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Katie Maslanka

Chicago-based research firm Curion launches “LifeLabs” to conduct consumer testing in real-world settings

Chicago-based research firm Curion launches “LifeLabs” to conduct consumer testing in real-world settings 150 150 Katie Maslanka

Our research has revealed that the most accurate consumer insights are born from people interacting with products in their day-to-day lives… Check out LifeLabs by Curion featured on Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery.

My Food Job Rocks

My Food Job Rocks 150 150 Katie Maslanka

Hear Curions Midwest- VP of Client Services, Keren Novack talk with My Food Job Rocks host Adam Yee about her background in the industry, career, trends, and how Curion is helping our fortune 500 clients perfect, innovate, and bring to life their products through all stages of a life cycle.

Listen Here

Insights In-Context

Insights In-Context 150 150 Katie Maslanka

Product testing out of the lab brings the experience to the consumer’s life, enabling researchers to understand the brand in a context that is more real than central location testing.… Check out LifeLabs by Curion featured on Quirk’s Media.

Does the Consumer Want Your Product? CURION Can Tell You on the NexxtLevel …

Does the Consumer Want Your Product? CURION Can Tell You on the NexxtLevel … 150 150 Katie Maslanka

Check out Curion’s CEO Sean Bisceglia on NexxtLevel Brands Podcast where he discusses the importance of consumer data, how Curion does it’s research to collect consumer insights data, and the difference in the ways big brands and small, emerging brands apply this data.

Patricia Manos joins Curion as VP of Marketing and Partnerships, Leading Life Labs partnerships and marketing teams

Patricia Manos joins Curion as VP of Marketing and Partnerships, Leading Life Labs partnerships and marketing teams 150 150 Katie Maslanka

Patricia Manos has been named VP of Marketing and Partnerships for Chicago-based Curion, http://www.curioninsights.com. Curion is a leading provider of consumer insights research and product testing for both global CPG’s and challenger brands in the food & beverage, personal care, fragrance, and home care categories. Manos is an experienced executive with over 10 years of marketing and partnership building experience.

“With our key strategic initiative of Life Labs, a disruptive approach to in-context research, Patricia will be critical in our growth. Patricia has a strong track where she has developed and executed effective business, marketing and sales strategies while building key connections and partnerships to support organizational objectives and growth. In addition, working with her again will be awesome,” says Sean Bisceglia, CEO of Curion.

Manos will be responsible for identifying and building strategic partnerships as Curion builds out its Life Labs initiative, as well as lead and manage the Curion marketing team to increase business awareness and growth. Most recently, she worked at Scout Exchange and served as Director of Partnerships and Alliances.

“Curion is my dream job,” says Manos. “I will leverage my experience putting effective implementations of process improvement, technology, marketing programs and growth strategies into place, which previously led to substantial growth for disruptive companies,” continues Manos. “My multiple-industry experience developing and presenting global brand messages, creating channels and partnerships to unique business models will be a great asset at Curion to achieve our Life Labs goals.”

About Curion:
Curion provides world-class quantitative and qualitative product insights. Applying proven industry-leading, innovative methods to service over 65% of Global 100 companies, Curion works with its clients to determine not only what products consumers like, but why they are liked and how. As a result, Curion clients mitigate risk of marketplace failure by ensuring that only products of quality and character will be introduced to the market, providing repeatable delight to their consumers. Curion accomplishes this with its disruptive methods and approaches, sensory processes, facilities and world-class data insights. In 2019 alone, Curion tested 127,000 consumers across its San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas and New York metropolitan-area facilities. The result of a merger between Q Research Solutions and Tragon Corp., Curion brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the consumer science industries.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Lisa Spathis, Lisa Spathis Public Relations, Inc.,
lisaspathis@gmail.com
847. 831.1367

Greg Silich Joins Curion Insights as Chief Operating Officer

Greg Silich Joins Curion Insights as Chief Operating Officer 150 150 Katie Maslanka

Greg Silich has been named at COO at Chicago-based Curion Insights, https://www.curioninsights.com, the world class consumer insights and sensory company that accelerates client businesses by providing powerful, actionable consumer data for Fortune 500 and other blue-chip companies in the food and beverage, personal care, fine fragrance and home and fabric care industries.

Silich has held multiple C-Level roles throughout the course of his career, and has served as a senior executive with vast experience in categories such as B-to-B services, technology and market research. He is joining Curion to scale it’s rapid growth, as he will be responsible for providing strategic direction for the company’s existing client business and for the company’s operational units. In his new role, Silich reunites with Curion CEO, Sean Bisceglia. Over the last 25 years, they worked together at Leo Burnett and since, sat on countless Corporate Boards for fast growth companies.

“Consumer insights are the rocket fuel that drive business today,” says Silich. “I am thrilled to again be working with Sean and his team. Curion partners with 65% of Fortune 500 CPG companies, all leaders in their categories. The combined strength of their talent, methodologies and marketers, position Curion as a true disrupter. I look forward to contributing to their growth.”

Sean Bisceglia adds, “We’re delighted to have Greg join our team. His strengths include both the ability to think and plan at the strategic level and to manage the day-to-day, tactical challenges of rapidly changing organizations. His experience and drive will help Curion as we introduce disruptive tools for our clients and grow our footprint.”

About Curion:
Curion provides world-class quantitative and qualitative product insights. Applying proven industry-leading, innovative methods to service over 65% of Global 100 companies, Curion works with its clients to determine not only what products consumers like but why they are liked and how. As a result, Curion clients mitigate risk of marketplace failure by ensuring that only products of quality and character will be introduced to the market, providing repeatable delight to their consumers. Curion accomplishes this with its disruptive methods and approaches, sensory processes, facilities and world class data insights. In 2019 alone, Curion tested 127,000 consumers across its San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas and New York metropolitan-area facilities. The result of a merger between Q Research Solutions and Tragon Corp., Curion brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the consumer science industries.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Lisa Spathis, Lisa Spathis Public Relations, Inc.,
lisaspathis@gmail.com
847. 831.1367

Behind the scenes: Data and technology bring food product R&D into the 21st century

Behind the scenes: Data and technology bring food product R&D into the 21st century 150 150 Katie Maslanka

With technology and predictive analytics encroaching on human functions across all industries, why do CPG companies still use testers in product development?

Read the latest Food Dive article where Curion’s CEO, Sean Bisceglia, speaks to how product and consumer insights firms must evolve to integrate large shifts in the industry and how his company has created services to pair with these transformations.

Additionally, hear from two of their clients, Mars Wrigley and Ferrara, on how their R&D priorities have changed with increased access to consumer feedback

 

Curion Brings Consumer Insights to Luncheon Experience at New Products Conference

Curion Brings Consumer Insights to Luncheon Experience at New Products Conference 150 150 Katie Maslanka

The Prepared Foods’ 37th annual New Products Conference will take place in Chicago at the Swissotel from September 30th-October 2nd. Featuring the latest information and trends presented by the Food and Beverage Industry’s top experts, the 3-day program will encourage companies to re-think their business efforts to help them obtain an edge on their competition.

As part of the New Products Conference, Chicago-based Curion (https://www.curioninsights.com), a leader in sensory and consumer product research will host an exclusive Sensory Luncheon experience on September 30th with Swissotel’s lead chef, Dan McGee. After the luncheon, Keren Novack, Curion’s VP of Client Services, will illustrate the application of consumer insights in context using live data from a recent Life Labs™study. Says Novack, “Attendees will be surprised to find out who the consumers are!”

“The most revered food and beverage companies are having to evolve how they create new products to stand out on the shelf. With this evolving creation process, our research methods must also evolve. As more new products are being introduced, the way we think about, approach and apply our methods to gain consumer insights is changing. The area of focus will be how consumers perceive a particular product and the influence of environment- therefore, Curion is innovating both in and out of the lab,” continued Novack.

During 2018, Curion, which serves Fortune 500 and other blue-chip customers in the food & beverage as well as personal care, fine fragrance, and home & fabric care industries, Curion tested 97,000 consumers in its facilities in Chicago, CaliforniaDallas, and New Jersey. The leading legacy brands have long enjoyed the competitive advantage of sensory research, coupled with precise data analytics. Curion aims to make sensory research widely available, recently debuting its eFive™ platform that offers emerging brands and global CPGs quick, accurate, and affordable consumer insights. This solution democratizes access to the knowledge challenger brands need most to succeed with a suite of offerings.

Curion is also using data to transform the way that consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies execute product testing for their brands. While product testing had been one of the last industries to embrace big data, Curion is guiding both long standing and established brands, as well as unheralded and emerging brands in the design of their packaging to meet and optimize consumer preference.

For more information on the New Products conference, visit https://www.preparedfoods.com/new-products-conference/agenda.

About Curion:
Curion provides world-class insights. From quantitative to qualitative product research, Curion applies proven industry-leading, innovative methods to service over 65% of Global 100 companies. As a full-service product and sensory insights firm, Curion works with its clients to determine not only what products consumers like but why they are liked and how to make optimizations. As a result, Curion clients mitigate risk of marketplace failure by ensuring that only products of quality and character will be introduced to the market, providing repeatable delight to their consumers. Curion accomplishes this with its expert employees, sensory processes, fully-equipped facilities and data insights. In 2018 alone, Curion tested 97,000 consumers across its San FranciscoChicagoDallas and New York metropolitan-area facilities. The result of a merger between Q Research Solutions and Tragon Corp., Curion brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the consumer and sensory science industries and pioneered many of the sensory methodologies considered industry standards today, including Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA)® and Partnership Solutions™.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Lisa Spathis, Lisa Spathis Public Relations, Inc.,
lisaspathis@gmail.com
847. 831.1367

Curion Hires 35 New Employees to Support Company Growth

Curion Hires 35 New Employees to Support Company Growth 150 150 Katie Maslanka

Curion’s Growth Plan for 2019 is 32%.

    “We have brought in professionals from leading Fortune 500 companies, including leading data companies and airlines as we need support to continue our growth and continue to develop and introduce new products.”

In an effort to keep up with their explosive growth and new initiatives, Deerfield based Curion, http://www.curioninsights.com, a leader in sensory and consumer product research and serves Fortune 500 and other blue-chip CPG customers in the food & beverage, personal care, fragrance and home & fabric industries, has hired 35 new employees since the beginning of 2019. Under the direction of CEO Sean Bisceglia, who joined the company in November 2018, Curion has introduced a number of new initiatives including eFive ™, a product that quickly delivers reliable consumer insights and is both affordable for emerging brands and positioned to be part of the agile development process that large CPG companies require. S2P followed, where Curion evaluates features that are important to maximizing liking and integrate product, packaging and positioning to reinforce each other. The latest innovation is Life Labs™, an initiative that tests products to gain consumer insights in a real-life environment. These services have fueled the company’s need to bring on seasoned experts in a number of different departments throughout the organization.

According to Bisceglia, “Curion is moving in innovative directions very quickly. We have recently introduced eFive ™ and Life Labs™ to our offerings. With our services for our customers expanding and the increasing number of industries we are serving, our internal staff needs to be broad-based and stacked with leaders in all areas of concentration. We have hired outside of our industry to add invaluable insight and perspective as Curion continues to evolve. Says Bisceglia, “We have brought in professionals from leading Fortune 500 companies, including leading data companies and airlines as we need support to continue our growth and continue to develop and introduce new products. These additions to our company will ensure that we can provide our clients with the most exceptional talent across the industry.”

The largest increase for Curion in hires has been in the Sales, Analytics and Marketing teams. This investment has already paid off as Curion has recently been recognized for their marketing efforts for several campaigns, including the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals as dotCOMM award winners and through the Summit International Awards organization as Summit Creative Award winners.

About Curion:

At Curion, we provide world-class insights. From quantitative to qualitative product research, we apply proven industry-leading, innovative methods to service over 65% of Global 100 companies. As a full-service product and sensory insights firm, we work with our clients to determine not only what products consumers like but why they are liked and how to make optimizations. As a result, our clients mitigate risk of marketplace failure by ensuring that only products of quality and character will be introduced to the market, providing repeatable delight to their consumers. We accomplish this with our expert employees, sensory processes, fully-equipped facilities and data insights. In 2018 alone, we tested 97,000 consumers across our San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas and New York metropolitan-area facilities. The result of a merger between Q Research Solutions and Tragon Corp., our company brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the consumer and sensory science industries and pioneered many of the sensory methodologies considered industry standards today, including Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA)® and Partnership Solutions™.

 

Curion offers four diverse ways to test potential products, gather consumer insights – Food Navigator-USA

Curion offers four diverse ways to test potential products, gather consumer insights – Food Navigator-USA 150 150 Katie Maslanka

How consumers buy and experience food is changing with the emergence of online shopping and a busy on-the-go culture, so it only makes sense that how companies test potential new products also evolves to better align with modern usage and values, according to consumer insight and product testing firm Curion.

“Consumer habits and styles are changing, including where they are shopping, the brands they want, what they look for, the value propositions and claims and packaging and tastes they like – it is all changing,”​ Curion CEO Sean Bisceglia told FoodNavigator-USA at the Digital Food & Beverage conference​ in Austin, Texas.

And as such, he explained, companies can no longer rely on old taste test data that may have helped them create successful products in the past but which is no longer current. Neither can they rely on the same old tactics for reaching consumers, such as rounding them up at a mall for a small focus group, in part because these strategies can take too long in today’s rapid innovation cycle, he said.

In response, Bisceglia said, Curion has developed four new ways of connecting with consumers or analyzing taste and sensory data to distinguish whether a new product will be a success.

The first is a new “self-serve” online portal called eFive that launched in February and is all about helping companies “fail fast and fail cheap,”​ Biscelgia said.

He explained that the sensory and product insights platform is specifically designed for emerging brands – whether at a startup or within a larger established company – that are trying to get to market as fast as possible with a minimally viable product.

Recognizing that emerging brands often have more limited budgets, eFive is an “off-the-shelf”​ take on Curion’s more traditional and tailored sensory testing that comes in around $7,500 versus $50,000 for Curion’s more premium offerings. The platform allows brands go online and choose how many products it wants to test, where it wants to test them, how many consumers it wants and then “swipe the credit card and off you go,”​ Biscelgia said.

[Editor’s note: See Curion in action at our upcoming Food For Kids conference in Chicago in the fall. Find all the details HERE​.]

“Big data” could provide answers to big questions​

The second way that Curion hopes to soon help brands is by harnessing the sensory data it has collected from testing more than 7,000 products in 30 categories with more than a half million consumers over the years.

Curion is still working out the kinks on how companies will be able to access the data, but the general idea is that brands can come to Curion with specific questions and based on anonymized past consumer test results Curion can provide detailed guidance and answers.

For example, if a company wanted to launch a new oatmeal but wasn’t sure what type of raisin to include, Curion could comb through its past data to provide insights on how consumers responded to different types of raisins in different oatmeals. Or, if a company wanted to develop an oatmilk, Curion could provide guidance on what qualities consumers like and don’t like about the category.

“We might be putting ourselves out of business with this, but the data we have is very valuable and can be harnessed to help brands go to market faster and be more agile,”​ he said.

Curion hopes to pilot this “big data play” by January 2020, and then make it available more broadly after that.

Life Labs allows for real life testing​

The third way that Curion already is helping brands gather consumer insights in today’s quickly evolving world, is through its Life Labs program, which is about to get a boost with a few prospective in context partners.

“We are exploring a potential partnership with an international shared workspace. This will allow us to pop-up​ anywhere in their 300 locations”​ to test a product and gain consumer insights in a real-life environment, Biscelgia said.

The Life Labs program also works with gyms and other community hubs to test products “in a more natural environment” with people who are eager to be apart of the creation process, he added.

Behavior scientists in the Life Labs program also offer virtual reality rooms where they create mock ups of how a product might look on a store shelf and then tracks participants decision-making process as they “shop” and evaluate products.

The fourth way that Curion hopes to help companies evaluate potential products is by expanding all of its services beyond just food and beverage to include testing consumers’ sensory experiences with electronics, automobiles, packaging and more, Biscelgia said.

“Right now we are only in food, but I see a lot of potential beyond food that will follow the same general testing principles,”​ he said.

Yuck or yum? Learn from Curion about how it conducts product testing with kids at the FoodNavigator-USA FOOR FOR KIDS summit​ November 18-20.

 

 

Curion offers four diverse ways to test potential products, gather consumer insights
By Elizabeth Crawford
19 August 2019