Imagine walking into a store. You grab a product off the shelf. The packaging is ultra-minimalist — just a small label affixed to one side.  The label displays only a strange barcode-like symbol. You aim your cell phone camera at it. A mobile website launches offering interactive demos, user reviews, a video interview with the designer and more. After watching a demo and reading some reviews you decide it’s a buy and head for the cash register.

Sound futuristic? Not really. The technology is here today. All you need is a decently powerful mobile phone and an application that’s capable of reading QR Codes. QR is short for “Quick Response.” Originally developed in Japan to track inventory, QR codes have become very popular there as marketing tools; in Japan they frequently appear on billboards, magazine ads and yes, product packaging. Now QR codes are headed our way. For example, the Be The One campaign, recently used QR codes to help clean up the BP oil spill. Be the One has plastered its QR code on t-shirts and billboards. Scanning the code enables you to sign a petition and view videos on your phone. And just today online Bravo announced it will display QR codes during certain shows and commercials. By scanning the code, viewers can purchase the items shown on-screen.

How does this relate to KOR? This summer we launched an initiative to reduce packaging waste and provide richer product information to retail customers. The more we learned about QR codes, the better they seemed to fit our needs.  So I’m excited to announce that effective this Fall, we are switching all our packaging to small hangtags imprinted with QR codes.

To be honest, we don’t expect many consumers to scan the codes at first. Not everyone has the right kind of phone; those that do still need to manually download a scanning app; and awareness of QR codes is limited. But as time goes on we believe QR technology will go mainstream – and in doing so, revolutionize the retail experience and eliminate hundreds of tons of packaging waste.