[http://adage.com/article/news/marketers‐tap‐secret‐research‐weapon‐hypnosis/235424/] June 18, 2012
Marketers Tap Not-So-Secret
Research Weapon: Hypnosis
Audi, Cheerwine, MTV Use Insights Gleaned From Focus Groups ‘Put Under’
By Beth Snyder Bulik
Say “hypnosis” to most people and they are likely to think of Vegas shows where people embarrass
themselves by clucking like a chicken.
But to Hal Goldberg, hypnosis is more than a stereotype. It’s the best way he knows to tap into people’s
real feelings about products and brands. And he’s done it for almost 40 years, first as a researcher at
various ad agencies including Leo Burnett and Bozell, and since 1995 as an independent consultant at his
own firm, Qualitative and Quantitative Research. His mission is to find, via hypnosis, the initial
“imprints” that brands make on consumers and use those imprints to build marketing strategies, create
new product lines, add fresh insight for agency pitches or simply reaffirm brand connections.
An insight discovered by hypnosis led to the introduction of Nabisco’s 100-calorie cookie and snack
packs.
His focus groups are prescreened first by phone and then in person. About 70% to 80% of phone
respondents agree to be hypnotized, and only about one in 1,000 leave the focus group room when asked
again if they’re willing to be hypnotized, Mr. Goldberg said.
It takes about 45 minutes for him to put the group fully under, a time during which he informs the
participants that they can’t tell him anything just to make him feel good or to impress him.
Then he begins to ask questions. What was your first
experience with a particular product category? What is your
most powerful experience with a specific brand? Under
hypnosis, the respondents recall those exact moments and
usually many specific details.
“When we asked for first recollections of watching TV, they
not only remembered it was “Howdy Doody’ but also which
episode, and the room details, the smells in the room and the
clothing they were wearing,” said David Charmatz, a media
consultant and former VP of MTV Network’s Nick@Nite and
TV Land research, about using Mr. Goldberg’s expertise to pin
down the two brands’ differentiators.
Venables Bell & Partners won a silver David Ogilvy Award from the Advertising Research Foundation
for its Audi A6 campaign crafted after Mr. Goldberg conducted hypnosis focus groups to find luxury car
owners’ first experiences with Mercedes and BMW, Audi’s stronger competitors.
Hal Goldberg
They found that both BMW and Mercedes made deep impressions on the now
middle-aged drivers when they were children or teens. They recalled feeling the
cars were truly special and unique and “something they wanted to be a part of.”
Audi, however, had no luxury market presence at that time, and thus had the
disadvantage of going up against the entrenched belief that there was nothing
better. Audi’s ensuing “New Leaders Require New Tools” campaign played to
luxury car owners’ entrepreneurial spirit and perceived thought leadership in
staying ahead with the newest and best tools.
Cheerwine is another example. Building on hypnosis-focus-group findings that the Southern soft drink
tastes different every time it’s consumed, Carolina Beverage Corp. built a marketing strategy around the
drink known internally as “the Trickster.” The resulting ad campaign was tagged “Born in the South.
Raised in a glass,” and led to a distribution agreement with Pepsi that increased the drink’s availability to
50% of the U.S. this year, said Kate Newlin, a business strategy consultant and author of “Passion
Brands,” who has worked on many projects with Mr. Goldberg.
Of course, for every Audi and Cheerwine marketer, there are skeptics.
Said Ms. Newlin, “We start telling a client, “First we do the hypnosis focus group, and then we call in
experts,’ and I never get to the third thing because they stop me about the hypnosis. ... Part of it is the
concern that they’ll see themselves on the front page of The New York Times as hypnotizing consumers
in order to get them to buy their products. Which is the worst possible misinterpretation.”
Kerry Sette, VP-director of consumer insights for Hill Holliday/Erwin Penland, in fact, recalled that her
group renamed the sessions “deep-relaxation focus groups” because the group was using Mr. Goldberg
for was conservative wireless client and it didn’t want to scare it off the technique.
Don Gloeckler, exec VP-chief research officer at the ARF, is familiar with the idea of hypnosis, having
used a similar “relaxation technique” done by Archetype Discoveries years ago when he worked for a
packaged-goods marketer. “It’s a technique to get you in a relaxed state to get you to recall things that are
hidden in your memory,” he said. “Legitimate marketers are not trying to manipulate consumers into
doing something they don’t want to do. They’re really just trying to get consumers to articulate and
remember an experience they would have trouble remembering on their own.”
When asked why the technique seems to have a controversial reputation, he said, “My guess is it falls into
a similar bucket with biometric research. ... I can see the consumer fear of being manipulated by the use
of information that’s [subconscious and] not even available to them. It’s important to remember that no
one is harassed into doing this or forced to share anything.”
Hypnosis can remove many of the traditional stumbling blocks of focus groups, such as dominant
respondents taking control, inaccurate recollections, overly cautious and emotionally guarded subjects,
and the very human reaction of mimicking answers to an unknown question to avoid appearing foolish or
uneducated.
Mr. Goldberg said his business is growing in the face of market-research budget cuts. And while he hasn’t
seen a noticeable surge in this competitive social-media age, he also admits he can only do so much. In
fact, his service is at least 50% higher than the cost of a traditional focus group, not only because it is a
more in-depth process, but is a “filter” to make sure the clients are serious.
He estimates he has done 1,500 to 2,000 hypnosis focus groups for marketers from “Alcoa to Verizon“
and many in between, including Procter & Gamble, Shell Oil, Volvo, Campbell Soup, GlaxoSmithKline
and Nabisco. For the last, the insight discovered by hypnosis led to the introduction of its 100-calorie
cookie and snack packs.