Dynamic Right-Slanted Fonts Increase the Effectiveness of Promotional Retail Advertising

James A. Mead, Rob Richerson and Wenjing Li

Journal of Retailing, 2020, vol. 96, issue 2, 282-296

Abstract: Retailers seek effective ways to communicate promotions to increase store traffic and drive purchases. We propose that right-slanted fonts which imply forward movement in their design may influence how consumers perceive and respond to advertised promotional events. Five controlled experiments demonstrate that promotions advertised with right-slanted fonts can increase consumers’ retailer visit and purchase intentions. A field experiment demonstrates that right-slanted fonts can increase consumers’ click through rate in email promotions. Right-slanted fonts are found to evoke dynamic mental imagery of the promotion moving forward in time and ending soon. Right-slanted fonts are shown to disproportionally influence the behavioral intentions of deal prone consumers who are more likely to experience anticipated inaction regret related to missing an advertised promotional offer. Relatedly, right-slanted fonts only appear to influence consumer behavioral intentions in the context of advertisements containing a promotional offer.

Keywords: Advertising; Promotions; Font styles; Dynamic imagery; Anticipated inaction regret; Deal proneness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jouret:v:96:y:2020:i:2:p:282-296

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2019.10.002

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