A Little Focus

Maybe you notice my cufflinks - my shiny, beautiful and Unique Cufflinks. Maybe you notice them because they are different, maybe you didn’t know they are still part of the fashion culture or maybe they glint from the sunlight that envelops the room. You listen. You relax. And then you find yourself speaking honestly about a certain product experience you just had. The words come naturally and you say them truthfully, not living up to anyone else’s expectations. It is an honest review of the product. And then may it is the word Tateossian that brings you back to normal consciousness, remembering everything from your participation in a focus group.

Am I making this up? No. It is a new use for hypnosis and one that Brand Week’s article Hypnosis Brings Groups into Focus discusses. The article says hypnosis is used by several large corporations to help understand how people really feel about certain products. The difference between a hypnotized focus group and one that is not allows the marketers, branders, etc. to go deeper. For instance a certain car kept coming up in a non-hypnotized group with the idea that the product was “safe.” To get more in depth, the hypnotized group was able to unravel this farther. What it found was that the car was “middle age” and that was not exactly helping the buyer image or selling cars. It is particularly useful when a product is thought of as good, but the consumer chooses not to purchase it.

We are planning to make focus group hypnosis a part of N*tranced and will keep you posted. But for now – Tateossian.