For this blog post, I wanted to explore how typefaces impact marketing decisions, and stumbled across this article about “neuromarketing” (also known as “sensory marketing”) on candy labels. The article begins with an observation: notice how “Airheads thick, round, and bubbly typeface, resembles the writing on a kid’s graphic novel”, communication an expectation of a sweet flavor to consumers.
Here are some of my other favorite fascinating quotes from the article:
Seemingly inconsequential features of packaging, like color, typeface, and label material, can deeply influence what we taste.
[A professor of marketing at the BI Norwegian Business School] discovered that angular, asymmetrical fonts make us perceive foods as sour, while we tie round, symmetrical writing to sweetness.
People also taste rounded shapes as sweeter, which is why, when Cadbury started rounding the corner of its chocolate bars in 2013, some customers complained that the new chocolate bars now tasted “sickly” sweet—even though the actual ingredients hadn’t changed.
“Simple designs and typefaces suggest transparency.” A thin font, we assume, has nothing to hide.
Full article here: https://thecounter.org/subliminal-messaging-halloween-candy-label-typeface-marketing-airheads/
DSGN 264-401 | Fall 2020 