Pepperoni – Topographic

MP Pepperoni: Your brand's favorite new topping.

MP Pepperoni is a super thick geometric display font that’s perfect for making a bold statement. It was designed specifically for graphic designers and content creators looking to elevate their client's brand presence on promotional materials and packaging design. To stand out from the crowded font marketplace, it has abnormally wide glyphs that contrast with tight negative contours. But designing a unique font for the ideal customer was just half the battle. We also needed a compelling marketing strategy.

With a name like Pepperoni, the perfect time to introduce its quirky characters — and cheeky brand personality — was during the product launch. The marketing plan includes fun examples of Pepperoni in action, and openly talks about its source of inspiration: Pizza. Clean mockups provide inspiration for use case scenarios like price points and label design. At every consumer touchpoint, the objective of the marketing launch plan is to pique the interest of our target audience, and get them to considering buying a new font. Last, we packaged everything up and built a standalone e-commerce page that compels shoppers to make a purchase for only 5 bucks. Want to learn about our process and the results? Keep reading...

DELIVERABLES

• Display Font
• Numbers and Punctuation
• Sales Page
• Marketing Launch Plan
• Digital Product Proposal

SERVICES

• Typeface Design
• Social Media Marketing
• Media Planning
• Product Launch Strategy

TOOLS + TIMELINE

• Adobe Illustrator
• Fontself Maker
• Buy Me A Coffee
• 7 Weeks

The complete set of characters of MP Pepperoni includes 26 uppercase letters, 10 numbers, and 30 punctuation marks

The Opportunity.

In the Creator Economy, an inherent need in the marketplace exists for digital products aimed at content creators, freelance designers, and small business owners. Of course, the final product has to be useful to the intended audience, and the quality needs to be as good or better than that of the competition. Of all the possibilities, fonts remain a cornerstone of digital design. But, our initial research revealed that the trend is shifting towards display fonts with personality. Quirky sans serifs, hand-drawn scripts, and modular typefaces that stand out are selling. Enter: MP Pepperoni.

The Audience.

The target audience for Pepperoni consists of graphic designers, content creators, and small business owners that want a fresh typeface for their creative projects. We call our ideal persona Jessica. This is somebody that values unique, high-quality design assets, and wants to elevate her client’s brand appeal. Jessica is budget-conscience, so price plays an important role in our marketing plan — it's only $5. Last, with thousands of fonts available, finding the perfect one can be time-consuming. Our plan focuses on the channels we can most likely reach her.

The Strategy.

To highlight the font's flexibility, we developed some fun usage scenarios based on the traditional four “P’s” of marketing: 1. Promotion, 2. Packaging, 3. Price Points, and 4. Pizza. Fittingly, the font’s tagline reads, “Your brand’s favorite new topping.” Our marketing and communications strategy is to showcase how Pepperoni can be leveraged for these various design activities. From a tactical standpoint, the marketing launch focuses on email, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Download Marketing Plan

Sales Page: Buy Me a Coffee

Buy Me a Coffee is a platform that allows digital creators and entrepreneurs to receive support from fans through small donations. It’s a super simple way to monetize content, share product updates, and build a community without relying on ads. Pepperoni's sales page includes a short description, a few key visuals with use case scenarios, and a strong CTA. Along with the .otf file that contains all of the characters and punctuation, a friendly “Thank You” note is included in the download. This serves as the “Read First” document for users that don’t know how to install fonts. It also includes the End User License Agreement, or EULA.

The sales page on Buy Me a Coffee highlights the price point for budget-conscious freelance designers.

Visit Sales Page

Key visuals showcase the font in various use case scenarios.

Marketing Launch Plan

Designers don’t just buy fonts, they buy creative possibilities. They want to imagine how fonts will elevate their next project, impress their client, or make their work stand out. In other words, Pepperoni is a starting point. Which is why the marketing plan focuses on creative use case scenarios. We emailed 400 of our current clients, and posted packaging mockups on LinkedIn and Instagram to inspire other designers. Seeing Pepperoni on a pizza box or a bottle of beer hopefully helps content creators to visualize its creative potential.

Email

Subject: Introducing Pepperoni: Our First Font
Intro Copy: Pepperoni is a perfectly round geometric display font that’s unapologetically bold. It's our ode to Connecticut's love of Pizza. We designed it specifically for packaging design, promotional communications, price points, and popping out. And, since Pepperoni is our first font, we're giving all our friends the first taste. For a short time, download it for only $5 on Buy Me a Coffee.

View Full Email

Instagram

Post Copy: We designed a font! Pepperoni is a super thick display font that’s perfect for package design, promotional materials, price points, and pizza. It contains all 26 uppercase letters, numbers, and most of the punctuation needed for popping out. Download it today on Buy Me a Coffee for only $5, and let us know what you think! See link in bio.

#typeface #font #fontdesign #typefacedesign

LinkedIn Carousel

Post Copy: Check out our first font! Pepperoni is a super thick display font designed for the four Ps of successful marketing: 1. Pricing, 2. Promotion, 3. Packaging, and 4. Pizza. It contains all 26 uppercase letters, numbers, and most of the punctuation needed for popping out. Download it on Buy Me a Coffee for just 5 bucks, and let us know what you think.

#type #typography #typeface #font #fontdesign

Initial Results

Initital results are positive, which is probably due, in part, to the pricing strategy. The font market is saturated, and prices can range from free to $100+. $5 felt right for our first font. It’s low enough to remove any financial barrier, but high enough to signal value. It’s also a great way to test demand without overthinking revenue.

Plus, $5 feels honest, approachable, and easy to justify. It’s the price of a slice of pizza. We can use the results from our first font to learn about what resonates. Most importantly, the design experience enables us to create a more robust font in the future — possibly with lower case letters!

16

Downloads on Buy Me a Coffee

45%

Open rate of launch email

60

Likes in Instagram

53

Engagements on LinkedIn

My friend & his team created a font! PEPPERONI!! Heck yeah! I'm in for the name alone haha. Designer friends, download now and support!! 🤙

LinkedIn Repost by Paola Benedetto

Market Research.

Before landing on a display typeface, several digitl product categories were researched. We discovered that the digital product landscape is thriving in categories that cater to those working in the creator economy. Freelance copywriters, illustrators, and small design studios are the primary targets for creative assets and productivity-focused products. In these areas, we explored products like: Procreate brushes, presentation templates, custom fonts, creative textures, and brand toolkits. The key takeaway was creators want assets that elevate their communications without requiring hours of customization.

Platform Research.

One of the initial observation iwas that each product category tended to have its own ecosystem and audience. The preferred platforms for high quality assets tend to be WooCommerce and Shopify. Etsy, Buy Me a Coffee, Creative Market, and Gumroad seemed to offer more accessible and homemade assets, however, the more we looked into reach platform, the more quality products began to reveal themselves. A recurring theme across all platforms is the demand for high-quality, time-saving tools that feel branded.

Download Research

Why a Typeface?

In the intial product pitch video, I presented three digital product ideas. See that below. Ultimately, I realized that branding is my passion, and type plays an outsized role in it. I couldn’t help but think that designers are always on the lookout for fresh fonts that make their work stand out. This insight presented an opportunity to create something beautiful, useful, and scalable. A new display font married my personal interests with good business sense, and allowed me to create something unique for other designers. Read more on the blog.

Product Development Journals

Every step of learning to create a new font was carefully documented in a series of Product Development Journal entries. In these, you'll also get a glimpse into the decision-making process of selected and creating an online sales page. For a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process, please take a look at the documents below.

Last, if you have a branding or typeface project in mind, please don't hesitate to reach out. We'd love the opportunity to get to create your next custom font!

Journal #1