Abstract:
Product brands are facing the increasing challenge of differentiating themselves from the competition through authentic and inspiring advertisements. Therefore, the choice of the right typeface as a design element for advertisement texts may play a crucialrole in consumer behavior. Although researchers agree that typefaces generally affect people's perception, existing research in this specific field is still limited. Based on a survey among German consumers, this study investigates whether two different fonts of an advertisement text (machine-written typeface vs. hand-written typeface) will have an impact on relevant consuming aspects, like advertisement (ad) perception, brand attitude, purchase intention and willingness to pay. The results indicate a stronger effect on these aspects for a hand-written advertisement text compared to the machine-written version. According to that, implications for marketing professionals are derived from the results. The study contributes to existing advertising research and shows the power of typefaces as often underestimated success features of advertisements.