Encryption: Julius Caesar to QR Codes

And so, in the “beginning” (or at least the “beginning” for the purposes of this missive) folks got weary of communicating via grunts, groans, and clubs being applied to each other’s brainpans… so some bright spark somewhere came up with the notion of language, as opposed to needing to have an art degree in cave painting or acting everything out.  Both of which could be characterized as a real pain in the ass, at best. 

Then, just as everyone rushed to that side of the boat and very nearly tipped it over, a select few started to see the error of their ways in that the odd secret here or there was “a solid.”  And, to complicate things further, the idea of just keeping to one’s self simply didn’t fly.  Human nature does, after all, lend itself to commiserating with others… much to my chagrin, by the way.  Nonetheless, the die was cast and the idea of encryption, or communicating in “code” in order to exclude certain parties, was born.  

Code?

No one knows really how this business of encryption first manifested itself.  Perhaps it was a code in cave paintings whereby Woolly Mammoth = Tyrannosaur, and Tyrannosaur = Sabre-Toothed Tiger, and Sabre-Toothed Tiger = Girl... which, when applying transitive logic, nets to Woolly Mammoth = Girl.  Now, depending on your perspective, this may or may not actually look like code, largely contingent on how hairy your opposite number is.  But for the sake of argument this could have been where the rubber first met the road.  Who knows?  In fact, I'm not sure where any of that was going...

For those of you whose grasp of the concept has been mucked-up as result of my colorful narrative that is sure to earn me a butt-kicking from someone, I offer you another definition by Noah (And no, not the one with the ark):

“Encryption:  The process of changing (information) from one form to another especially to hide its meaning.”

Now, we all know what codes are.  Hell, I think when I was in grade school I was passing notes to girls using the nearly unbreakable code of numeral = letter, i.e.

1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D… and so on. 

You get the picture.  I certainly wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed coming up with that scheme, but it was a beginning.  It also taught me a valuable lesson.  That is, codes are meant to be broken... and usually are, almost without exception.  And I’m here to tell you that when they are broken, the fur can really fly.

As our “dark” friend E.A. Poe put it: “Human ingenuity cannot concoct a cipher which human ingenuity cannot resolve.”

I’ll buy that. 

So, in the interest of further banging one’s head against the wall when a code is broken, “one” has tended to head back to the drawing board to add a layer of complexity.  An exercise in futility, to be sure. 

Morse Code

The Original Instrument of Morse Code

All that being said, certain codes are more a part of our everyday vocabulary than we realize.  Probably the one that springs to mind first is Morse Code -- developed in the mid-1840s, by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail for their electric telegraph.   It basically amounts to short bursts of sound or light corresponding to letters, i.e. - — = A, — - - - = B, — - — - = C, etc.  And, if any of us know just the bare minimum of this code it probably is: “- - -  — — —  - - -“ which, of course, is the international call of “Mayday”, or more precisely, “SOS.”

Unfortunately, as soon as everyone else figured out this relationship of pulse to letter, it was back to the drawing board.

This constant finessing of, and fiddling with codes is really the nature of the beast, in general, and these exercises throughout time have produced some real doozies. 

Just consider these: 

The Caesar Cipher

Julius: Mixing it Up

Not so unlike my grade school code, one barely need a brainstem to break this type of cipher.  Never the less, Caesar thought it prudent to send encoded secret messages relating to his campaigns using his own flavour of encryption.   It went something like this (Actually, it went exactly like this):

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABC

And so, “SOS” using this clever deception was simply “VRV.”

Not the most ironclad approach, but considering that most citizens of the Roman Empire couldn’t read to begin with, he was looking at “best in show” for his efforts.

Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington Plot

Busy Upsetting the Applecart: Mary Stuart

Fast-forward a millennium and a half, or so, and we come up with a code scenario that had slightly more dramatic implications.  This would be Mary Stuart’s (Mary Queen of Scots) Babington Plot aimed at assassinating her good ‘ol Queen cousin, Liz.  During this whole debacle, Mary and her conspirators wrote letters to each other using a system of substituted letters and symbols in place of the real letters of the alphabet, along with a few red herrings thrown in just to confuse the b’jesus out of everyone. 

This ended up being a sort of Good News / Bad News situation… with Bad News being the operative. The Good part was that for that day and age this was a pretty clever code.  On the flipside, it turns out there was a spy in Mary’s midst with ties to the secretary who was encoding her communiqués to begin, and who also promptly delivered their deciphered versions directly to Elizabeth’s Spy Master (And a real meanie, to be sure).  So that would be Bad.  Of course, the real Bad News for Mary was yet to come and culminated with her head rolling around the scaffolds at Fortherhinghay Castle in 1587.

Whoops. 

Chalk that one up to yet another important, while entirely different type of lesson to be gleaned about the perils of code.     

The Navajo “Code Talkers”

Closing in a few more centuries finds us in the midst of World War II.  During this mess, the US military were throwing everything they could find at their Japanese counterparts in order to slip them up.  We’re talking code, snide remarks, pots, pans, toasters, water balloons, you name it… but in the end Japan cracked everything that came their way.

So, the US Military went native…. literally… but whilst still keeping their trousers on.  In short, they enlisted the help of the Navajos, whose language was, sadly, nearly extinct.  The idea was that not only were there no words in the Navajo language for military terms, the language was unwritten and less than 30 people outside of the Navajo reservations could speak it at all – and not one of them Japanese.

A solid type of code, to be sure.  And it stands as an exception to the rule.  That is, it was never cracked.  You can connect the dots in terms of how well that worked out for the United States.

The Da Vinci Code

Leonardo: The Code Meister

Finally, we can’t close on this subject without bringing our Hollywood perspective into the mix.  There are those that believe Leonardo left messages and secret symbols in his paintings.  Who knows, really?  I suppose if your model airplane glue binge lasts long enough, you can dream-up just about anything. 

Were the edges of Mona Lisa’s mouth deliberately smudged to look out of focus so that depending on which way you look at Mona Lisa, her smile changes?  "I dunno."   

Some go as far as to say the Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait of Da Vinci, himself, and obscured to hide this fact.  Still, "I dunno." 

Then there are the bits about The Last Supper, the Vitruvian Man, and on and on.  And yet again, "I dunno."

Who knows, really?  However, one thing is certain, Da Vinci wrote all his notes backwards in mirror style, which would indicate that he was no stranger to the concept of obscuring messages.

So, take THAT, neigh-sayers!  

This conversation about code could, of course, go on for days.  The Enigma Machine, that full-tilt wingnut Nostradamus, and all the crazy business being concocted today by governments present a never-ending source of fodder for the topic.  The common denominator to all of these aforementioned examples, however, is they were / are all developed with the aim of obscuring messages and excluding participation.

Bummer, unless you thrive on rejection.  

BUT, believe it or not – and after all this real estate – exclusion is not actually my central, or even peripheral point here.  Code aimed at inclusion, on the other hand, is…

Inclusion Codes

A Bog-Standard Bar Code

We’re all familiar with modern day codes of “inclusion” whether we ever really think about them or not.  The most obvious are the bar codes that we see on pop cans, groceries, stereos, and even cars.  Most of the time, the aim of these codes is not focused on bringing you into the conversation, but rather to grease your experience as a consumer.  You can scan your groceries rather than having the chimp behind the counter manually screw-up that exercise.  They facilitate inventory control that is something that saves companies and retailers tons of dough and, hence, enables you to obtain goods at a lower price.  And, information on that Fed Ex or UPS package you just received gets scanned into the system at all stages of the game, and in a heartbeat, so that you will know where your package is and when you can expect it.  And all with incredible accuracy. 

So, while the bar codes, themselves, probably don’t “speak” to you… they are playing a major role in your day-to-day life. 

The downside to bar codes is that unless you’ve mugged the Fed Ex guy you don’t have a scanner that will make heads nor tails out of ‘em.  And even if you have gone on a ground freight rampage – and I’m not recommending you do – what you will takeaway from a typical product bar code is really of no consequence to you.  This is largely because they are linear, one-dimensional codes with the capacity to hold a very limited amount of information.

Enter the new kid on the scene: QR Codes.

QR Codes

Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) and other two-dimensional codes are expected to achieve widespread use this year – and for good reason. Consumers want immediate access to what’s relevant to them and QR Codes make that possible.

First designed for use by the automobile manufacturing industry, you’ve undoubtedly seen these codes, but may have not understood their implications.

General Format of QR Codes

The code itself consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be made up of four standardized kinds ("modes") of data (numeric, alphanumeric, byte/binary, Kanji), or through supported extensions, virtually any other kind of data.

When you scan or read a QR Code you can link to digital content on the web and / or activate a number of communication functions including email, IM, or SMS whilst connecting your scanner to a web browser.

In other words, instead of excluding you from information, these codes are aimed at bringing the information you want right to you, and right now!

Before long, you’ll find QR Codes all over the place: in print ads, on billboards, on web pages, in service industry scenarios, or even on t-shirts. Just about everywhere there’s data to be disseminated, as appropriate to target audiences, they will be on the case.  And, QR Codes can deliver any of a myriad of information types.  For instance:

• Details about a given business and the ability for you to search for nearby locations
• Loyalty program interaction
• Links to trailers for those movies you’re interested in
• Coupons that can be used at local retailers
• Transportation ticketing
• Hotel guest services information including feedback cards, notices in elevators, message boards, recommendations for dining, or points of nearby interest
• Even information about that guy wearing the Grateful Dead t-shirt with a code on it (Although, that’s sort of a contradiction in terms).

Your Personal Scanning Device

A key difference between traditional bar codes and QR Codes is the amount of data they can hold or share.  Another huge difference is that you probably already have a scanning device in your pocket or on your person in the form of a smart phone or camera-enabled tablet.  All you need is a simple app to enable this function, and those can be installed in a snap.

Further, it’s a pretty good bet that this whole thing isn’t going to just grow, but rather explode, as the mobile market continues ratchet up.

It is estimated that 2011 sales of Smart Phones exceeded 450 million units while forecasters are looking to 2012 to near the 700 million mark.  Likewise, in findings from another Digitimes Research Special Report, tablet sales are expected to enjoy a 60% growth spurt and top-out at nearly 100 million units shipped in 2012!

That’s a lot of scanners. 

What does this mean to you?  First and foremost, we’re in the middle of a major shift in how and where end-users obtain their information.  And, second – and more to the point of this diatribe – it also signals a major shift in how marketeers will deliver that information. 

How Do You Get A QR Code?

Here’s the real beauty of this whole thing.  Typically anything that will have far reaching implications on any given industry ends up being synonymous with “it’s going to cost a load of dough.”  Not true in this case.  You can quickly and easily generate a QR Code, right now, for free.  There are a number of web sites that will enable you to generate a QR Code on-the-fly through an API.  Just provide your information and the system will instantly generate a QR Code image that can be pulled down and used as you see fit.  Just a few of these sites include:

• http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.mobile-barcodes.com/widget/google-gadget.xml
• http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
• http://www.qrstuff.com/
• http://delivr.com/qr-code-generaton

Following are a couple of QR Codes that I just generated for the purpose of this discussion:

A QR Code Containing My Contact Info

A QR Code Containing the Entire Block of Text Under my Photograph

QR Codes and Marketing

Pepsi's Angle.  Devoting All the Content to QR.

Beyond mere convenience to the consumer, the importance of this new technology to marketers is that it can increase sales conversion rates.  That is, increase the chance that user impressions of an ad or web site will convert to a sale via leading qualified prospects further down the conversion funnel without any delay or effort.  At that point, of course, a more targeted sales pitch may be initiated.

Today, really only early adopter consumers embrace QR Code use, but those that do will certainly appreciate the tech savvy of a company that has decided to employ it.  And for those users who haven't yet drank the Kool-Aide, a business using QR Code is likely to peak interest about the whole thing which might, by itself, open doors to conversation and potential sales. 

End-users that are engaged in QR Code use at this point will definitely have a high tech perspective and probably be far more attracted to your real estate on the web, as well as your social media presence: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, et al. 

As I type, QR Code usage in the USA is expanding.  According to studies published on Wikipedia, during the month of June 2011 14 million mobile users scanned a QR Code or a barcode.  58% of those users scanned a QR or bar code from their home, while 39% scanned from retail stores… and these numbers have been growing on a daily basis.  QR Codes are even being tested for "virtual store" formats.

And, as an added bonus to your interactive efforts, if you add QR Codes to your website, search engines will see that your pages have changed and that you are updating pages. In other words, search engines will see these new images and index them accordingly. At some point, search engines may even be able to interpret QR Codes and index their content directly.   

Practical Applications

Regardless of your business’ type or size, it can reap the benefits of QR Code use in a number of ways. For instance, each product on your web site could have an auto generated QR Code adjacent to it which might contain all the product details, a customer service or sales number to call, or a URL that can be shared with friends through their mobile device.  A no brainer is inclusion on business cards where design and real estate are very limiting factors.  Further, consider these:

All There Is To It

QR Codes could be employed on:

• Brochures and other collateral
• Company trucks 
• Product tags and packaging
• Convention and event nametags
• Restaurant menus
• Event ticket stubs
• Point-of-sale receipts

QR Codes could link to:

• Installation instructions
• Sources for replacement parts and service
• Directions to a business
• Coupons and special offers
• Complementary products and services
• mp3 downloads
• Customer feedback forms

Get the Picture?

The potential for QR Codes is limitless.  What’s most jarring is how they can take what social media is accomplishing now, which is monumental unto itself – i.e. connecting people, technology, and companies -- and cranking it up to the next level, ultimately further enhancing your target audience's experience and your sales cycle. 

The next generation of codes will most likely be able to hold even more information than current iterations – so much so that an Internet connection may not even be necessary.  At that point, content could be effectively embedded in the code.

Just use your head, and the sky is the limit!

Which brings me to my final point.  The part where early adopters rush-in without using their heads.  Let’s just call it a bit of comic relief:

QR Code Darwin Awards

Well... Maximum Exposure, But a Little Tough to Scan

Decoded, I think this says:  Your Thermonuclear Device HERE

Putting A LOT of Faith In the Medium

Okay, Scanning Once is An Adventure.  But Every Hour?!

Again, The Challenge Lies in the Scanning Part of the Equation

Okay, Climbing Off the Platform.  Careful of The Third Rail.  Whew.  Whoops.... TRAIN!

Oh, Come On...

A Fitting End

To find out what's next, follow me at http://www.twitter.com/@DeathXDrowning

Images by  WTF QR Codes

© 2012 Death by Drowning

Branding. Messing With Your Head?

Unfortunately for all you conspiracy mongers the answer is a resounding "no."  I don't buy off on that Big Brother, subliminal message business for a second.  That being said, I have yet to see whether or not my listening to the Beatles' Helter Skelter is going to evoke an uncontrollable urge to run out and get on a bad check writing jag.  I suspect, however, that if it's not happened yet, it probably won't.

A case in point.

Now, today's particular branding angle isn't going to be rocket science to any big-brained marketeers.  Far from it.  It does, on the other hand, provide a platform for the punch line I'm ultimately aimed at -- and that I think is a pretty clever snapshot of branding approaches.  And, yes, there are pictures.  So, press on…

And so, Branding 101.  What is it? 

In its simplest description, Brand is a contract or promise companies make to their target audiences. 

More to the point, a brand amounts to an image or feeling that worms its way into a company’s target audience’s heads with the ultimate aim of influencing their thoughts and / or purchasing decisions.  And – a bonus – if the host company keeps up their end of the bargain, targets will form desired opinions, and continue to apply those opinions each time they think of that company, see the company’s logo, hear of that company’s product, or any other means by which said company decides to proliferate its brand – automatic pilot style.

A perfect example of this phenomenon is Apple.  Just a few short years ago the CE industry was busy writing epitaphs and carving them into granite headstones as Apple came dangerously close to hitting the soup.  Today, under the guidance of you-know-who, some clever products, a unique look & feel, and a message that hammered the whole thing home, they are one of the biggest companies on the planet and can do no wrong in most people’s eyes. 

That being said, they will stumble.  Count on it.  But, personally, I am confident that when they hit that bump in the road they will have the contingencies in place to engage it with effective damage control, fix it, and move on.  (Fingers crossed… as this is being beamed to you now via a desktop-full of Macs).

Which brings up another important point.  Branding can seriously backfire if the promises made are empty, products are crap, or if the company assumes Dr. Jekyll's persona when they’re actually trapped in Mr. Hyde’s body.  Moral to the story… don’t go stomping through this minefield with your big feet if you’ve not seriously thought the whole exercise through. 

At its highest level, branding of a company or product can be fractured into two discrete, yet vitally related, camps:  Messaging / Intellectual and Visual / Emotional.  And, the cement that holds both together can come in any of a zillion convoluted brand lifecycles contingent on what the company’s talking about, who they’re talking to, and what they’re trying to accomplish.

The Messaging / Intellectual end of things is just what it suggests…

• Understanding your company or product
• Getting a grip on the competitive space being targeted
• Connecting the dots between the two to ensure the “play being run” is solvent
• Identifying competitive strengths and weakness for opportunities
• Developing messaging and posture that will create a defensible market position
• Ensuring the entire organization is onboard with a mandate that one drumbeat is being marched to by all, and
• Opening up a good ol’ fashioned can of whoop-ass (I know, a silly term) to bring it all home

I’m generalizing, of course.  But in a nutshell, this is the name of the game. 

The Boss

This “game” by the way is nothing new.  In fact, it predates what any of us would consider to be the genesis of modern marketing, full stop.  In short, I was fortunate enough to learn, way back when, that some of the most brilliant branding or market positioning lessons can be gleaned from Napoleonic battle strategy.  That is, until Napoleon ate shit at Waterloo.  Come to think of it, it didn’t work too well on his campaigns into Russia, either… but now I’m working against myself.  Besides, no one ever seems to learn that Russia lesson. 

To paraphrase a bit of his thought process when it came down to rambling into a confrontation (I’ll let you connect the dots in terms of how they apply to marketing)…

• DO NOT face an equally sized and equipped force head-to-head
• Identify and focus forces on a point of the opposition’s weakness
• Establish a defensible beachhead in that space
• Gain the support of the opposition’s supporters

And, as mentioned… it all worked pretty well until Waterloo.  So, I guess a 5^th point, that may have had something to do with that debacle, should be:

• Don’t declare yourself Emperor

All in all, however, pretty smart language coming from a brute-force 18^th / 19^th century marketing guy. 

But, for my purposes here, my concentration is really on the visual end of things that is undoubtedly more fun from a practitioner’s point-of-view.

And so, the Visual / Emotional thing. 

A company’s ID or logo is the graphical symbol that conveys a company’s brand name, posture, and character into the target audience’s brainpan -- hopefully evoking the emotion that ties it all together, if executed properly.  It should be painfully obvious that the visual element cannot survive and thrive without the intellectual… and visa versa.   

By far, the most effective logos are tight, simple, and unique reflections of the company in question and the message they are attempting to convey.  “Simple” is the key here, as this “mark” will live on all company collateral, business cards, letterhead, products, and whatnot.  It also goes without saying – but I shall anyway -- that the logo must resonate with target audiences.  Hence, you won’t be seeing Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD) using a cocktail glass on their collateral any time soon. 

There are a few different approaches to developing a company’s visual ID as dictated by that company’s culture, objectives, target audiences, and key markets.  (i.e. Employing something like the Harvard Business Review’s logo isn’t going to sell a lot of soda pop.  At least, not to me.)

Basic logotypes can be synthesized down to a few buckets.

• Mark, or brand-mark, is a stand alone graphic
• Letter-mark integrates an acronym or letters in a company’s name into the logo
• Word-mark is a stylistic treatment of the company’s name so both are one in the same, or
• Combo-platter (my term) is a mix of any of the above and may even introduce another “tagline” element that will help target audiences further connect the dots.  I would refer to this as the “training wheels” approach. 

But I digress. 

All that being said... a company can pretty much Go For the Gold once they’ve laid all the aforementioned strategic pipe that gets them to this, the design phase.  To be clear, many logos are just as uninspired and boring as shit… But there are those – typically with a consumer focus – that are outright clever.  Which was the point of this whole diatribe to begin with. 

Peruse the following logos, or marks, which you probably see on a daily basis -- while probably missing some of the brilliant subtleties that some poor group of punters on a month-long ether binge taxed their grey matter to manufacture…

The moving stuff from here to there, and back again, guys.  And they are MOVING as reflected by the arrow between the second "E" and "X." 

 If you don't know who these guys are, hit yourself in the noggin with a hammer.  Now do you see it?  The "T's" form two people sharing chips & salsa.

A la our man, Lance Armstrong!  You've read the book.  You've seen the movie.  Now meet the man... You can see him in the "R" in "Tour”cycling his bad-ass off.

The granddaddy of the Internet.  From its beginnings as a meager book store, to now doing it ALL through near world domination.  And they're proud of it.  Follow the arrow - from A to Z!

Who doesn't love 'em in some way, shape, or form right?  They do too.  

See the sideways KISS between the "K" and "I?"

I know these little triangular beauties well.  Apparently it's crack for Bears too.  

See one in the graphic of the Matterhorn?  

Now, here's a real economy of scale... ie eating two birds with one spoon.  

31 flavours, right?  See it embedded in the "BR?"

Northwest Airlines may have gone South, but their logo will never let on.  Assuming the circle represents a compass, which direction do you suppose the arrow in the upper left is pointing?   

Never been there myself.  But apparently gorillas and lionesses are keen.  

They're hanging out under the tree.

It's all good... and they're happy.  Hence, their smiley face integrated into the "g" of "goodwill."

I must admit... if I'm in that part of the country, I'm Cubbies all the way.  Besides, I make it a point not travel to places I can't spell.  But... well done Milwaukee Brewers by forming their ball glove with a crafty "M" and "B!"

Any questions?  

To find out what's next, follow me at http://www.twitter.com/@DeathXDrowning

© 2012 Death by Drowning