the marketing in fonts
March 10th, 2011 • Uncategorized
Everyone can probably name what they think makes an advertisement attractive and persuasive: colors, engaging writing, interesting imagery. However, one aspect of successful advertisements that is often overlooked is the font used in communicating a marketing message. Like colors, the type of font chosen can have different meanings and evoke different emotions; surely, marketers have taken consideration of this when creating ads or corporate logos.
Adnan’s article “The Swiss Inspiration. Helvetica.”, from his blog Plain. Simple. Marketing, discusses how the creation of the sans serif font Helvetica has generated a revolution in the way that people think about and use fonts. Since it’s creation, a multitude of governmental bodies and corporations uphold its bold, clean and crisp letters in their road signs, public notices and logos. Today, it has become the most widely used typeface. In his article, Adnan mentions that designers feel that Helvetica is an “icy glass of distilled water offered to a nomad stranded in the hot dusty desert”. The authoritative look of the font gives words power and meaning and by creating logos and advertising messages using Helvetica, companies can evoke these feelings about their brands.
Company logos designed using Helvetica
Adnan’s interesting discussion about the Helvetica font has brought to my attention how important the decision of choosing the right fonts to use is for marketers. If the inappropriate font is chosen and the wrong emotions about the brand is conveyed to customers, companies may suffer negative consequences; these could include decrease in sales, and a negative brand reputation. Therefore, in order to ensure that the right feelings are attached by consumers to their brands, companies must be careful to choose fonts that help them elicit these feelings in their advertising and logos.