April 2011 Issue

An Old Idea Is Coming Of Age

We recently returned from the IH+HS in Chicago, and we want to congratu- late the IHA for staging another ex- cellent show. We would like to thank all of the readers who took the time to visit the Gourmet Business Pavilion during the show, and we appreciate your positive feedback. I especially want to thank my team for all the hard work and planning that went into making our booth a meaningful destination for all show attendees.

As always, we were on the hunt for emerging trends at the show that will help our retailers identify and recognize the products that will drive sales this year. Since I also closely monitor technology trends, I was particularly intrigued by the use of QR codes by Cui- sipro on all of their retail packaging. In case you aren’t familiar with QR codes, they are a special bar code that can be read using the camera on a smart phone to direct the customer to Web-related content that can provide more information about the product in question. While this is not a new idea, the many media companies that had experimented with similar processes to imbed bar codes in ads that could help a reader get more information about a company were ahead of the adoption curve. Today, there are millions of smart phone users who are quite versed in using their phones as portable devices to aid in a variety of helpful daily tasks, like getting turn-by-turn directions to a store. Perhaps the time has come for smart phones to be a useful aid in providing information to a potential customer at the point of sale. It will be important for you to understand how these QR codes are being used and how they are becoming a part of the sales process. Since we pride ourselves on staying at the forefront of technology, we are preparing in-depth features that will appear in upcoming issues to better inform you about this important trend.