Clustering of advertising images using electroencephalogram

Packaging and advertisements of brands affect customers' decision-making on purchasing products and could lead to business loss. Hence, neuromarketing, the application of neuroscience in the marketing field, is introduced aiming to understand customers' cognitive functions toward advertisements or products. Our study focused on identifying how the brain respond to different types of advertising image of the same brand were perceived using electroencephalogram (EEG). We performed an experiment using 33 different Coca-Cola advertising images in RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) task on 23 participants. A seven channels EEG dry headset was used to record the visual event-related potential (ERP), specifically, the positive peak found at 300 to 700 ms after image onset; P300, to compare the perception response. We applied k-means and hierarchical clustering to the obtained EEG data, and achieved the best clustering for three clusters, yielding different P300 amplitudes and latencies. The typical Coca-Cola ads, red color with Cola-cola text on the ads, induced a faster and larger response, implying better perception than the unconventional or black color ads. We conclude that ERP clustering may be a useful tool for neuromarketing. However, the relationship between the EEG-based cluster and the image-based cluster should be further investigated to confirm the suggestion.