Developing a Biblioprescription Framework for Generation Z: Integrating Prescription-Style Visuals and Individual Persona Modules

Digital platforms have altered how young readers discover, evaluate, and purchase books, yet the marketing of many Malay-language titles remains oriented towards conventional descriptive promotion. This conceptual and developmental paper addresses the mismatch between traditional book marketing and the solution-seeking, visually mediated consumption patterns associated with Generation Z in Malaysia. The objective is to develop a Biblioprescription framework that integrates “Prescription-Style” visuals and individual persona modules. Biblioprescription is defined here as a non-clinical book-discovery and marketing approach that presents a book as a clearly signposted resource for a reader’s intellectual, developmental, or emotional need. The framework combines bibliotherapy literature, visual information processing, cognitive load theory, parasocial interaction, consumer culture theory, and the Attention–Interest–Desire–Action model. A four-phase developmental research design is proposed, which are, qualitative needs analysis, framework and stimulus development, a randomised digital A/B test involving Generation Z participants, and integrated framework refinement. The resulting conceptual model links Prescription-Style cover design to attention, solution-oriented information architecture to interest, an authentic individual persona to desire, and friction-reduced e-commerce cues to action. The paper contributes a testable bridge between therapeutic reading concepts and digital book marketing while retaining an explicit boundary between literacy promotion and clinical treatment. It also provides publishers with an operational basis for designing and evaluating more relevant, transparent, and measurable book-marketing interventions.

Digital Marketing, Consumer Behaviour and Publishing Management

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