What is the difference between BRIJ and a QR Code Generator?
Brij is a new addition to the brand marketer’s tool belt. Like any new concept, it is compared to what is already known. The common comparison for Brij is the QR Code generator. Those questions come in two flavors:
- What is the difference between Brij and a QR Code generator?
- Couldn’t I just do this myself with a free QR code generator?
In this article, we answer these questions and clear up the confusion.
Let’s start with a QR code generator.
What is a QR code generator?
A QR code generator is a tool used to generate Quick Response codes, which are two-dimensional barcodes. The main purpose of these codes is to provide a quick and easy way for users to access relevant information when scanned with a mobile device.
The primary use case in marketing is to redirect the scanner to a web page containing more information or the next action to take. It’s like a physical version of the popular tool Bitly (Bitly also generates QR codes!).
The defining feature of a QR code generator is the ability to create QR code and destination pairing. And once you create that code you can place it anywhere you want to drive a specific action like providing more information, driving a registration, or purchase.
An important distinction to understand is static vs. dynamic QR codes. Dynamic codes can be redirected to a new webpage at any time, so you can print a QR code once and change the destination at any point in the future. NEVER print static QR codes on anything that is semi-permanent because of this limitation.
Common capabilities of a QR code generator:
- Create a series of QR Codes and destination pairings.
- Change design components of the physical QR codes, i.e. shapes, patterns, frame, colors
- Option to include a logo within the physical QR code design
- Ability to create an image file (SVG, JPG, PNG, etc.)
- Destination/action customization (URL, vCard, file download)
- Scan analytics
- Generate Static QR codes for free and dynamic QR codes at a cost
If you Google QR code generators, you’ll find a TON of options. Honestly, they’re a commodity and most of the time people don’t even know what QR code generator they end up using.
And many are free. Free QR code generators come with limitations in customization and analytics tracking. Premium paid QR code generators are required for any use cases that require scale and customization. Most pricing plans scale with the number of QR codes and scans.
It’s also important to consider the difference between a static QR code and a dynamic QR code. We would ALWAYS recommend that you’re creating dynamic QR codes. This allows you to easily redirect the destination pairing of the physical QR code. Whereas with a static QR code, once you print it, you can never update the destination of that QR Code.
What is Brij?
Brij is a QR Code Experience platform.
A QR Code Experience is the end-to-end experience a user has when scanning a QR code. That means the closed-loop pairing of the QR code AND the final destination.
.gif)
If you’ve scanned a QR code before, you’ve had a QR Code Experience. It may have been amazing. It may have been terrible, but you had one!
With Brij, the QR Code and destination are a tightly integrated closed loop. This allows for a controlled and deliberate experience. As a result, brands can build robust QR code experiences that drive a singular business goal but also provide the option for users to discover more about a product or brand.
Brands that are using Brij are levering the end-to-end experience:
- Bring their brand to life in dark channels (like retail)
- Educate customers on the brand story and how to use the product
- Improve the product warranty registration experience
- Collect 1st party engagement and survey data
- Drive reorder, upsell, and subscription
It’s quite different from what you might experience with your typical QR Code Experience generated from a QR code generator.
How is Brij different from a QR code generator?
The first major difference is the use case. For the most part, QR Code generators are built for a very general use case of redirecting someone from reading a sign or piece of paper to a webpage on their phone. That can literally be applied to anything from restaurant menus to a brochure from the doctor’s office.
Brij focuses primarily on QR Codes for consumer product communication for food, beverage, supplements, appliances, hardware, electronics, durable goods, and apparel. The majority of the sales volume of these products take place in dark channels like retail and Amazon. They are dark in the sense that a brand has no clue who is buying and no way to engage the buyer.
Thus the usage of a QR code creates a mission-critical bridge beween:
- Brand and consumer
- Digital and physical environment
- Pre-, point-of, and post-sale
- Retail, marketplace, and DTC
Usage of the QR code itself is primarily associated with driving awareness, differentiation and revenue. Common QR code placements include:
- Billboards
- TV commercials
- In-store promotions
- Product packaging
- Packaging inserts.
And the primary QR code strategy that a business can use as a growth lever like audience building, acquisition, and retention.
The next major area of difference is the feature set. Brij marries the QR code and the destination experience at the product and SKU level.
A QR code generator is primarily about the QR code customization and that's all. Many companies link to a web page and call it a day. However, brands can encounter some serious issues when they scale the QR code generator codes across a large product spread.
Imagine you have dozens or hundreds of product SKUs. In addition to creating all of the QR codes and landing pages independently, you are looking at hours of cutting and pasting URLs into the QR code generator dynamic URL field.
This is not only mind-numbing grunt work, but it is where a lot of data entry errors happen. You'd be surprised how often we see this happen.
In the last month alone, we’ve seen the following mistakes.
- A QR code redirecting to a Google search for “placeholder”
- A QR code linking to the wrong product
- A CTA for text engagement that links to a random article
With Brij, you can connect to Shopify and instantly bulk create custom QR codes and destination pages that exactly mirrors your product spread.
The fourth area of difference is the destination experience. With Brij, the QR code is the tip of the iceberg. And we put a lot of thought into the destination, which is by default designed for mobile consumption and conversion.
The Brij platform gives brands complete control over the QR code destination experience.
The experiences are designed to feel like an app but does not require a download. Brands can bring their brand story to life with video and drive measurable action.
They are designed with an “accordion style” with a primary call-to-action (buy, sign up, register, etc.) and have a “more” button that leads to additional content.
Some of the QR code generators do have a landing page builder. Those landing pages are modeled in the style of Linktree. While Linktree is optimized for mobile consumption, it links to a bunch of disparate sources, which is a fragmented experience. Whereas Brij is designed house content for a cohesive and engaging experience.
This helps to drive the consumer to do exactly what the brand wants it to. It's a versatile tool. Here are a few of the template options that can be added to an experience.
- Email / SMS signup
- Receipt Upload
- Shopping module
- Embedded videos
- Content pages
- Warranty registration pages
- Forms & Surveys
- User manuals and instructions
The builder is no-code and new experiences can be created in minutes. So you don’t need to be a developer to create beautiful experiences for your brand.
A key differentiation of Brij is that you will not be linking out to different webpages - it’s all embedded in the web app experience, to drive engagement.
The final area of difference is integration and analytics. If you are using a QR code generator, and want to integrate with the rest of your e-commerce system, it could be patched together with custom code or Zapier.
Whereas the Brij experience is built for compatibility, communication, and collaboration with popular commerce software. It has turnkey integrations with Shopify, Klaviyo, and all of the major subscription providers.
For instance, after syncing with Shopify you can quickly create a unique shopping module for each experience. Data collected from opt-ins syncs directly with Klaviyo triggering automated and personalized outreach.
On the analytics front, a QR code will give you the number of scans on your experience. And you’d be tracking the destination in a separate place, i.e. Google Analytics. With Brij, you can see scans, engagements, opt-ins, and revenue associated with the QR code program all in one place.
It’s a Whole New World
At first glimpse, it’s easy to conflate Brij with a QR code generator. But, they couldn’t be more different. QR code generators are a simple redirection tool. Whereas Brij is an experienced builder.
Brij can help you turn dark channels into an always-on brand activation, communication, and sales channel. At Brij, we like to think of it as the 4th leg of the stool in an omnichannel playbook that previously consisted of the big 3: retail, DTC, and Amazon.
What do you do with your other marketing and sales channels? Whatever you thought of, you can also do that in a QR Code Experience!
The QR Code Experience channel is a Swiss Army knife that can do all of the following:
- Education and nurturing opportunities
- Capture 1st party data capture (email etc.)
- Remarketing and reorder
- Retention and Loyalty
- Drive Retail Velocity (coupon, rebates)
All of this creates a better brand experience for the customer. And anything that provides more value to customers, translates to a return on investment.
Brij is helping more and more trend-setting brands do this every day. If that sounds like something your brand wants to do, drop us a line any time. Even if it's just to talk about how to start with QR codes. Book a time here.
