From switching a font to involuntary free marketing

They said it’s for the better. Switching from Futura to Verdana, the marketing guys from IKEA had in mind one simple idea: making their catalog readable everywhere, especially in countries like China or Japan. But then again, it wasn’t that brilliant. Hundreds of designers almost killed the IKEA’s marketing team. Still, though the company had negative feedback from designers, it had a lot of media exposure, including The New York Times, Time, etc. Is that good or bad? I think it’s free PR

Though IKEA never really needed a burst of popularity, at least not in Europe, they just got it. Involuntary, because I don’t really think someone actually thought about such a simple idea to bring so much media coverage. Basically, because they didn’t need it. IKEA’s marketing is all about catalogs delivered to your door. You take it, you check it, you like it, you go buy. And you keep the catalog for the rest of the year. We still have catalogs from three years ago, for example, and that’s because some of the furniture goes away in the new “book”.

Recently, I noticed that IKEA goes as well for unconventional OOH. In Bucharest, they arranged the furniture in the street or in bus stations. Pretty cool. But from direct marketing and OOH to online viral marketing, that’s a lot to go. So I believe what IKEA’s marketing people say it’s true. Some guy thought it would be nice to have a web font. It’s all about usability, right? Taking the new and inserting it into the old. Some sort of adapting to the new age, but in the old mediums. And, of course, Verdana is cheaper.

Well, the reactions were unexpected:

We’re surprised, but I think it’s mainly experts who have expressed their views, people who are interested in fonts. I don’t think the broad public is that interested.
IKEA spokeswoman, Camilla Meiby, to AP reporter.

What’s with all that fuss about Verdana?

There’s actually a petition asking IKEA to return to Futura. But it’s not about the fonts as much it’s about the reactions. A few days ago, I found the new catalog at my door. I took a short look and it’s actually good, despite the fact Futura was left behind. And I work as a designer on various projects. I don’t know if the new catalog looks worse than the previous one, but it sure doesn’t look better. It’s quite the same. And it’s not about the fonts as much as it’s about the products.

The guys that worked on the new version of IKEA’s catalog are actually good. In normal circumstances, Verdana looks really bad on print. The letter spacing is absolutely ugly when it comes to headings. So the designers took a really pretty approach and used Verdana italic. Which gives a whole new look to the layout. Verdana isn’t such a bad choice after all. I know, it would’ve been way cooler to just keep the old Futura, but it’s actually not that bad.

And the free PR

Being their marketing tool of choice, the IKEA catalog is one of the best examples of simple marketing when it comes to lovemarks. The catalog is that something that you actually wait for. It’s the spam you actually enjoy. You’d probably throw out all Carrefour catalogs, but you won’t get rid of IKEA’s. That’s why I can understand the designers, this product is an icon, right?

But changing the font created such a big buzz, that IKEA would be stupid not to use it next year just as well. No, they shouldn’t change the font again, this time to Arial. They should switch back to Futura and get new media coverage.

I quite enjoy this examples of free marketing, voluntary or not. These are great ideas that can improve your marketing strategies. Though designers took it to a revolution, the common people won’t bother looking at fonts as long as they’re readable. Still, that doesn’t mean everyone should switch to Verdana just because IKEA got into the news.