.

If you MUST use QR codes, do so responsibly. Before anything goes to print, ask and answer these questions.

• What is (and where is) the call to action? Is this just a floating QR code with no explanation? What are you offering that’s going to compel the user to stop, take out his or her cellphone, and scan this code?
• Where will they be when they scan this? Is this a reasonable environment for this medium? Will they have reception? Will the user most likely see this code in a time and place where it would make sense for them to scan it?
• Is the code actually scannable? Think about where it will be on the page. High gloss/glare print? Too close to the binding? Too dense? Too small? Proper contrast? Test scan this code in real life situations.
• What is the experience like after they scan? Is this good, valuable, mobile friendly content? Is the user going to feel that their experience was enhanced by scanning this code?
• Is the landing page actually live? As we saw above, this is more of a common issue than you’d think. Make sure your landing page…exists.
• Are we going to be able to track how this performs? When your boss asks “did it work?”, are you going to be able to answer? With numbers?

But here’s the thing, the potential purchase of this photo is a perfect negotiation opportunity. If I don’t buy the photo of me, then who are they going to sell it to? I, as the potential buyer, have all of the power here.

You want me to buy my own photo for 20 dollars? How about I buy it for 20 cents instead? If I don’t buy it, you’re just going to throw it away. So I’m offering you something, instead of the nothing you’ll get if I decline to purchase the photo at the price you’re offering.

I am literally your ONLY possible customer here. The market for this photo is one person…me. And If I ain’t buying, you ain’t selling.

So let’s just cut the chit-chat. Here’s two dimes, now give me that photo.

Think about it this way. Here in Boston, 60 degrees Fahrenheit is an absolute temperature. But 60 degrees in August feels a hell of a lot different than 60 degrees in January. The former may force you to grab a sweater, while the latter could cause you to throw on a pair of shorts and celebrate. But the absolute temperature is exactly the same.

So even though 60 degrees is 60 degrees, I don’t find the absolute data that is provided within the average weather app, particularly useful.

Oh, it’s going to be 73 degrees with 8mph winds and 47% humidity?

Ok, I sort of get that. I’m not an idiot, but I also don’t have a quick sense of how that will feel. And don’t say “well, look at the ‘feels like’ temperature”, because that’s just doubling-down on the same problem.

What I DO understand quickly, is how yesterday felt. It’s fresh in my mind, I experienced it, I remembered it, I thought about it, and probably (because we all do) talked about it. I’ve got context.

So my half-baked app idea here, is a weather app that only tells you what today’s weather is, in terms relative to yesterday’s weather.

A forecast for the day, could look something like:

Today will be slightly warmer than yesterday
But not quite as humid
And a bit windier with more clouds.
Like yesterday though, it will not rain.

Now obviously this doesn’t work on a long-term forecast basis, it would only be sensible when looking at a day’s weather forecast, for that day, on that day. You wake up, load the app, and immediately understand what that day is going to feel like when you walk outside. Which is all we really want from that daily forecast, isn’t it?

“Why would I tell people where I am?” they say.

“Who cares about being the mayor of a dry-cleaner?” they say mockingly.

And when I try explaining to them that these services can be more than just check-ins and mayorships, they glaze over in the eyes, and just shrug me off. Maybe I’ve just always stunk at articulating the value of foursquare to others. Maybe I just haven’t had a really good use case, a good story that demonstrates the salient points in my pitch.

Well, I think maybe I’ve got one now.

This past weekend, I found myself in downtown Brooklyn for a wedding – an area that I’ve never been to, and that I don’t know at all. So when Erica left to head over for wedding setup, I was left at the Sheraton, hungry and flying solo. I needed some breakfast.

There was an overpriced cafe on the bottom floor of the adjacent hotel, as well as a lame looking Au Bon Pain outlet around the corner, but I had some time to kill, and wanted something a bit more…a bit more good.

I grabbed my phone, fired up foursquare, and tapped the “explore” tab. I entered “breakfast”, tweaked the sliders to bring the distance range down to a walkable level, and hit “search”. When the results loaded up, sitting at the top of the page was a little spot called “Ted & Honey“, just under a mile away. And displayed on the screen, along with the location information, was an indication that two acquaintances of mine (whose tastes I trust) had been there before. A good digital wink and nod, that this place was legit.

Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting outside of Ted & Honey, enjoying a great coffee and breakfast sandwich, at an awesome breakfast spot that I would have never found on my own.

To me, this is one of the ultimate promises of a service like foursquare, fulfilled: city exploration, aided by tips and guidance from friends.

I love it when a good piece of technology, does exactly what it is designed to do.

I get a ton of email, and I’m guessing you do to. We all do. Newsletters, alerts, notifications of @ replies, “you’ve been tagged” emails, invites, calendar requests, follow-ups, and just straight-up, good old fashioned spam. It never ever ever ever ends.

So earlier this year, I made a resolution of sorts, to start aggressively unsubscribing from almost everything that I didn’t need or read on a regular basis. It felt good to push back against the email tide, and slowly but surely, my inbox started to feel a bit lighter.

But what I noticed along the way, was just how awful nearly every unsubscribe process was. And it wasn’t just the small guys (they actually tend to handle unsubs well, since they all use Constant Contact), it was everyone. Big brands, small businesses, newsletters, alerts…everything. The unsubscribe fail-whale seemed to plague all types. It didn’t discriminate.

In my unsubscribe travels, I began to see five annoying unsubscribe trends. All of these problems are easily solvable, and all of these things should be done if you want your unsubscribe process to suck less.

1. Make the unsubscribe link clear. I know this sounds so obvious, but allow those who want to leave your list, to do so easily. And help them to do so, by displaying the unsubscribe link prominently – right at the top of the message, or directly under the body copy (first line after the body). And make sure your unsubscribe link uses one of two words – “remove” or “unsubscribe”. Don’t bury the link in a pile of extraneous copy, and don’t try and hide it. If someone wants off of your list, give them a clear indication of how they can leave. Trust me, the last thing you want, is someone that want’s off of your list, but can’t figure out how to unsubscribe. When that happens, they hit the “spam” button, and you do NOT want that.
2. Make the unsubscribe process, one-click. There’s nothing more annoying than an eleventeen step unsubscribe process, that asks me at every turn, if I’m “sure” I want to unsubscribe. I’ve found your unsubscribe link, I’ve hit that link, now just let me go. Trust me, I’m sure. The only thing I should see after hitting “unsubscribe” is the message on the confirm page, telling me that I’ve been unsubscribed.
3. If you simply can’t make it one click, make it easy, and prefill my data. If for some reason the idea of a one-click unsubscribe has you in cold sweats, and you insist on asking me how “sure” I am before leaving your list, at least prefill that unsubscribe form you are sending me to on your website. Don’t make me go back to my email client, look at which email address is actually subscribed to this list (so may of us use aliases, and single inboxes remember), just prefill the form, and make it simple.
4. Don’t make me log-in, and update my “account preferences”. Chances are, if I’m trying to unsubscribe from what you’re sending me, I’m pretty disengaged. And it’s highly likely that I don’t recall what my password or log-in credentials are, for the account I hastily created when I was forced to do so. So now if I have to do a “forgot password” routine, just to get the password, just to log-in to the site, just to unsubscribe, I hate you. And I’m smashing that “spam” button. If you have a site or product that sends out a variety of emails (transactional, marketing, updates, etc), and there are legitimate reasons to have a “manage preferences” section, by all means include that link in your emails. But also include a simple, one-click, “unsubscribe from all email” link as well.
5. Save me. It’s entirely possible that I still love you and your brand or product, and that I still want to communicate with you…just not through email. Banana Republic for instance, sent me roughly 14,000 emails each day when I was on their list. I just couldn’t take it anymore, and decided to shift from email, to Facebook as my means of communicating with them. Now I get my Banana Republic information in a way that is more in line with how I want to consume it. Take that unsubscribe confirmation page (after your shiny new one-click unsubscribe), and include big links to your Facebook and Twitter pages. Offer your users alternate ways to engage with you. It may just be that they hate email, not you.

Social media may be the newest and shiniest toy, but email is the engine that runs it. So make sure you do it well. The most engaging, high-touch, wonderfully personalized social campaigns, can be railroaded by annoying email executions. So get your unsubscribe house in order.

Now I’m not LeBron James, and this isn’t “The Decision“, so I’ll spare everyone the gratuitous self-importance here, and stick to the facts. Because if I’m being honest with myself, I’m guessing that the only people who really care about this, are my parents. And let’s face it, they don’t even really know what I do for work anyways.

That said, I’m excited for what lies ahead, and can’t wait to work with Mike, Brad, DJ, Kelsey, Adam, Ilya, Jeff, Alica, Cindy, and lots of others at Hill Holliday that I look forward to meeting in a couple of weeks.

I’ll really miss all of the great friends I’ve made at Samuel Adams, and going back to paying for beer will certainly take some getting used to. But when bellying up to the bar, I’ll always remain loyal to Jim Koch and the Samuel Adams brand. Truly a great beer made by even better people.

But like Dennis and Charlie say…sometimes it’s all about saying “YES” and being open to the next adventure.

See you guys out there.

And another thing while we’re talking Dunkin’ cups…

This time of year (summer), you’ll see nearly every other iced coffee orderer, asking for an extra (empty) styrofoam cup to put their plastic iced coffee cup into. For insulation I presume.

Some Dunkin’ Donuts have put up signs by the registers that inform these double-cuppers, that cup #2 will cost them an extra 30 cents or so. Which is reasonable, since there is most certainly a cost associated with the extra packaging. But since this sign is at the register, and the second cup request almost always happens at the delivery point of the coffee (after the coffee has been paid for), this system isn’t optimal. It may deter some people from asking for the second cup, but it’s unlikely you’d be denied by the coffee runner behind the counter, due to the small disconnect between the runner and the ringer at the register.

So the double cupping summer phenomenon begs a few questions from me.

• Does Dunkin’ Donuts track how many empty hot cups are given out to insulate full iced cups? Seems like the math is do-able. The number of cups ordered and used by a DD outlet, should be essentially equal to the number of drinks sold in each size and temperature. So measuring the delta should be a decent indicator of how often this happens. Once done, you’d presumably be able to determine the value of that delta, and get an understanding of how it may be affecting your bottom line.
• And to that point, if it were affecting the bottom line, would it make sense to just make iced coffee cups that had a more heavily insulated area where it’s held?
• And lastly, how come you NEVER see this (the double cupping on iced drinks) at Starbucks? The cups are presumably made out of the same plastics, the liquid inside is presumably the same temperature. Are Starbucks customers just tougher? Probably not. Is it because they maybe use those little cardboard hot cup sleeves, on their iced cups? Maybe, but I don’t often see this. Or maybe it’s simply because the iced cups don’t FIT inside of the hot cups at Starbucks. Maybe that’s it.

Who knows. Maybe I’ve just had too much caffeine.

Really dude? Blindsided? C’mon…

Tim Haines is the founder of Favstar, which in late May, took it on the chin when Twitter announced that they were launching a feature set that was essentially a repackaging of what Favstar does. Except that it was now built natively into Twitter. Boom, goodnight Favstar.

Now Tim is more than likely a good dude with whom I’d have a lot in common. And I have no particular disrespect for him, or for his products. But I do think that if you build a feeder business, on the back of another host business, it’s just a matter of time before you get smooshed by the host. Particularly if the core of your business, is to essentially provide a missing feature that the host business hasn’t yet released themselves.

So not only should Tim here not have been blindsided by this, he should have been expecting it from day one. As traffic was ramping up on Favstar, all on the back of Twitter users wanting these particular features, he and the team should have been frantically thinking about ways to leverage this traffic and user-base to launch new products, that were not so dependent on the whims of a third party.

It’s more than fine to launch a business like this (in fact, some would say that this api-driven, build on top of other products ecosystem actually drives the web), but to think that this type of business is sustainable in the long term, is (in my opinion) delusional. When you build on the back of another platform, you unfortunately serve at the pleasure of that platform.

Companies like Twitter and Facebook are businesses. They have boards, and employees, and investors, all of whom have reasonable expectations that their respective companies will continue to evolve and innovate. And at various points within these evolutionary paths, it’s going to be their growth or yours. And who do you think Twitter or Facebook is going to go with? Trust me, they aren’t going to forgo launching essential features, native to their own platforms, in order to keep your little app in business.

And it isn’t just Tim and Favstar (I really don’t mean to pick on him, just needed an example here). Ubermedia had a gut-punch moment earlier this year, and now guys like Twitpic and YFrog are getting steamrolled too.

So if you are an entrepreneur whose business lives or dies by the access to (and benevolence from) another business, beware. And start thinking more long-view. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

It’s very strange to watch national news reports on widespread joblessness, and then at the same time, see the absolute fever within the online space, to try and hire anything or anyone that knows how to output “hello world” onto a screen.

The juxtaposition is awkward and hard to reconcile at times.

Anyways…on the topic of talent, this posting from Eric Paley (The Curve of Talent), is wonderfully written. The following passage stuck out to me above everything else.

The large company corporate world is filled with C players. The term “Peter Principle” was coined to describe this phenomenon in which people in large companies are promoted exactly one pay grade beyond what they can competently do and then stay in that role for the rest of their careers. Large companies thrive on inertia and the core job description of a large company employee is to keep that inertia going and do nothing to screw it up. If last year’s top line grew 8%, the job is to grow it 8% again, not to figure out how to make a step function change and grow it 20%. In attempting to achieve that 20% step function change, there is high risk of a misstep that could lead to a decline in sales. That’s simply unacceptable.

Large companies fire those who get F grades, because they are not at all productive. They accept C players, because they are somewhat productive with guidance and B players are hard to find. It is very easy for a C player to seem moderately successful when progress is largely based on inertia. Large corporations celebrate B players who can competently complete their job with minimum coaching and maintain inertia. These are the heroes of large corporations. Innovation within a function is risky and can threaten inertia.

Large companies have very few A players. A players don’t want to be at large companies because, more often than not, corporate bureaucracy and process not only fail to reward, but actually punish A players. By putting the objectives ahead of process and politics, A players step on bureaucratic toes and don’t retreat based on false territorial claims. Though there are exceptions, few large corporations create cultures that give A players room to win. It’s not fun trying to innovate at a large company when co-workers feel that you’re threatening the core inertia on which the business is based. They’ll say things like “that’s just not the way things work around here.”

Read the entire post here.

However, when I’ve had the Android vs iPhone debate in the past, I’ve always maintained that at some point the operating systems and devices will somewhat be equal, and that the distribution of the respective operating systems is what will matter. Specifically, when it comes to apps. One HUGE selling point for iPhone, has always been the apps. Bazillions of apps.

But developers ultimately go where the distribution is. At some point, the market shares will change in such a way that developers will see the value in developing for Android first, and iPhone second, because that’s where the distribution is. There will simply be more Android devices than iPhone devices, which means more potential installs and more potential revenue.

The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform (see Windows in PCs, Facebook in social, Google in search). And the more dominant the platform becomes, the more valuable it becomes and the harder it becomes to dislodge. The network effect kicks in, and developers building products designed to work with the platform devote more and more of their energy to the platform. The reward for building and working with other platforms, meanwhile, drops, and gradually developers stop developing for them. (more here)

Now this certainly ignores what I think is Android’s largest problem right now, and that is a fragmented set of OS versions, which make it really painful to develop for Android. If they can get this sorted out, and unify the operating system versions across carriers and devices, they (in my opinion) will be well positioned to leverage this network effect.