For Ms Solovay explained: “We need to ease the nervousness of that they've seen on television. Everyone asks if we're going to make them quack like a duck … I wish stage hypnotists would stop doing that."
That's a serious point. In the United Kingdom most hypnotherapy organisations strongly oppose stage hypnosis - for instance anyone employing hypnosis for the purposes of entertainment is banned from membership of the James Braid Society which owns this website.
Those taking part in the hypnotised focus groups are inducted to the alpha state, which is characterised by a pleasant, reflective, dreamy or semi-alert experience. It is at this point that they are asked about topics concerning the brand or product under examination.
According to Hal Goldberg, head of Qualitative & Quantitative Research in California, the aim is to discover a brand’s “imprint.”
He added: "People can describe the cookies their mother made them when they were five in great detail. This drives adult behaviour."
However is this ethical use of hypnosis? Well the president of New York agency Avrett, Free & Ginsberg, Stuart Grau, admits some clients are uncomfortable with the idea.
Avrett, Free & Ginsberg has used hypnosis with focus group hypnosis for more than a decade and found it to be particularly useful when consumers don't have negative feelings about a product, but just are simply not predisposed to buying it.
And both Mr Goldberg and Ms Solovay have insisted use of hypnosis cannot make consumers say or do things against their will.
But there are also those strongly challenging over whether the technique works. Award-winning, best selling author Douglas Rushkoff, whose works include Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside, says companies who pay for such services are wasting their money.
He went on to tell Brandweek: "It's worse than nonsense. It's a part of the continuing trend of American businesses moving away from actual expertise.”
