« VIPP Pro Publisher | Transpromo.com.au »
I'm continually surprised when I receive direct mail pieces, usually in letter format, set in Courier. Why choose Courier? There are a tonne of other, more attractive and legible typefaces available. Marketing organisations surely can't select Courier based on its readability; Courier is anything but readable; I'd rather read a pleasant Serif typeface any day. However, Courier correspondence continues to trickle through my letterbox each week.
I took to the Internet in a desperate search for answers and soon stumbled on the United States Postal Service Web site who appear to have the answer. Their direct mail template page actually recommends the use of Courier for direct mail:
"You might want to consider formatting the entire letter in the Courier font. It's the most commonly used and because it looks like a typewriter made it, it gives the feeling that the letter was written specifically for that consumer."
Now hang on a minute, "a typewriter made it"? Are you serious! I have two problems with this statement. Firstly, I don't know about the US, but the rest of the world stopped using typewriters soon after computers came along. No one uses a typewriter today, and certainly not for direct marketing. Secondly, are you trying to tell me that a consumer is naive/stupid enough to believe that the letter was personally typed for them on a typewriter?
One useful resource I found is thecopydoctor.com where Copywriter, Michel Fortin, recommends you select your typeface based on your target audience:
"Serif fonts are great for technophobes, who are people mostly used to direct mail, newspapers, printed matter and so on, and more so than the Internet. However, tests reveal that Arial (even Tahoma and Verdana) pulled best with computer people. If your product targets an audience that has been online for some time, or is comfortable ordering online (most Internet marketing products, digital products and software are like that), stick with Sans-Serif. In doubt? You can get away with Semi-Serif fonts, like Courier, Courier New, etc, with both 'phobes and 'philes. The reason is that this font simulates both plain text emails (online) as well as typewriter fonts (offline)."
I'm settling for these words of wisdom, however I probably wouldn't submit to Courier unless I knew that my audience were both naive and techophobic. I'm sticking with Myriad for my online audience and Minion for my offline. Yes, Adobe did this to me...
Posted on Sunday, 9 March 2008 at 9:09 PM | TrackBack: http://www.veedeepee.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/97
I receive almost no direct mail pieces typeset in the courier. Perhaps situation in the Netherlands is better. But I'm gonna watch it more closely from now on.
Posted by Jan Nijkamp on Monday, 10 March 2008 at 1:30 AM
Times New Roman seemed to be the major selection in my arena - Direct Mail for Insurance... but I am seeing more and more of Myriad and Minion. Courier is ONLY used when I make a mistake and forget to embed the font!
Posted by Rob on Tuesday, 11 March 2008 at 11:22 PM
I have to admit I am an Arial junkie. I like it for the very clean look to it. It comes off as unpretentious. Guess they have me pegged as a geek.
Posted by Ryan Buy on Saturday, 15 March 2008 at 5:32 PM
An "Arial junkie"? I'd like to find out how much of an Arial man you really are. Can you tell the difference between the original Helvetica and Microsoft's rip-off typeface, Arial? Take the test at www.iliveonyourvisits.com/helvetica and let me know how you get on... :-)
Posted by Eliot Harper on Saturday, 15 March 2008 at 6:23 PM