NeuroFocus

NeuroFocus, Inc. was 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 claimed to be the “global market leader in neurological testing.”^[1]

Corporate history

Founding

Chief Executive Officer 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.^[2] 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. The scientific efforts of NeuroFocus are guided by Dr. Robert Knight, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. The Advisory Board of NeuroFocus comprises faculty from MIT, Harvard, Oxford University, UCSF, and the Hebrew University of Israel.

Growth, and Acquisition

In February 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."^[3] Also in 2008, NeuroFocus expanded internationally into Asia, and specifically into Korea and Japan. In March 2009, NeuroFocus ventured into Europe, acquiring its competitor, Neuroco.^[4] Within that same year NeuroFocus, opened its European headquarter in London, England. Since then, NeuroFocus has also established locations in Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Seoul, Bogotá, New York, and Dallas. In March 2010, NeuroFocus announced the addition of Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel to NeuroFocus’ advisory board.^[5]

NeuroFocus was successfully acquired by Nielsen in May 2011. In 2013, two years post the acquisition by Nielsen, Dr. A.K. Pradeep assumed the role and title of Chief Provocateur of Nielsen, and continues to serve as the Chairman of NeuroFocus. Neurofocus is fully integrated into Nielsen and is renamed the Consumer Neuroscience division of Nielsen.

NeuroFocus former team

Executive team^[6]

• 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
• 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
• Dr. Ram Gurumoorthy, Chief Science and Technology Officer

Former advisory board^[6]

• 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. Miller, PhD,

Picower Professor of Neuroscience,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Dr. Leon Y. Deouell

Chair, Neuropsychology graduate program

Hebrew University, Jerusalem

• Stephen Kosslyn, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychology

Harvard University

• Gerald Zaltman, Ph.D.

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 Nobre, 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 electroencephalography (EEG), eye tracking, and biometrics such as galvanic skin response (GSR) ^[7] to obtain insights into customers’ conscious and subconscious feelings, emotions, and preferences.^[8] 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.^[9] NeuroFocus also claims that its methodology allows it to access the subconscious desires that cannot be expressed by the consumer.^[8]

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.^[10][11] NeuroFocus determines these metrics based on the brain wave data collected while consumers view the client’s product.^[12] NeuroFocus states that it can address a client’s needs for insights into their brand, products, packaging, in-store marketing, and advertising.^[13][14] 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.^[15]

NeuroFocus states that it provides services to a growing number of Fortune 500 companies,^[16] commissioning specialized on-site “Neurolabs” to those clients who desire a lab to perform constant testing tailored to their individual needs.^[17]

Pradeep’s book entitled ‘‘The Buying Brain’’ published by John Wiley & Sons releases August 18, 2010 ^[18]

References

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

• Official company website
• Hoover’s database
• The Buying Brain official website