Innovations in technology have propelled humanity to cloud 9, for the lack of a pun. Technologies like machine learning, have helped companies and organizations to get into the minds of consumers. This has helped them track consumer behavior and launch products that resonate more with their customers.
Featuring for The Enterprise World’s this issue of The Most Innovative Artificial Intelligence Solution Providers To Watch is Neurosensum, a company dedicated to the advancement in applied neuroscience.
In this interview with Mahesh Agarwal, Managing Director of Neurosensum, let us know more about the Neurosensum.
ABOUT NEUROSENSUM-
Neurosensum is a Neuroscience and AI-based consumer research company that tries to understand consumers’ subconscious responses using cutting-edge tools like EEG, Virtual Reality, Eye Tracking, Reaction Time-based applications, Facial Coding, etc.
At Neurosensum, we believe that with advancements in applied Neuroscience, it is now possible to dig deep into the consumer’s brain for marketers to understand consumer’s subconscious responses to an advertisement, a billboard design, a supermarket aisle, or product’s packaging.
We are the only neuroscience player in Indonesia and the fastest growing market research company in Indonesia.
COMING THROUGH CHALLENGES-
During the initial year of the establishment of the Neurosensum, we struggled to recruit the right talent and get the clients to trust our work. The reason for this was that these are unchartered waters and everybody had their doubts about the Neuroscience methodology. Gradually with a strong network and ability to recruit the right talent, we were able to build an excellent team who not only understood but also embraced neuroscience, which thereby helped us to provide the best quality services to our customers.
GROWTH IS THE ESSENCE-
Neurosensum has been growing very fast. Unfortunately, we cannot share the numbers as it is privately held. What we can say is that Neurosensum have quadrupled in 3 years of business and now have more than 100 people working full time with us.
What drove this success? It boils down to having the right talent, right product, and right attitude. We just continued training both people and clients on new methodologies without directly asking for the business. This we did by doing Webinars, One on one training, etc. And once they started giving projects and getting extraordinary insights from the subconscious response, there was no going back. So the key was confidence in what you are doing and a whole lot of patience.
We have a long runway for growth and the key principle we are following is – Focus on one project at a time and give extraordinary service and insights. We are focusing on a set of fewer clients but developing a deeper relationship with them.
HOW OUR PRODUCTS ARE DIFFERENT-
Neurosensum’s best-selling products are EEG (Brainwave mapping) and Eye Tracking. The main difference with similar services in the market is that we focus on the subconscious, while the competition still uses methodologies based on surveys – which most of the time is not accurate. Most of the time consumers themselves don’t know why they like or dislike something and most of the time they are polite and just give politically right responses.
During the pandemic, the consumer brain was not reacting the same as normal time, and hence, getting a subconscious response really helped to get to the core of many marketing issues.
HANG ON TO YOUR VISION-
There are two main things that an entrepreneur needs to do. First, envision how you want the future to look like and then find passionate people and give them a lot of encouragement and support to achieve this future. The biggest challenge is to hang on to this vision of the future even when things look bleak. What differentiates winners from losers is this ability to persist. My experience has also been like that. There were times initially when it looked that no one is understanding and willing to put faith in us and it might all collapse. However, we just persisted because we were fully convinced about how the future will look like.
SUGGESTION TO ENTREPRENEURS
My advice to the future entrepreneurs is to take time to research their products/ services and develop very strong convictions before launching – but once launched don’t give up easily. Surely, it will be very frustrating in the beginning, but if you have faith and are willing to make sacrifices things will fall into place slowly but surely.
Also, get people in your team – who are not there just for money – but also passionate about the product and want to make a difference in this world.
GOING FORWARD-
Technology is rapidly evolving and transforming our lives. The market is demanding commercial use of Neuroscience & Artificial Intelligence in all fields. AI would help to get deeper insights and bring more convenience to society. For example, you don’t need to search for what kind of show you want to watch – but Netflix would know exactly what you would like. AI would have a great impact in the field of Medicine, Law, and even Finance. In consumer research, it would give a deeper understanding of consumers would help to create better products for them and help them to buy them more easily.
Overall, Pandemic has hastened digital adoption (and AI comes along with it), however, it is something that no one can stop. It is part of natural evolution and surely will change our lives in times to come.
