As people become more dependent on their smartphones, the opportunities to benefit from QR codes continue to grow for marketing departments.

Mobile messaging seems to be a very obvious choice for commerce. The relevance of the device and the likelihood of response cannot be ignored, the possibilities become nearly endless.

A shopper using a mobile device to help make in-store purchase decisions is no longer an emerging behavior. It is established behavior.

A modern-day grocery or pharmacy is not a friendly zone for the brand. Gone are the halcyon days of “Leave-it-to-Beaver” when brands worked hand-in-hand with the local store owner to sell stuff. Now many retail chains compete on the shelf with competitive generic brands.

For some time, the mobile industry has been waiting for an explosion in mobile commerce, with the vision of a Utopian era when everyone makes purchases, processes payment and generally conducts all day-to-day business transactions entirely within the mobile space.

Retailers have begun to launch mobile applications, but there are many brands which have not done anything yet, so there is still time to get products up to snuff, or improve what they already have.

Proliferating smartphones, better data plans and a consumer willing to engage on mobile for searching, shopping, buying or going to retail means one thing: retailers have no time to lose.

Charging for mobile application downloads is not the answer to declining ad revenues. The answer lies elsewhere.

If you are considering adding a mobile bar code to your brand marketing efforts, there are two key variables to consider when choosing a solution.

Instead of focusing on consumers and how they are leveraging mobile in their stores, retail CMOs are investigating widgets and applications that have little to no reach or frequency in their consumer base.