Early different cognitive processes evoked by carnival vs. general promotions when shopping online: An ERPs study

INTRODUCTION: The booming development of online shopping has intensified market competition. In addition to general sales promotions, online shopping has introduced new changes including artificial carnival promotions. METHOD: This study aims to investigate cognitive processes to an unknown e-commerce platform after exposure to carnival and general promotion activities using event-related potentials. Thirty-three participants were recruited in this study to probe how consumers perceive carnival and general promotion information using event-related potentials (ERPs). Carnival or general promotion posters were presented first, then an unknown e-commerce platform brand was presented in the second stage, at which time the subjects’ cognitive process to the brand were observed in an implicit paradigm. RESULTS: The results showed that after priming with carnival promotion posters, the unknown e-commerce platform stimuli elicited larger P2 and N2 components than were observed after the presentation of general promotion posters; however, the P3 component did not show a significant difference. These findings indicate that the target identification and cognitive control mechanism with regard to an unknown e-commerce platform are likely influenced by the implicit memory of different promotion activities when shopping online. DISCUSSION: The results suggest that ERP components may have the potential to be employed as indices to estimate the effectiveness of promotion methods for an unknown brand.