Small business takeaway:
- Scannable QR codes are reshaping marketing and operations across industries. Capri Sun’s sweepstakes boosted shopper participation, with QR codes prominently placed on the beverage brand’s packaging. Marriott tapped QR codes to save $150,000 in printing costs of menus and flyers, and restaurants like Lettuce Entertain You boosted ticket sizes with QR-based food ordering. These adaptable strategies showcase QR codes’ potential to drive efficiency and customer loyalty for businesses large and small.
Consumers have become increasingly comfortable with scanning QR codes for shopping and brand interactions, and brands are capitalizing on that ease by using them to form deeper relationships with their customers.
Companies such as Kraft Heinz, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, and Marriott are using QR codes in a variety of ways to communicate with their customers and to gather first-party data (the information businesses collect directly from their audiences versus from third-party sources) that’s highly coveted by marketers.
The codes — the QR stands for “quick response” — are referred to as two-dimensional (2D), because they are read both side to side and top to bottom, allowing them to contain much more information than traditional, one-dimensional bar codes.
Although QR codes can serve a variety of operational functions with organizations, such as inventory management, many brands are focusing on the marketing potential that these black-and-white squares can provide, said Justine BaMaung, Vice President of Marketing at Uniqode, which provides QR codes and other services for businesses.
“We often see that marketing is the key driver for using QR codes across organizations,” she said.
In fact, 98% of companies surveyed in Uniqode’s 2025 State of QR Codes report found that using QR codes had a positive impact on marketing, and 95% said the codes help them gather first-party data.
QR codes on CPG packaging drive consumer engagement
One of the key areas where QR codes are making an impact is on consumer packaged goods (CPG) packaging, BaMaung said.
“That really drives engagement with the purchaser,” she said.
For food brands, this can include QR codes that pull up a recipe that uses their product, for example, or that offers consumers a discount on a future purchase. These interactions are especially useful to brands, BaMaung explained, because dynamic QR codes allow brands to keep track of where, when, and how often consumers are engaging with the content.
“It’s an information mine for that offline interaction with the brand,” she said.
Because dynamic QR codes allow brands to change out the content that the codes link to without changing the codes themselves, they enable marketers to vary the information they provide as often as they like. Brands can add seasonal recipes, for example, or provide access to new promotions.
“It enables you to think about what’s relevant in your marketing campaigns and then enable that on your product packaging without having to go through the hassle of actually redoing any type of design work on that product package itself,” BaMaung said.
She cited as an example of innovative QR code use on packaging a multifaceted campaign by the wine brand 19 Crimes. Consumers can scan the QR code on the label to unlock an augmented reality video experience in which the label’s characters — based on real historical convicts in the late 1700s exiled to Australia from Great Britain for committing one of 19 offenses — appear to tell the tale of their crimes.
We often see that marketing is the key driver for using QR codes across organizations.Justine BaMaung, Vice President of Marketing at Uniqode
Energy drink maker Monster Energy is another example of a brand that has used QR codes on its packaging, especially in conjunction with the beverage brand’s promotional partnership with the Call of Duty video game. Gamers could scan QR codes on Monster labels to earn tools that can be used in the Activision game.
“A QR code is a great gateway to be able to connect with the consumer and to drive business value, but a lot of it comes from how marketers decide to implement it on the package itself,” said BaMaung.
Capri Sun’s QR code-enabled sweepstakes campaign lands record number of customer entries
Capri Sun, a Kraft Heinz beverage brand focused on marketing to families with children, last year enabled consumers to scan a QR code for the opportunity to win a Nintendo Switch 2 prize package.
The sweepstakes campaign garnered more than 579,000 total landing page views and more than 28,000 subscription entries, according to a case study published by QR code provider Flowcode. It marked one of the top three code-based campaigns among all Kraft Heinz brands.
The brand placed the QR code on the front of the Capri Sun packaging to make it as intuitive as possible for consumers to locate the promotion and enter. At the same time, Capri Sun used the promotion as an opportunity to drive deeper customer engagement and support its broader goals around data collection.
“The results underscore how effective a well-placed, reliable scan experience can be when paired with a trusted, high-velocity product,” Flowcode said in the case study.
Practical uses for QR codes: Instant access to ingredient and nutrition information
A key area of opportunity for QR codes on food product packaging is the ability to provide information around the backstory of a product, such as its sourcing, ingredients, and nutrition information, said Gena Morgan, Vice President of Standards at GS1 US, the standards organization behind the traditional barcode that is now also deeply involved with QR codes, in an interview with CO—.
Two-thirds — 66% — of consumers surveyed said they would scan a QR code on food packaging to access information such as ingredients and shelf life, according to a survey by GS1.
“Packaging is a finite space, and you can’t tell the whole story,” said Morgan. “The story might include the ingredients, the product sourcing details, GMO [genetically modified organism] declarations, and other declarations that a brand might be required to reveal.
“By implementing 2D barcodes, in particular QR codes with the GS1 Digital Link, which digitally connects specific product identifiers with the internet, brands can make that information available in the background. This not only provides the transparency that many consumers are looking for but also can help companies meet regulatory requirements for information disclosure.
“Consumers are demanding more and more information about products, and you can’t pack it all on the package, so you have to be able to take them to where they can discover the story about it,” Morgan said.
Because QR codes can store so much more information than barcodes, businesses are also using them for practical purposes, such as product-recall management and inventory rotation, she said.
[Read more: AI Is Revolutionizing Product Returns — And Every Business Can Benefit]
QR codes yield higher ticket food orders for restaurants: ‘People don’t have to flag their waiter down to get another side of fries.’
The sudden ubiquity of QR codes on restaurant tables as a link to contactless menus during the pandemic helped familiarize consumers with the technology, but their use in both restaurants and hotels has expanded into new functionality since that time.
Paying the restaurant bill via QR code is one way the technology’s use is growing in the restaurant industry, said Christine de Wendel, Co-founder of sunday, a technology company that provides a pay-by-QR code platform for restaurants, in an interview with CO—.
“Restaurant operators love it because it’s way more efficient, and guests love it because they’re in control of the situation, and yet the restaurant is still providing a full-service experience,” she said.
The company, which launched five years ago, processes more than $4 billion in transaction volume annually at thousands of restaurants, said de Wendel. Participating restaurants display a QR code at each table, which customers can scan at the end of their meal to pay their bill rather than flagging down a server and then waiting for their credit card to be processed.
Restaurants that have deployed sunday’s technology include Serafina locations in New York City and the Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises collection of restaurants in Chicago. Lettuce Entertain You restaurants are turning tables 12 minutes faster using sunday’s QR code payment solution, de Wendel said.
The company also has an ordering solution that allows customers to order food using a QR code. That solution is especially popular at casual-dining restaurants, she said.
Customers are able to order more sides and more drinks from the QR code during their meal, said de Wendel, noting that restaurants using this service have an average 6% higher ticket.
“People don’t have to flag their waiter down to get another side of fries, so that’s also a great way to create a smoother experience for the guests,” she said. “Not everyone is going to add something, but for those who do, it’s top-line revenue that the restaurant wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.”
The QR code platform also allows restaurants to gather data about customer preferences and gives operators an opportunity to ask their customers to opt in for marketing communications or to join loyalty programs.
Hotels expand QR code use — whether it’s to check-in, order spa services, ‘or scan to see unique experiences happening around the area’
BaMaung said she’s seeing a lot of activity with QR codes in the hotel industry as well, as hotel operators seek efficiencies in the wake of COVID-era staff cutbacks that have yet to recover.
“QR codes allow for more efficiency within hotels, whether it’s scan to check in, scan for a menu, scan for spa services, or scan to see unique experiences that are happening around the area,” said BaMaung. “They are helping guests get information and move them along their journey without necessarily having to have a human touch.”
While the “human touch” remains important for many hotels, using QR codes enables them to make the experience more efficient for their guests. At the same time, using the QR codes yields cost savings and other benefits for the hotel operators themselves, including the ability to gather first-party data.
Some of the uses for which the Marriott Aruba, for example, deployed QR codes included booking beach chairs, providing links to its wedding property, and showing marketing videos and landing pages that highlight resort amenities. The hotel also deployed QR codes for guests to link to the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty app and to trigger emails that capture guests’ interest in exploring more of the island.
The campaigns gathered more than 150,000 QR code scans from 80,000 unique customers in one year, according to a case study published by Uniqode. In addition, switching to digital content for restaurant menus, pamphlets, and flyers was estimated to save about $150,000 in printing costs. The ability to modify content in real time was an added benefit, enabling the company to update menus throughout the day, for one.
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