Font Types and Buying

The type font used by marketers to convey a price promotion affects our perception of the product and purchase behavior.

It is widely accepted that non-serif fonts, such as Helvetica or Arial, are easy to process and should create a positive effect that consumers generally mis-attribute to the quality of the related product. As a result, many companies including Target, Mattel, Staples, and The North Face use Helvetica in their brand logos. Helvetica was also used in the posters for the television show Mad Men. From this, some could assume that when fonts are easier to read, they are more liked by consumers, who would increase purchases.

However, in a new paper, coming in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, a team of researchers took a closer look at how consumers' buying decisions are influenced by fonts. They argue that when product and price information appears in difficult to read fonts, customers take more time to read and process the information, which should induce greater recall of that information and may lead to a perception that the product in question is a better value for their money. "Simply stated, we suggest that marketers might think that simplifying a consumer promotion might help increase sale. However we show that, in fact, a harder-to-read font makes them more likely to purchase a product, hence the paradox."

The researchers found that if a marketer wants consumers to notice the value communicated by a lower price, a difficult to read font might be beneficial and more effective. Even though consumers say they do not prefer difficult to read fonts or advertisements, the research shows they are actually more likely to purchase the related promoted offers.

Bottom line, when offers are monetarily similar, consumers prefer fluent fonts. However, even though consumers find prices in fluent fonts easier to grasp, prices promoted in harder-to-read fonts increase sales.