How, exactly, do our five senses stimulate our desire for quick-service eateries, and affect our emotions as a result? When consumers are immersed into the restaurant experience, sensory stimulations are impacted, sometimes without even realizing it. In the order of how we’d experience these stimuli (sight, smell, sound, touch, and finally taste), concepts and strategies are outlined that can lead to winning solutions for quick-service restaurants.

Sensory and emotional profiling provides nuanced, multi-faceted insight into consumers’ emotional experiences, highlighting opportunities to increase guest connection, brand loyalty, and repeat purchases. When quick-service brands leverage their understanding of consumers’ emotional responses to their products, they can connect to diners on a deeper level and provide solutions to important consumer needs.

As a part of Authority Magazine's series called “5 Things You Need To Create a Successful Food or Beverage Brand”, Michael Nestrud, PhD VP, Strategic Accounts, dug in with impactful answers. "You should have enough knowledge about the purchaser of your product to create a vignette about them. Who are they? Why do they need this product? What similar products do they use? How often will they buy it? What types of shops will they find it at? Very rarely do brands use classic demographics as their primary targets anymore. Now it’s all about targeting behavior and beliefs."

Keren Novack, president of Curion, was interviewed by Laura Bianchi, an editor of Crain's Chicago Business. "You can’t really understand a client’s objectives and solve problems without tasting or using a product."

Because emotions are so subjective and difficult to quantify, understanding them as a driving force behind consumer decision-making requires a way to measure emotions accurately and reliably. American Psychologist James Russell created the Mood Circumplex of Affect, which has been proposed as a general model of human emotions. When our emotions are positive and deactivated, we may feel calm and relaxed. On the other hand, if our emotions are negative and deactivated, we are depressed and bored.

The role of emotion in consumers’ quick-serve experiences becomes particularly relevant in the context of product-liking and consumer experience. Emotions are the neural glue that connects every facet of our human experience, including movement, memory, metabolism, thoughts, context, and sensations. Acting as gatekeepers to our conscious lives, emotions dictate what we pay attention to, help us prioritize information, and determine how we react.

“Part of the journey of relaunching the Famous Amos brand was to bring best-in-class ingredients to the consumer,” says Joey Kreger, client services director of Curion.

71% of Curion’s workforce is women, fostering a culture of mutual respect and building a better team, making space for questions and mistakes along the way. “It’s so important that everyone knows their worth and power within the company, and that happens through respect,” says Curion President Keren Novack.

“It’s so important that everyone knows their worth and power within the company, and that happens through respect,” says Curion President Keren Novack.

Sustainability and consumer insights inform more functional packaging designs for foodservice and ecommerce due to COVID-19 behavioral changes.