HOW TO ELEVATE YOUR BRAND EXPERIENCE WITH QR-CODES

Revival of the QR-code

How to use QR-codes for your luxury brand experience

01 | Video content

On the rise as always is video content — and what better way to share it and elevate the brand experience with than through an QR-code. When it comes to luxury you want to create a fully immersive brand experience and video is a great tool to help create it.

Video content has been the number one content type that has grown and evolved over the past years. You could even say that if your brand doesn’t provide video content — wether a long form YouTube video or quick bite sized Reel on Instagram — it’s missing out. If you do create video content you know that it is a continuous process of creating these days — so why not find ways to repurpose evergreen content wherever you can (as long as it is relevant for your brand). 

The QR-code can lead to video that can help your clients experience the products or services you want to sell or make a campaign cross medial — linking an ad to a video to extend the experience. There are many ways to utilize a QR-content to distribute your video content. You just need to find the right fit within your brand strategy.

Balenciaga AW21 virtual show

For their Autumn Winter 2021 collection Balenciaga went with an all digital event. Instead of cancelling their show because of the pandemic, they sent out Oculus glasses to the attendees to attent the virtual reality runway show. (Vogue, 2020) Instead of the usual luxury campaigns they opted to use QR-code posters in their campaign that people can scan with their camera on their phone. When they scan the code — you can try it with the banner image — they landed on the collection page with the full lookbook with 360 images and accompanying video game. The QR-code helped Balenciaga to connect with audiences in a way that fits with the concept of the collection — the feeling of living in an alternate, dystopia universe and craving for escapism (Vogue, 2020).

02 | stimulate all senses with music

When researching we’ve found a cool example to create an elevated brand experience for luxury brands: linking the QR-code to music or sounds. You can create a Spotify playlist that people can listen to when they are shopping in store or a special playlist when they are doing an activity related to your brand or using your products or services. For example: working out, concentrating on work, having a dinner party, etc.

Other ways to use music to elevate the brand experience is to create a playlist that fits a campaign or new collection. When they visit your store or webshop they can listen to the selection music to experience the whole concept. Especially designer fashion brands could create a playlist with music used during fashion shows to elevate the shopping experience.

To make the whole experience full circle, make sure that your playlist has a branded cover and is SEO optimized so the customer or client can search for it later on.

Tip

Make sure you track your QR-codes. If a QR-code is going to be part of your strategy and experience, it is vital that you use a service that provides the data you need or use tools like the Campaign URL Builder to track the traffic.

03 | Easy access to shop

Most luxury brands pride themselves in providing a quality client experience — wether online or in stores — so why not connect the two through a QR-code.

When the customer shops around in stores but can’t find the item they are looking for they are more willing to download an app to check if the item is in stock online. You can also use QR-codes with campaign images in stores or outdoors from upcoming collections and let the customer add themselves to a waiting or pre-order list. You could also link the QR-code to a list of your nearby stores so they can get in contact with a sales associate. Or your brand can use QR-codes to help people in stores or the office by adding helpful information they can scan. Luxury brands can add an (interactive) inclusive size guide to showcase how items fit with lifestyle images, a how to video of how to use a product or success stories of others who have worked with your business on a project.

This way, instead of creating competition between your off- and online stores, you let them work together.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that even luxury brands have to find ways to make it possible to shop online. If you still want to give customers the best brand experience, you need to make the process as smooth as possible for them. A QR-code can help with that transition.