NeuroFocus was a

neuromarketing Neuromarketing is a commercial marketing communication field that applies neuropsychology to market research, studying consumers' Piaget's theory of cognitive development, sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective responses to marketing stimuli. The ...

and

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...

research company founded in 2005 by a group of academics and engineers from

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

that focused on applying

neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

, and neurological testing to a wide range of fields such as marketing, advertising, consumer research, branding, product development, and entertainment content. In 2011, consumer research and analytics firm Nielsen Holdings acquired full ownership of NeuroFocus as part of the Nielsen's Product Innovation Practice. NeuroFocus primarily relied on building measures of response that were translated from brain waves collected through electroencephalographic (EEG) sensors that record electrical signals produced by the brain in response to stimuli. Aside from EEG-based full brain measurements, NeuroFocus also makes use of other biometrics such as eye-tracking technology.

History

The initial idea behind the company's founding came from Anantha K. Pradeep's encounter as a management consultant with a client who was concerned about the results of his firm's marketing efforts. Prior to its full acquisition by Nielsen Holdings, NeuroFocus was founded in 2005 by Anantha K. Pradeep, Caroline Winnett, Robert T. Knight, Ram Gurumoorthy in 2005, with Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel serving as an adviser to the company. Pradeep and Gurumoorthy were both doctoral graduates from UC Berkeley and Robert T. Knight a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at UC Berkeley as well as a professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at UC San Francisco. Co-founder Caroline Winnett, a graduate of Berkeley Haas School of Business served as the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Nielsen NeuroFocus in 2012 and has been serving as the executive director of

Berkeley SkyDeck Berkeley SkyDeck (SkyDeck) is a high-tech entrepreneurship startup accelerator and incubator program at the University of California, Berkeley serving as a joint venture between the Haas School of Business and Berkeley College of Engineering ...

since 2015. In 2008, Nielsen Holdings bought a minority stake of 30% in NeuroFocus as part of its strategic investment into

. In 2010, NeuroFocus acquired UK-based Neuroco as part of business expansion as NeuroFocus Europe Limited. In 2011, Nielsen Holdings acquired the remaining portion of NeuroFocus to gain full ownership of the company after the British advertising firm WPP attempted to purchase NeuroFocus. Pradeep remained as the chief executive of the firm. In 2014, NeuroFocus Europe Limited, the European and UK branch of NeuroFocus was dissolved.

References

{{reflist, 30em Neuroeconomics Marketing companies established in 2005