Polo Ralph Lauren Launching Mobile Shopping Site
Polo Ralph Lauren, the fashion purveyor of all things preppy, will be the first among luxury retailers to launch a mobile e-commerce site. Advertising SVP David Lauren and son of Ralph told Reuters that it was “important” for Polo as a fashion company to “get ahead” of the trends, with this one coming from Asia to the U.S. Lauren struck a curiously nonchalant tone about what the move was supposed to accomplish and who it was aimed at: “This is about someone who’s interested in our brand and interested in technology, and wherever the two meet, that’s what’s appropriate.”
Perhaps the more interesting experiment is Polo’s use of mobile codes, which will be used to drive customers to Ralph Lauren’s mobile web site. The company is putting the 2D barcodes in print ads, mailings, and store windows along with its sponsorship of the forthcoming US Open tennis tournament. The downside is that consumers will have to download software to scan the codes on their camera phones (though Lauren said mobiles with pre-installed bar code readers should hit the market within a year). But once they do this, they will be able to scan the codes, which will then take them to Ralph Lauren’s web site, where they can buy clothes, watch U.S. Open videos and read other content. No word on how much this experiment is costing them. More on Ralph Lauren’s barcode efforts at their site.
Posted In: Advertising, Companies, ralph lauren
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Comments (6)
Aug 14, 2008 11:26 AM
Ralph Lauren’s mobile marketing campaign will be more effective when the mobiles with pre-installed bar code readers is already in the market. Given that, this is one innovative and bold move, making the brand ahead among its competitors.
Aug 14, 2008 1:04 PM
Hmmm, first year’s sales projections….somewhere around $0.
Aug 14, 2008 4:46 PM
Download the NeoReader for your iPhone and start interacting with Ralph Lauren QR codes
Aug 14, 2008 7:11 PM
This is so lame. How many polo shirts are sold ONLINE these days?
Aug 15, 2008 10:35 AM
I saw one of these ads on the back of the latest issue of NY Magazine. I already had the ScanLife 2D bar code scanning app installed on my BlackBerry Curve so I whipped it out to try using it for the first time ... and nothing happened. So I went to the Ralph Lauren mobile website listed in the ad and found out I needed to download ANOTHER bar code scanning app (BeeTagg) to scan this code. Surprised they didn’t use the ScanLife platform but the worst part is that there are competing technologies here.
Aug 16, 2008 3:01 AM
I had my friend download the ScanLife application to his iPhone so I could give it a test drive.
For starters, the application can only read and decipher proprietary EZcodes. Unfortunately the ScanLife application offers no support for 1D UPC/EAN barcodes, or Data Matrix, Aztec, or QR codes. This is the major downfall of the application, since it only supports one proprietary 2D symbology. As a result, ScanLife is not a true universal code reader.
For those wanting a much more intuitive mobile code reading experience, I highly recommend the NeoReader application from NeoMedia Technologies. The NeoReader is able to read and decipher all common non-proprietary 2D codes (Data Matrix, QR, Aztec) as well as URL embedded 2D codes and all 1D UPC/EAN/Code 128 open source codes. The NeoReader supports direct and indirect code linking, which guarantees maximum interoperability with already existing platforms like 2D Data Matrix Semacodes, and Japanese QR links. This allows the user to click on a variety of barcodes with a single application installed on their mobile device.
Download the NeoReader and instantly transform your iPhone into a universal code reader.