NeuroFocus
Encyclopedia
NeuroFocus, Inc. is an American multinational neuromarketing
company with locations in London, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Bogotá, New York, and Dallas. Headquartered in Berkeley, CA, NeuroFocus combines neuroscience research with consulting and marketing practices. NeuroFocus is the “global market leader in neurological testing.”
Dr. A.K. Pradeep states that he started NeuroFocus as a way to provide answers to his marketing clients who were frustrated in their inability to accurately predict consumer responses. According to Pradeep, his moment of inspiration arose from a conversation with a neuroscientist sitting beside him on a flight back to San Francisco. The neuroscientist told Pradeep about his studies of the brains of patients with Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
and those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Pradeep says that it was due to this fortuitous conversation that he realized the link between neuroscience and marketing. He postulated that when viewing a product, customers experience some of the same neurological effects that his neuroscientist neighbor studied. Marketing companies’ frustrations could therefore be addressed by referring to cognitive neuroscience’s technology and methodology. Neurological studies could help marketers discover if the customer would pay attention and remember their product. In 2005 Pradeep founded NeuroFocus’ headquarters with these principles in Berkeley, California.
, New York, and Dallas. In March of 2010, NeuroFocus announced the addition of Nobel Prize
winner Eric Kandel to NeuroFocus’ advisory board.
(EEG), eye tracking
, and biometrics
such as galvanic skin response
(GSR) to obtain insights into customers’ conscious and subconscious
feelings, emotions, and preferences. NeuroFocus states that these insights are more accurate than traditional focus group
responses as they are gleaned directly from the brain and are therefore uncontaminated by cognitive bias
. NeuroFocus also claims that its methodology allows it to access the subconscious desires that cannot be expressed by the consumer.
NeuroFocus’ offers to provide its clients with a prediction of effectiveness through specific scores on the attention, emotion, and memory metrics as well as its derived metrics of novelty, awareness, and purchase intent. NeuroFocus determines these metrics based on the brain wave data collected while consumers view the client’s product. NeuroFocus states that it can address a client’s needs for insights into their brand, products, packaging, in-store marketing, and advertising. As of June 2010, NeuroFocus announced that it had developed a 3D virtual reality simulation
store research tool that would enable clients to test product designs and store layouts more effectively.
NeuroFocus states that it provides services to a growing number of Fortune 500
companies , commissioning specialized on-site “Neurolabs” to those clients who desire a lab to perform constant testing tailored to their individual needs.
Pradeep’s book entitled ‘‘The Buying Brain’’ published by John Wiley & Sons
releases August 18th, 2010
Category:Marketing research companies
Neuromarketing
Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing that studies consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. Researchers use technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure changes in activity in parts of the brain, electroencephalography and...
company with locations in London, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Bogotá, New York, and Dallas. Headquartered in Berkeley, CA, NeuroFocus combines neuroscience research with consulting and marketing practices. NeuroFocus is the “global market leader in neurological testing.”
Founding
Chief Executive OfficerChief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Dr. A.K. Pradeep states that he started NeuroFocus as a way to provide answers to his marketing clients who were frustrated in their inability to accurately predict consumer responses. According to Pradeep, his moment of inspiration arose from a conversation with a neuroscientist sitting beside him on a flight back to San Francisco. The neuroscientist told Pradeep about his studies of the brains of patients with Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
and those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Pradeep says that it was due to this fortuitous conversation that he realized the link between neuroscience and marketing. He postulated that when viewing a product, customers experience some of the same neurological effects that his neuroscientist neighbor studied. Marketing companies’ frustrations could therefore be addressed by referring to cognitive neuroscience’s technology and methodology. Neurological studies could help marketers discover if the customer would pay attention and remember their product. In 2005 Pradeep founded NeuroFocus’ headquarters with these principles in Berkeley, California.
Growth and acquisitions
In February of 2008, The Nielsen Company became a strategic investor in NeuroFocus. Nielsen Executive Vice President Susan Whiting issued a statement announcing, “this alliance is an extraordinary opportunity to incorporate ground-breaking science into our product offerings." Also in 2008, NeuroFocus expanded internationally into Asia, and specifically into Korea and Japan. In March of 2009, NeuroFocus ventured into Europe, acquiring its competitor, Neuroco. Within that same year NeuroFocus, opened its European headquarter in London, England. Since then, NeuroFocus has also established locations in Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Seoul, BogotáBogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, New York, and Dallas. In March of 2010, NeuroFocus announced the addition of Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner Eric Kandel to NeuroFocus’ advisory board.
Executive team
- Dr. A.K. Pradeep, Chief Executive Officer
- Dr. Robert T. Knight M.D., Chief Science Advisor
- Caroline Winnett, Chief Marketing Officer
- Ratnakar Dev, EVP Knowledge and Information Systems
- Jack Lester, Chief Financial Officer
- Andrew Pohlmann, Managing Partner Professional Services
- Deepak Varma, Chief Strategy Officer
- Russ Dunham, Chief Client Officer
- Dr. Joakim Kalvenes, Chief Operations Officer
- Dr. Stephen Genco, Chief Innovation Officer
- Dr. Steven Miller, Director Global NeuroLab Operations
- Thom Noble, Managing Director NeuroFocus Europe
- Jeff Bander, Senior EVP Client Services
- Dr. Ram Gurumoorthy, Chief Science and Technology Officer
Advisory board
- Eric R. Kandel, M.D.
- Nobel Prize Laureate
- Professor, College of Physicians and Surgeons
- Founding Director, Center for Neurobiology and Behavior
- Columbia University
- Rajiv Lal
- Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing
- Harvard Business School
- Ravi Parmeswar
- Managing Director – Global Consumer & Marketplace Insights & Client Advocacy, Citigroup
- Barry Herstein
- General Manager of North America & Chief Marketing Officer
- PayPal
- Dr. Mark D'Esposito, MD
- Director, Brain Imaging Center
- University of California, Berkeley
- Earl K. MillerEarl K. MillerEarl Keith Miller is a systems/cognitive neuroscientist, whose research focuses on neural mechanisms of learning, memory, and cognition. Earl Miller is a Picower Professor of Neuroscience with the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at...
, PhD,
- Earl K. Miller
- Picower Professor of Neuroscience,
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Dr. Leon Y. Deouell
- Chair, Neuropsychology graduate program
- Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- Stephen KosslynStephen KosslynStephen Michael Kosslyn is an American psychologist who specializes in the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Until 31 December 2010 he was John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James and Dean of Social Science at Harvard University, having previously...
, Ph.D.
- Stephen Kosslyn
- Professor of Psychology
- Harvard University
- Gerald ZaltmanGerald ZaltmanGerald Zaltman is the Joseph C. Wilson Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School and the author and editor of 20 books, most recently How Customers Think and Marketing Metaphoria . In 1997 he founded the market research consulting firm Olson Zaltman Associates in partnership with Jerry C...
, Ph.D.
- Gerald Zaltman
- Professor of Business Administration Emeritus
- Harvard Business School
- Dr. Hans-Jochen Heinze
- Director of the Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology Magdeburg, Department for Behavioral Neurology
- Magdeburg, Germany
- Anna Christina NobreAnna Christina NobreAnna Christina De Ozorio Nobre is a Brazilian neuroscientist working in the United Kingdom.She is Tutorial Fellow in Experimental Psychology at New College, Oxford and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, where she heads the in the Department of Experimental Psychology...
, Ph.D.
- Director of Brain & Cognition Laboratory and the Centre for Real-Time Brain Imaging
- University of Oxford
- Adam Gazzaley, MD, Ph.D.
- Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center
- University of California, San Francisco
Services and offerings
NeuroFocus’ premise is that it can provide key insights about customers that traditional marketing techniques cannot. NeuroFocus utilizes electroencephalographyElectroencephalography
Electroencephalography is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp. EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain...
(EEG), eye tracking
Eye tracking
Eye tracking is the process of measuring either the point of gaze or the motion of an eye relative to the head. An eye tracker is a device for measuring eye positions and eye movement. Eye trackers are used in research on the visual system, in psychology, in cognitive linguistics and in product...
, and biometrics
Biometrics
Biometrics As Jain & Ross point out, "the term biometric authentication is perhaps more appropriate than biometrics since the latter has been historically used in the field of statistics to refer to the analysis of biological data [36]" . consists of methods...
such as galvanic skin response
Galvanic skin response
Skin conductance, also known as galvanic skin response , electrodermal response , psychogalvanic reflex , skin conductance response or skin conductance level , is a method of measuring the electrical conductance of the skin, which varies with its moisture level...
(GSR) to obtain insights into customers’ conscious and subconscious
Subconscious
The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
feelings, emotions, and preferences. NeuroFocus states that these insights are more accurate than traditional focus group
Focus group
A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging...
responses as they are gleaned directly from the brain and are therefore uncontaminated by cognitive bias
Cognitive bias
A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment that occurs in particular situations. Implicit in the concept of a "pattern of deviation" is a standard of comparison; this may be the judgment of people outside those particular situations, or may be a set of independently verifiable...
. NeuroFocus also claims that its methodology allows it to access the subconscious desires that cannot be expressed by the consumer.
NeuroFocus’ offers to provide its clients with a prediction of effectiveness through specific scores on the attention, emotion, and memory metrics as well as its derived metrics of novelty, awareness, and purchase intent. NeuroFocus determines these metrics based on the brain wave data collected while consumers view the client’s product. NeuroFocus states that it can address a client’s needs for insights into their brand, products, packaging, in-store marketing, and advertising. As of June 2010, NeuroFocus announced that it had developed a 3D virtual reality simulation
Virtual reality simulation
-Virtual Reality Simulation:VR Simulation is used by many consultants, academics, local and national authorities, engineers and architects to simulate real environment in the virtual world....
store research tool that would enable clients to test product designs and store layouts more effectively.
NeuroFocus states that it provides services to a growing number of Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
companies , commissioning specialized on-site “Neurolabs” to those clients who desire a lab to perform constant testing tailored to their individual needs.
Pradeep’s book entitled ‘‘The Buying Brain’’ published by John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...
releases August 18th, 2010
Further Information
- Popular Science’s “Future Of Pleasure”
- CNN features NeuroFocus
- Discovery Channel ‘‘The Science of Shopping’’
- BBC News
- New Scientist Magazine
- NeuroFocus rap “Listen to Your Brain”
External Links
Category:Marketing research companies