Abstract:

The visual design of texts and wordmarks plays an important part in marketing communication. It directly affects consumers' first impression of the brand. The importance of text is not only reflected in the readability of the content, but also in consumers’ perception and response. Despite the importance of typefaces, surprisingly little research is done on this topic. Existing literature is largely scattered in different fields such as linguistics, design and psychology. There exists conflicting conclusions which lack the support of integrated framework. The current review thus attempts to fill in this gap by providing a systematic framework of the typeface effect. In the first part of this paper, the literature regarding the categorization and definition of typefaces were collected. In the second part, the influence of typefaces on consumer perception and behavior, as well as the three major psychological mechanisms of the typeface effect, namely, appropriateness, perceptual memory and perception of human presence was emphasized in the paper. In addition, the problem of how typefaces are regulated by consumer characteristics, product types, and external environment were discussed by us. Last but not least, the insight into the theoretical and managerial value of typefaces in marketing, and also the potential topics for future studies were provided at the end of the paper.

Key words: typeface, typeface style, consumer perception, consumer behavior