If you are a consumer product company with a constant stream of new product offerings, it's likely you're printing a catalog as a key sales tool. And if your product line sometimes requires educating your prospects on product usage, space will be at a premium. The more instructions you include, the larger your catalog—and the higher your production costs.

That's one of the reasons Creative Memories found QR Codes® a great way to add value to their catalog while containing its size. Based in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, the company is a leading retailer of scrapbooking tools and supplies—everything from albums and acid-free papers to pens, stickers and decorative paper punches.

The company provides its 40,000 independent, home-based sales consultants with a full catalog twice a year and a Mini Catalog every other month to coincide with new product launches. Armed with these tools, the sales consultants cater to the wants and needs of scrapbooking enthusiasts.

QR Codes® keep it trim

Channel Marketing Director Bob McClintick collaborated with a cross-functional team to come up with Creative Memories' QR Code® scheme. The codes guide buyers to YouTube how-to videos and other website landing pages, providing clear instructions without increasing the page count. No small consideration when you're printing 200,000 to 300,000 or more catalogs every other month!

"We wanted to control both the page count and dimensions," said Bob. "We want to keep the cost down for our consultants. And with the QR Codes®, we can create a marriage between print and digital information, while adding depth to the content."

The July/August Mini Catalog was the company's first foray into the use of QR Codes® and included a total of five codes integrated with product copy and photos. Each leads to a how-to video on the company's YouTube channel or to landing page URLs specifically created for the catalog.

Two tips

One added feature extends the company's branding by embedding an image of the company's logo—a stylized image of a camera shutter—in the center of the QR Code®. It's a technique that if done well, has no effect on the reliability of the code to scan properly. To assure it worked, each was rigorously tested for scanning dependability.

Although Bob sees QR Codes® as "almost commonplace" in print today, he says they also recognized that many consumers have not yet tried QR scanning. So they included a bit of copy next to each code, instructing readers to use their smartphone to scan the code to connect with additional content.

Metrics

The use of QR Codes® is also expanding the ability of Creative Memories to gather campaign metrics. The company used digital development tools to shorten unique URLs and create a system to track hits from smartphone scanners.

It's too early to characterize the actual volume of scanner hits but they expect that volume to be relatively low until smartphone adoption increases even further. Still, Bob sees each hit as just one more opportunity to sell and build brand awareness—so Creative Memories is planning to build them into the main catalog as well.

Bringing it all together

"This was all surprisingly easy," he says. "Just a little forethought into what you want to use the codes for, keep your URLs short to maximize scanning reliability, then create a metrics tracking system, and you can marry a print piece to your online presence more tightly than ever before." In the meantime, GLS Account Executive Brent Carlson was glad to help assure it all worked smoothly on the print side!

To learn more about Creative Memories, visit their website at www.creativememories.com.