In defense of QR codes

In Sweden we have a broad movement of people bashing the QR technique. I kind of understand some of the criticism, but since I'm allergic to sheeple behavior I felt the need to write a short piece on QR codes, and when they are actually good to use.

Offline / Online coupling
Often when QR codes are used, the company puts up a QR code pointing at their web's start page. That is not making good use of a QR code, unless you have a really shitty domain name. However, with a QR code you can "easily" share a long and complicated url. Let's say for example, that I'm car shopping. Then every object I look at should have its own unique web page with information. Here it's likely that the url will be long and hard to enter, and hence the QR code would be a better solution.
The same goes for a lot of shopping. People are using the internet to gather information about stuff they purchase offline, and hence it is easy for the store to provide you with the information of their choice instead of that of Google or another online Shopping mall. QR code to the rescue. A good implementation of a QR-code uses a unique forwarding url with a final destination that can be changed at any time, be unique or semi-unique for every piece of goods you look at, giving the seller the possibility for in depth statistics and super local offers.

Screen-to-mobile
Laptop to mobile sharing of links still aren't as easy as it should be. There are times when you want your visitor to do something on their mobile device, and a QR code is then a pretty easy way to accomplish that.
A QR code is also self explainatory and a call to action in itself. When you show the QR code for your visitor, they know what you want them to do.

Branding
One aspect that people seem to forget when talking about QR codes in ads is the branding factor. As with everything else, that you are using this specific technique is a part of the marketing message. I would guess that the usage of QR codes is meant to show that the company is up-to-date with todays technology.
And for those of us who have worked with offline marketing people, it tells us that the company has actually integrated offline/online marketing. :)

Learning
Coupling offline to online is hard but crucial in sales and marketing. QR-code usage is one way of doing this, and lessons learned doing so is likely to be useful in the future.