PACKAGING DESIGN ELEMENTS ON A VIRTUAL STORE THAT AFFECTS GENERATION-Y PURCHASING DECISIONS

Abstract

          The research aimed to study the elements of package design on virtual stores that affect the purchasing decision and to guide the packaging design on virtual stores that attract the attention of Generation-Y consumers. The research was conducted by 2 questionnaires that has been approved for validity of research tools with item-objective congruence index (IOC) equals to 0.9 and the reliability on alpha coefficient or Cronbach's Alpha was 0.837. The first questionnaire was used to collect the data from the 30 sample of Generation-Y consumers who were born during the year 1981-2000, live in Bangkok and have a habit of buying convenience goods regularly on the virtual stores. The second questionnaire was used to collect data from 9 graphic designers or package designers with at least 5 years experiences. Data collection at this stage used an investigator triangulation is to collect data from the same questionnaire. It was conducted by 3 different collectors: 1) the researcher collecting data by himself, 2) the research assistant
collecting the data and 3) using online data collection, by collecting data from 3 groups of designers with 3 persons per group.

          The research results are summarized as 4 points. The first point is the personality found in the generation-Y consumers. There are 3 types which are sincerity, Excitement, and Competence. The second point is the element on the packaging that affect the purchasing decision: the illustration on the packaging, the brand and the message showing the benefits of the product. The third point is the brand archetype used for the packaging design are Warrior, Hero, Magician, Mother, Companion, King and Enchantress. The last point is the illustration design on the packaging that is effective to draw attention as follow; the use product image, the image of the product benefit, using the emotional image, the image shows the identity of the consumer or brand, emphasize product name or brand name, and using the decorative pattern image.