The findings are particularly relevant as Indonesia’s culinary sector continues to expand rapidly. Millions of food and beverage businesses now compete for consumer attention not only through storefronts and packaging but also through Instagram posts, TikTok videos, food delivery platforms, WhatsApp catalogs, and online marketplaces. In these crowded digital environments, consumers often spend only a few seconds viewing promotional content before deciding whether to continue scrolling or remember a brand.
According to the study, typography should no longer be viewed merely as a decorative design element. Instead, it functions as a strategic visual asset capable of communicating a brand’s personality, increasing distinctiveness, and making the brand easier to remember. While many MSMEs rely on generic fonts available in design templates, these fonts often make businesses appear similar to countless competitors. A custom-designed typeface, on the other hand, helps create a unique visual identity that consumers can recognize more easily across multiple digital platforms.
Indonesia's Digital Culinary Market Creates New Branding Challenges
The research highlights the enormous scale of Indonesia’s culinary economy. Data cited in the study show that, by the end of 2024, Indonesia had approximately 30.18 million registered MSMEs, excluding agriculture and fisheries, including more than 6.4 million businesses operating in accommodation, food, and beverage services. Government statistics also indicate that the food and beverage service sector employed 9.8 million workers and generated nearly IDR 998.37 trillion in sales during 2023.
At the same time, Indonesia's digital landscape continues to grow. The study notes that the country had approximately 230 million internet users and 180 million social media user identities by the end of 2025. This widespread digital adoption means culinary brands must compete within fast-moving social media feeds where visual identity plays a critical role in attracting and retaining consumer attention.
Comparing Custom and Generic Typography
To examine typography's influence on consumer memory, the researcher designed an illustrative online experiment involving 120 respondents. Participants were randomly divided into two equal groups. One group viewed a social media advertisement for a culinary MSME featuring custom typography, while the other viewed the same advertisement using generic template typography. Apart from the typography, every other visual element—including food images, layout, promotional offer, and caption—remained identical to isolate the effect of typography alone.
Participants were then asked to complete several memory and evaluation tasks measuring:
- Brand recall score.
- Unaided brand recall.
- Aided brand recognition.
- Perceived brand distinctiveness.
- Attention level.
- Purchase intention.
Custom Typography Delivers Stronger Brand Memory
The results demonstrate a clear advantage for custom typography.
Consumers exposed to custom typography achieved an average brand recall score of 7.40, compared with 5.84 among those who viewed advertisements using generic typography. Statistical testing showed this difference was highly significant.
Even more striking was the improvement in unaided brand recall, which measures whether consumers can remember a brand name without any prompts. Only 11.7% of respondents remembered brands presented with generic typography, while 46.7% successfully recalled brands displayed using custom typography.
The study also found improvements in several additional indicators:
- Higher perceived brand distinctiveness.
- Better aided brand recognition.
- Greater purchase intention.
- Higher attention scores toward advertisements.
Regression analysis further showed that custom typography remained a significant predictor of brand recall even after controlling for consumer attention and primary social media platform usage. This suggests typography contributes to memory not simply by attracting attention but by creating a distinctive visual identity that consumers can recognize more easily over time.
Consistency Matters More Than Complexity
One of the study's important conclusions is that effective typography does not need to be highly decorative or difficult to create.
According to Rima Risnowati of Bina Insani University, successful custom typography should remain legible, scalable, consistent, and appropriate for the product category. Overly ornamental lettering may attract attention initially but can reduce readability, especially on smartphone screens where most consumers encounter digital advertisements.
Instead, businesses should develop a distinctive typographic style that can be consistently applied across logos, menus, social media posts, packaging, delivery labels, promotional banners, and short-form videos. Repeated exposure to the same visual style helps strengthen memory associations and enables consumers to recognize the brand even before reading its name.
Practical Benefits for Culinary MSMEs
The research suggests that investing in custom typography can provide long-term value for small businesses with limited marketing budgets.
Unlike continuous paid advertising campaigns, a well-designed typographic system can be reused across multiple marketing materials for years, creating a consistent visual identity at relatively low cost. This makes typography an affordable branding investment for MSMEs seeking stronger recognition without constantly redesigning promotional content.
The findings also contribute to academic understanding by linking graphic design, consumer psychology, and digital marketing. Future research is expected to involve real MSME brands, larger respondent samples, and longer observation periods to examine whether stronger brand recall ultimately translates into increased purchasing behavior.
Author Profile
Rima Risnowati is a researcher and lecturer at Bina Insani University, Indonesia. Her research interests include digital marketing, branding, visual communication, typography, consumer behavior, and MSME development, with a particular focus on helping small businesses strengthen their competitiveness through strategic visual identity.
Research Source
Article Title: Effectiveness of Custom Typography on Brand Recall among Culinary MSMEs in the Era of Digital Marketing
Author: Rima Risnowati
Affiliation: Bina Insani University
Journal: International Journal of Applied and Scientific Research (IJASR), Vol. 4 No. 6 (2026), pp. 303–312
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