My first week at Innerscope Research is finally over and I already feel at home. I first heard about the company through personal research. When I heard a representative was speaking at a conference at Harvard, I immediately registered. From that point on, I kept in contact and reached out to current employees as well. I was passionate about what they did and wanted to get involved in any shape or form. In the spring, I applied for an internship and was able to secure a position for the summer! I didn’t expect to get one since it is a small company. However, things worked out and my first week is already over.

I walked into the place on a Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. I sat on a couch as I waited for the Internship Director to come by. I was welcomed with a big smile and a somewhat awkward handshake. The office is on the second floor of a building and is split into two office spaces. On one side of the building is the Media Lab where participants come in for experiments. Opposite of the Media Lab are the office rooms and conferences. Of course, they also reserved an area for the interns! I have my own desk and work computer (still figuring out how to use). Everyone welcomed me into the company and went out of their way to introduce themselves to me at my desk. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting everyone to be so kind and genuine. After a few days, I was already able to joke around with some of the Analysts, Project Manager, and the CEO (we’re buds now)!
From this summer internship, I hope to learn from the Analysts and Project Managers. A decent amount of employees have their Ph.D and I plan on figuring out whether graduate school will be in my future path as well. Innerscope’s purpose is what I have always wanted to do. By the end of the summer, I hope to figure out whether or not this is the place for me.
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Innerscope Research is a market research company that uses neuroscience tools to answer clients’ questions on marketing. Their methodologies include eye-tracking, facial coding, and biometrics. Eye-tracking is used to locate where the consumers are looking at within an ad/commercial. Facial coding is used with cameras to study facial muscle movements that correlate with certain emotions. As for biometrics, Innerscope specifically uses GSR ( galvanic skin response) to focus on sweat glands and a heart monitor. With these tools, Innerscope is able to study how consumers react to ads. For instance, does the Twix commercial make a consumer engaged and focused? Are the consumers focusing on the characters during the PopTart commercial? Exploring with consumer neuroscience depends on the clients and what they’re looking for. Innerscope Research’s main goal is to analyze consumer’s non-conscious behavior to improve marketing/advertising worldwide. Sounds cool? Trust me, it’s even cooler from behind-the-scenes…As an intern, my main responsibility is to help and support projects through data entry/analysis, client reports, and data mining. I work closely with a Senior Analyst who is also the Internship Director. With him, I will be exposed to the different departments within the company including Sales, Marketing, and Finance. There is also an Internship project that I was assigned with the other intern. Luckily, this isn’t due until the end of the summer.
They also keep their twitter up-to-date!

– Alicia Park, ‘ 15