MacDonalds is taking advantage of the ubiquity of cell phones in Japan to introduce QR codes on its sandwich wrappers. The codes, commonly used to code business cards for scanning by cell phones, will contain nutritional information for each of 19 sandwiches. They’ve also created cell phone friendly URLs for those with out cameras in their phones.
I think MacDonalds’ is smart to get out ahead of the curve on the nutritional issue. At a time when obesity is creeping around the globe and local government in the US are banning transfats, it makes sense to be prepared to embrace new trends. Placement of nutritional information on wrappers and websites makes it easy to change ingredients in response to local trends without incurring huge printing expenses. Not to mention the opportunities to build their brand through online and wireless channels. I’m lovin it!