Curion Reports 74% of Consumers Would Walk Away from a Brand Over One Failed Smart Feature

New Intelligence report, The Death of Maximalism, shows smart tech wins loyalty when it gives consumers less to manage, and costs brands when it doesn’t.

CHICAGO, IL, UNITED STATES, November 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Curion, a product insights and consumer research firm with more than 50 years of experience, today released The Death of Maximalism: Keys to Innovations that Stand the Test of Time, a 74-page new Curion Intelligence Report on how consumers live with smart technology in durable products.

As brands race to add apps, AI, and connected features, the research asks a simple question: is smart technology helping brands or hurting them?

People have multiple smart-tech moments each day, and nearly 90% of those moments go smoothly and unnoticed. But the bar for what earns a place in their homes is higher than many brands assume.

Key findings include:
• A failed feature costs the whole brand. 65% of consumers say one bad smart product would make them trust the brand less across everything it sells, and 74% would be much less likely to buy from that brand again.
• The fundamentals come first. When splitting 100 points across purchase drivers, consumers gave reliability, performance, and durability more than twice the weight of smart features and the latest technology.
• “Smart” means peace of mind. Consumers define smart technology by reassurance and reliability. The top definitions were “gives me peace of mind when I’m away from home” and “works reliably without me having to manage it.”

• One app is the limit. 78% want a single place to control their smart products. Only 9% are willing to manage a separate app for each one.

“Consumers told us the best technology is the kind they don’t have to think about,” said Tomás Gilbert, director, strategic insights, Qual at Curion. “Brands that measure innovation by the burden it removes, rather than the features it adds, are the ones earning long-term loyalty.”

The study combined qualitative discovery and quantitative validation. In the qualitative phase, consumers across the U.S. and U.K. documented the products in their homes through digital ethnographies, tracked moments of delight and frustration in real time with Curion’s Clickscape^® tool, and joined follow-up in-depth interviews. An online survey of 609 U.S. household decision-makers then measured those findings across categories and adopter segments.

“Every category is facing pressure to add more,” said Keren Novack, president of Curion. “This research gives brands a clear way to tell which innovations will last and which ones will add noise.”

Brand and insights leaders can request a walkthrough of the full report with Curion’s Strategic Insights team: https://resource.curioninsights.com/smart-product-innovation-for-durables-curion-intelligence-reports

About Curion
Curion helps the world’s leading FMCG companies develop products people choose again and again. For more than 50 years, Curion has combined data-driven consumer and product insights, sensory expertise, proprietary methodologies, and advanced research capabilities to help clients identify opportunities, refine innovation, and confidently bring winning products to market. With seven company-owned testing facilities, a proprietary consumer panel, and a global network of research partners, Curion delivers impactful and actionable insights at every stage of the product lifecycle and continues to build a reputation for excellence and trust among the world’s leading consumer brands.

Stacia Kirby
Kirby Communications
stacia@kirbycomm.com
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