PET BOTTLE DESIGN, ANALYSIS OF CORRELATION BETWEEN VISUAL AESTHETIC IMPRESSION AND SUBJECTIVE JUDGMENTS OF BOTTLE CHARACTERISTICS

Abstract: In the design process of any product ability to predict reaction of consumer to that particular design solution is very important. One of the ways of predicting the consumer reaction is analysis of aesthetic characteristics of similar products an gathering subjective judgments of particular characteristics on witch the aesthetics of the product are judged. There are two opposed opinions regarding prediction of aesthetic impression. One opinion is that taste of individual cannot be discussed because it is extremely variable and the possibility of meaningful analysis of aesthetic impression is rejected. Other opinion states that there is a consistent preference of certain aesthetic characteristics despite individual and group differences. Main goal of this paper is to examine the correlation between overall aesthetic impression and positive or negative subjective judgment of certain characteristics of PET bottle. Conclusions of this analysis can be used to produce guide lines for successful design of PET bottle. In the analysis the correlation between judgment of aesthetic impression and other characteristics was calculated. Analysis showed strong correlation between some characteristic and aesthetic impression, while some characteristic showed less correlation. Conclusions can be used in PET bottle design, especially in the modular approach to the PET bottle design. Key words: design, PET packaging, modularity, aesthetic, subjective judgment

1. INTRODUCTION Packaging is the first thing that consumer interacts with when faced with any product. Packaging is generally regarded as an essential component of product. Kotler defines packaging as "all the activities of designing and producing the container for a product." [1]. Packaging is considered to be a part of the way business is organized not only enclosing of a physical object product that will be offered for sale. Often packaging is the most relevant element of a trademark advertising or communication. Packaging is an important part of the branding process as it plays a role in communicating the image and identity of a company [2]. PET packaging offers diverse possibilities for communication. Freedom in design concerning shape of packaging results in wide range of possible solutions. A very important function of packaging is the communication of the product with a consumer. Shape of the packaging is also potent tool of communication, unusual and symbolic shape can achieve strong influence on costumer [3]. Design is first perceived visually, so there is strong importance of visual impression [4]. Today in environment of first competition there is no much room for wrong decisions regarding packaging design; mistakes can make big damage to company reputation. There is a need to examine visual aesthetic impression on a consumer before production process and even before design process in order to obtain maximum advantage. This paper shows research that has a goal to collect subjective consumer judgments about PET bottle characteristics and to find their correlation to the visual aesthetic impression of PET bottle. In order to determine correlation between visual aesthetic impression and subjective judgments about PET bottle characteristics experiment was made where participants judged visual aesthetic of PET bottle and gave subjective judgments about PET bottle characteristics. Design characteristics of the product can be emphasized, even so that they sometimes go against functionality and overall harmony. Aesthetic impression that packaging achieves is key factor in marketing of the product. By aesthetic preference we consider judgment of the object that observer interacts with. Judgment how much the observer likes the object and how the object measures to other objects of similar use [5]. Judgment about aesthetic preference can be reduced on judgment ugly or beautiful and when judging object in a group more ugly or more beautiful [6]. Recognition of the PET bottle is a very important characteristic which helps in communication with the consumer. Packaging that is able to represent product just by its shape has a far more reach than packaging that relays on a graphical means of information. Arrangement of the form has important role to play in communication with consumer and transference of design idea. Form stability is judgment of the shape, form, proportions and mass distribution can influence the stability of the packaging [7]. Shape of the packaging that is usual and is not imaginative does not attract attention of consumer, having that in mind imagination and originality is very important in the judging design quality. Hedonistic appreciation of the object as pleasant or unpleasant must be judged as a separate element of subjective impression, pleasant is not only beautiful nor unpleasant is always ugly [8]. Intrusive design have very important role in the process of capturing attention but it can be often judged as aesthetically displeasing.

Ergonomics or design of the object so that object fit the human body is an element of function and can often be in clash with aesthetics [9]. Characteristics studied in this research have important role in creating the image of the packaging, the PET bottle in this case. Usual practice in complex process of designing PET bottles is to approach the tasks of defining a shape and overall design as one monolith structure, respecting technological limitations. That approach offers opportunities for the designer to express himself and convey design idea and lift the design on a higher level. It is time consuming and has design has a narrow application usually to a specific product. On the other hand there is vide need for other approach do the design process that offers highly responsive replay to a clients demands in short time, producing large number of solutions for client to select form. Short time dictates some cutbacks, communication with the client is limited and does not offer much needed input and iterative revisions of the design. Modular approach to the design process meets the demands for quick solutions and minimal client input in the design process time wise, but information wise input is greater. Client could be enabled to participate in the design process by choosing modules to his liking and assembling bottle as a final design or as a guide for further design process. Modular design of PET bottle can benefit from knowledge obtained by this study. Usually PET bottle can be segmented in to five distinct parts: neck, shoulder, label area (panel), lower part and base and each part influences the final aesthetic results of the design shown in figure 1[10] .

Fig.2. Decomposition of PET bottle

While design of the modules is done by the professional the final assembly of modules can be done by the client him self. Both the professional designer and client can benefit from basic knowledge about correlation of aesthetic impression and PET bottle characteristics. 2. METHOD 2.1. Participants Twenty five undergraduate students of the Department of Graphic engineering and design, University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences (14 male and 11 female), age group 22 to 26 years old participated in this experiment. All participants were chosen by chance. 2.2. Stimuli Eleven PET bottles shown in figure 2. were chosen to be specimens from a start group of 20 PET bottles. Criteria for final choice was difference in form, usage, proportions, level of stylization and none of them could have distinct marking of the product that was in them, such as labels or embossing. The specimens could be grouped according to their characteristics of interest to this study. Such groups as bottles with and without ornament, bottles with imitation of natural textures, bottles etc. Four of eleven PET bottles are present in Serbian market and others are collected from other countries and we could guess that participants did not have a

chance to see those bottles earlier and form the opinion based on other elements of marketing other than appearance of the bottle. Bottles are marked with numbers one thru eleven and lighted from above on the table for control of printed sheet MEGA NORMLIGHT 98, that way we assured equal light conditions for all PET bottles. The arrangement of PET bottles is random only rule is that no bottle with same characteristics is placed next to each other.

Fig.2. PET bottles used as stimuli 2.3. Instrument The selection of descriptors of subjective impressions was made. One for aesthetic impression along with ten other characteristics to be judged. Descriptors were selected by the criteria that they can be used later in the design process as a recommendations. Bipolar seven point scales from descriptors of opposing meaning were made with positive meaning. Seven point intensity scale was distributed three on positive side and three on negative side and zero in the middle as shown in table 1. Table 1. Descriptors on the bipolar scale Ugly 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Beautiful Unarranged 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Arranged Unstable 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Stable Usual 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Distinguished Unimaginative 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Imaginative Unimpressive 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Impressive Unpleasant 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Pleasant Unelegant 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Elegant Unintrusive 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Intrusive Unrecognizable 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Recognizable Not ergonomic 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 Ergonomic Alongside with judging the shown characteristics, participants were asked to write their opinion what the packaging is intended for. 2.4. Procedure

Twenty five participants were distributed in to the groups of five and asked to judge on the characteristics of PET bottles in the questioner according to their impressions. They were told explained that zero means neutral and that on each side is intensity scale of certain attribute. The arrangement of the bottles was randomized for each group. The eleven bottle samples were shown together to the participants under uniform light conditions. Distance between stimuli and participants was one meter approximately and participants were able to touch pick up and handle the samples in order to get a better perception of the object. The time for judgment of each PET bottle was not limited, nor was the time for judging all PET bottles. Participants were not allowed inter group consultations or any communication regarding judgment of the PET bottle characteristics. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Collected data was organized in the data metrics for the further analysis. The bipolar scales were reduced to seven point unipolar scales with positive side of descriptor (Beautiful, Arranged, Stable, Distinguished, Imaginative, Impressive, Pleasant, Elegant, Intrusive, Recognizable, Ergonomic). The matrices were created so that eleven PET bottles were arranged one under another in the rows of matrices and the descriptors were arranged in columns. Correlation between aesthetic impression and subjective judgments of bottle characteristics was found by calculating Pearsons bivariate correlation. Results of correlation for all PET bottles are shown in correlation matrix, table 2. From the analysis we can see strong correlation between aesthetic impression and subjective judgments of some bottle characteristics. The strongest correlation is between hedonistic judgment (pleasant) and aesthetic impression (0.761 with significance < 0.01). In individual analysis of each PET bottle the highest correlation was 0.913. This shows that hedonistic factor plays very important role in judging the aesthetics of the PET bottle. Arrangement of the form (arranged) has second most strong correlation with aesthetic impression (0.721 with significance <0.01). Individual analysis showed that highest correlation for one PET bottle was 0.892. Elegance of the PET bottle proven to be important factor in aesthetic impression, with correlation of 0.702 and significance <0.01. The highest individual correlation was 0.851. Stability and imagination of design could also be taken in to consideration as an important factors of aesthetic impression. The correlation of stability (stabile) is 0.389 with significance <0.05 and correlation of imagination of design 0.382 with significance <0.05. Only characteristic that has negative correlation is intrusiveness which confirms that intrusive design could easily give unvented effects in judgment of the design. The value of negative correlation is small and statistically insignificant (-0.036 with significance >0.05). Table 2. Correlation between aesthetic impression and subjective judgments of bottle characteristics

Correlation between aesthetic impression (Beautiful) Arranged Stable Distinguished Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Imaginative Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. .721** .000 .389* .013 .216 .181 .386* .014 .093 .569 .761** .000 .702** .000 -.036

Impressive Pleasant Elegant Intrusive

Sig. Recognizable Ergonomic Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig.

.827 .170 .293 .123 .450

3. REZULTATI I DISKUSIJA Podaci sakupljeni u ispitivanju su organizovani u matricu radi dalje obrade. Bipolarne skale su svedene na unipolarne skale pozitivne strane deskriptora (prepoznatljivo, lepo , sreeno, stabilno, neobino, matovito, upeatljivo, prijatno, elegantno, nametljivo, egronomino). Odgovor na pitanje o nameni PET boce je korien za proveru iskaza o prepoznatljivosti. Matrica je formirana tako da su rezultati svakog od ispitanika za jedanaest boca postavljeni jedan ispod drugog, tako da formiraju redove, a ocene svakog od deskriptora su formirale kolone. Ovakav pristup formiranju 2D matrice je mogu s obzirom da istraivanje ne obrauje individualne razlike meu ispitanicima. Korelacija izmeu prepoznatljivosti i ostalih procenjivanih elemenata subjektivnog doivljaja je odreena raunanjem Pirsonove bivarijantne korelacije. Rezultati su prikazani u korelacionoj matrici Tabela 2. Tabela 1. Korelacija subjektivne ocene prepoznatljivosti i ostalih faktora estetike

Korelacija subjektivne ocene Prepoznatljivo i ostalih faktora estetike Lepo Sreeno Stabilno Obino Matovito Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. .170 .293 .242 .132 -.043 .792 -.290 .069 .663
*

Korelacija subjektivne ocene Prepoznatljivo i ostalih faktora estetike Upeatljivo Prijatno Elegantno Nametljivo Ergonomino Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. Pearson Corr. Sig. .772** .002 .178 .272 .136 .402 .748** .000 .251 .119

.021

Na osnovu analize uoava se korelacija prepoznatljivosti i odreenih faktora subjektivne procene PET boce. Najvei koeficijent korelacije je sa faktorom upeatljivo (0.772, p < 0.01), individualnom analizom je utvren najvei pojedinani faktor korelacije 0.89, to pokazuje da ovaj faktor ima znaajan uticaj na prepoznatljivost PET boce. Faktor nametljiv kako je i oekivano ima veoma visok koeficijent korelacija sa prepoznatljivou (0.748, p < 0.01), faktor korelacije je neto manji ali je njegova statistika znaajnost vea od znaajnosti faktora upeatljivo. Najvei pojedinani faktor korelacije je 0.87. Nametljivost kao orue za postizanje prepoznatljivosti treba uzeti sa rezervom jer je istraivanje iste grupe autora koje se bavilo estetskim doivljajem PET ambalae pokazalo negativnu korelaciju estetskog doivljaja i nametljivosti (rad je u procesu publikovanja te ne postoje reference za citiranje). Faktor matovito ima neto manji stepen korelacije ali je i dalje statistiki znaajan (0.663, p < 0.05). Keficijent korelacije ovog faktora i prepoznatljivosti nije naroito visok, ali ovaj faktor se pojavljuje kao veoma vaan u faktor u korelaciji sa ostalim pozitivnim faktorima subjektivne ocene karakteristika PET ambalae, te se mu se mora posvetiti posebna panja. U razmatranje se moe uzeti i faktor obino (0.622, p > 0.05) i ako ovaj faktor ne pokazuje statistiki znaajnu korelaciju prema kriterijumu p < 0.05. Ostali faktori nisu zadovoljili postavljeni kriterijum i ne mogu se uzeti u razmatranje. 4. ZAKLJUAK

Validnost odluka prilikom dizajna ambalae se jedino moe proceniti uspehom na tritu, jer obim prodaje daje jasnu sliku kvaliteta, ne samo proizvoda nego i ambalae u koji je proizvod pakovan. Komunikacija koju je mogue postii oblikom ambalae i ostalim elementima dizajna mora se iskoristiti u najveoj moguoj meri kako bi se obezbedilo kvalitetno reenje ambalae. Ovaj rad je pokazao visok nivo korelacije izmeu faktora subjektivnog doivljaja upeatljiv, nametljiv i neto nii nivo korelacije faktora matovito, ali i dalje znaajan za prepoznatljivost, kao i u korelaciji sa ostalim pozitivnim faktorima subjektivne ocene karakteristika PET ambalae. Ostali faktori takoe zasluuju paznju i moraju se uzeti u obzir pri dizajnu PET ambalae. Rezultate ovoga rada ne treba prihvatiti kao striktna pravila ve kao preporuke pri reavanju pitanja prepoznatljivosti dizajna.

4. CONCLUSION The value of good packaging is recognized in marketing. The volume of sales directly depends on the quality of the packaging design. PET packaging offers diverse possibilities for communication. Tools for communication such as Bottle shape must be utilized to the maximum of their potential in order to produce best PET packaging possible. By using modular design it is possible to achieve time saving protocols for PET packaging design. This paper gives insight in to correlation between aesthetic impression and subjective judgments of some bottle characteristics. Subjective judgement of hedonistic judgment, arrangement of form and elegance has greatest correlation with aesthetic impression so we can conclude that in design process these elements of design must be handled with special attention. This does not mean that other elements of the design deserve less attention in order to achieve aesthetically pleasing design solution. Other than aesthetic value of the design, functionality deserves special attention and correlation between aesthetics and functionality will be the subject of further study. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Serbian Ministry of Science and Technological Development, Grant No.:35027 "The development of software model for improvement of knowledge and production in graphic arts industry" REFERENCES [1] KOTLER, P., KELLER, K.: Marketing Management, Pearson Education, Inc., New Jersey, 1999. [2] KUMAR, D.: Role of Packaging in Marketing Product and Organization, Indian MBA Faculty Column, 2006. [3] NOVAKOVI, D., VLADI, G., KAIKOVI, N., Specifics of the PET packaging design process, In-Tech Prague, 2010, pp 409-411 [4] KUZMANOVI, S.: Industrijski dizajn, Fakultet tehnikih nauka Novi Sad, 2010. [5] MCWHINNIE, H.J: A review of research of aestetic mesure, Acta psihologica, 1968, 28, pp 3673-375, [6] EYSENCK, H.: The general factor in aestetic jugements,1986, British journal of psihologie, 31, 94-102, [7] WONG W.: Principles of Form and Design, John Wiley and sons, 1993. [8] ECO, U.: History of Beauty, Rizzoli, 2004. [9] KROEMER, K.: Ergonomics: How to design for ease and efficiency, Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1994. [10] NOVAKOVI, D., VLADI, G., KAIKOVI, N., Modular approach to pet bottle design, International design conference - design 2010, Dubrovnik, 2010, pp 1929-1934