SOG Specialty Knives and Tools has just released their 2011 product catalog. It’s a very nice piece with 60 pages of full-color product pictures and specifications. Having thumbed through it I think the Arcitech (A01 -p) model with the jigged bone handle and Arc-Lock suits me best. At almost $500 it’s a bit on the pricey side, though worth every penny, I’m sure.

The interesting thing is what they put on the back cover of the catalog. Along the bottom is a one-inch high space that includes a standard barcode on the right, a badge from the American Knife and Tool Institute (who knew such a thing existed?) on the far left and in the center is a QR code. Under the QR code is some instructions to, “Scan the QR Code to find out more about SOG Knives & Tools.” Hmm. OK. Not really sure what else they could tell me that isn’t in this gorgeous catalog already but I’ll give it a go.

Back Cover

Whoops! My NeoReader app doesn’t recognize the code. I try Google Goggles but it only recognizes the text, not the QR code.

Sigh, another QR code fail.

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What could have saved this campaign?

The problems here are many but the primary issue is that the QR Code has been cropped by the designer or layout person. It needs to have a white border of at least a few pixels. The border was there when the code was created but was cropped out when placed onto the catalog. Of course, some basic testing prior to print would have caught this.

I guess the good news is that the placement of the code makes it appear to be something required by the postal service. No one will scan it.

We can only presume that the code is pointed to http://www.sogknives.com. Had the scan been successful we’d have had a different kind of fail; their web site is – as you might guess – rich with images and flat-out not fit for viewing from a mobile device.