One of the things I think about often is which marketing services make sense. For companies in the Graphic Arts, we typically think first about offset printing and direct mail and second about digital and variable data printing. Recently a whole new group of options have emerged that can be combined with variable data printing but are falling under many peoples radar screens. This includes email marketing, SMS (texts), Purls, social media marketing and the latest one, which is known as QR or Quick response codes. Why are these new technologies not being used or sold more? That’s a good question that I am not sure anyone can answer, but here are some ideas. QR or Quick response codes are two dimensional bar codes that can make print more interactive when used with mobile devices such as smart phones. When captured with a smart phone camera, in a Blackberry or an iPhone equipped with a QR code reader, it can trigger an event. You can shoot a QR code on a poster and it can show you a map and give directions to the nearest store. They are the newest addition in our toolkits, the least well known and are the hardest to discuss successful case histories and vertical markets that have embraced them. While fun for most young people, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are considered too time consuming and not very effective for B-B business. Sending junk text messages really irritates me because I assume all text messages come from my son. It is the single most effective way I communicate with him. And while many people complain about the difficulty in selling Purls, email marketing is considered a commodity. Those are my ideas. What do you think? Howard Fenton is a Senior Technology Consultant at NAPL. Howie advises commercial printers, in-plants, and manufacturers on workflow management, operations, digital services, and customer research.