It is simply a source of information.  Your information.  Everything you see here, all of these advertisements were designed for you.  Not by me, but by marketing programmers.  All I did was drag a blank box and the result is your personality shining right back at you.  

Let me explain: Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

You think they don't see you?  These ads are the result of your internet surfing habits; whether you realize it or not.

One day, probably today, you are simply a consumer, a number, and a warm body to buy stuff from them.  All they want is you… to buy stuff.    


Remember the film "Gattaga"?

The synopsis goes, "A genetically inferior man assumes the identity of a superior one in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel".

DNA selection was pre-determined at birth; you were either going to be a janitor, or an astronaut; decided by the genes in your DNA strand.  We're not so far off... at least in advertising.

One day soon, you will be walking behind a fellow passenger; possibly in an airport terminal, a railway terminal, a bus stop, the local mall or convenience store.  What you see as an advertisement will be specifically placed for you.  The person ten feet in front of you may have seen a different advertising board, specifically designed for him; while you see an ad that pertains to your interests.

Exposure is a marketing companies best friend.  If they can get the man in front of you to watch an ad specifically designed for him, then three seconds later, flash an ad specifically designed for you, advertising company, or marketer has utilized the space available in the most efficient and economical way possible.

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches.

Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacing’s of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or one-dimensional. Later they evolved into rectangles, dots, hexagons and other geometric patterns in two dimensions. Although 2D systems use a variety of symbols, they are generally referred to as barcodes as well. Barcodes originally were scanned by special optical scanners called barcode readers; later, scanners and interpretive software became available on devices including desktop printers and smartphones.

The first use of barcodes was to label railroad cars, but they were not commercially successful until they were used to automate supermarket checkout systems, a task for which they have become almost universal. Their use has spread to many other tasks that are generically referred to as automatic identification and data capture (AIDC).

The very first scanning of the now ubiquitous Universal Product Code (UPC) barcode was on a pack of Wrigley Company chewing gum in June 1974.

Other systems have made inroads in the AIDC market, but the simplicity, universality and low cost of barcodes has limited the role of these other systems until the first decade of the 21st century, over 40 years after the introduction of the commercial barcode, with the introduction of technologies such as radio frequency identification, or RFID

QR Code:  A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to traditional UPC barcodes. The code 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 by supported extensions virtually any kind of data.

Created by Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994 to track vehicles during the manufacturing process, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. It was designed to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

Although initially used to track parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR codes are now (as of 2012) used over a much wider range of applications, including commercial tracking, entertainment and transport ticketing, product/loyalty marketing (examples: mobile couponing where a company's discounted and percent discount can be captured using a QR code decoder which is a mobile app, or storing a company's information such as address and related information alongside its alpha-numeric text data as can be seen in Yellow Pages directory), band in-store product labeling.

It can also be used in storing personal information for use by government. An example of this is Philippines National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) where NBI clearances now come with a QR code) data. Many of these applications target mobile-phone users (via mobile tagging). Users may receive text, add a vCard contact to their device, open a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or compose an e-mail or text message after scanning QR codes. They can generate and print their own QR codes for others to scan and use by visiting one of several pay or free QR code-generating sites or apps. Google has a popular API to generate QR codes, and apps for scanning QR codes can be found on nearly all smartphone devices.
QR codes storing addresses and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) may appear in magazines, on signs, on buses, on business cards, or on almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone's browser. 

This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hardlinking or object hyperlinking. QR Codes may also be linked to a location to track where a code has been scanned. Either the application that scans the QR Code retrieves the geo information by using GPS and cell tower triangulation (aGPS) or the URL encoded in the QR Code itself is associated with a location.

QR code has been used and printed on Chinese train tickets since late 2009.
QR codes can be used in Google's mobile Android operating system via both their own Google Goggles application or 3rd party barcode scanners like Scan. The browser supports URI redirection, which allows QR codes to send metadata to existing applications on the device. Nokia's Symbian operating system features a barcode scanner which can read QR codes, while mbarcode is a QR code reader for the Maemo operating system. In the Apple iOS, a QR code reader is not natively included but more than fifty paid and free apps are available with both scanning capabilities and hard-linking to URI. With BlackBerry devices, the App World application can natively scan QR codes and load any recognized Web URLs on the device's Web browser. Windows Phone 7.5 is able to scan QR codes through the Bing search app.

In the USA, QR code usage is expanding. During the month of June 2011, according to one study, 14 million mobile users scanned a QR code or a barcode. Some 58% of those users scanned a QR or bar code from their home, while 39% scanned from retail stores; 53% of the 14 million users were men between the ages of 18 and 34.
QR codes are also being tested for "virtual store" formats, particularly in South Korea and Argentina.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is the use of a wireless non-contact radio system to transfer data from a tag attached to an object, for the purposes of automatic identification and tracking. Some tags require no battery and are powered by the radio waves used to read them. Others use a local power source. The tag contains electronically stored information which can be read from up to several metres (yards) away. Unlike a bar code, the tag does not need to be within line of sight of the reader and may be embedded in the tracked object.

RF ID tags are used in many industries. An RFID attached to an automobile during production can be used to track its progress through the assembly line. Pharmaceuticals can be tracked through warehouses. Livestock and pets may have tags injected, allowing positive identification of the animal. RFID identity cards can give employees access to locked areas of a building, and RF transponders mounted in automobiles can be used to bill motorists for access to toll roads or parking.

Since RFID tags can be attached to clothing, possessions, or even implanted within people, the possibility of reading personally-linked information without consent has raised privacy concerns.