ABSTRACT
Commodification of animated characters from the films can bring long lasting and amazing profits, be it the income from the copy license or the original release, which is far more than the box office earnings. The animated characters in the film usually have rich facial expressions. When an animated character is commodified into an action figure product, the designer needs to know if the choice of their facial expressions will affect consumers’ perception and purchase motivations. This study is going to use the quantified questionnaire to do the survey and collect data of consumers’ perceptions and purchase motivation towards the choice of action figure's facial expressions. The data will be analyzed through One-Way ANOVA, which can be used as a scientific reference for the future design teams or businesses to choose the right facial expression when they engage in turning an animated character to an action figure product. The research result summarizes the findings for how facial expressions affect consumer's preference and purchase motivations as below: In terms of consumer's preference, a laughing face is more appealing than a smiling or a sad face; a surprised face is more appealing than a sad face; a confused face doesn’t make much of an impact compared with other facial expressions. In terms of consumer's purchase motivation, a laughing face is more appealing than a smiling one, a sad fase, and a confused fase, while a surprised face is more appealing than a sad face.
