How Wellbeing Drives Experiential Value: Emotional, Social, and Sensory Influences on Multisensory Consumption of Wine with Music
Consumers increasingly seek experiences that deliver emotional meaning and personal
enrichment rather than functional value alone. However, existing sensory marketing research
typically treats consumer wellbeing as a post-consumption outcome rather than a strategic
driver of those experiences. This study investigates how emotional and social wellbeing,
novelty-seeking, and music-related engagement shape consumers’ evaluations of combined
multisensory consumption experiences (pairing wine tasting and music). Data were collected
through a structured questionnaire applied to 200 consumers exposed to a multisensory
wine-music context. The methodology employed established multi-item scales to measure
emotional and social wellbeing, food neophilia, and music engagement. The overall liking for
the product, Port wine, and for the combination of Port wine tasted with surrounding music
were also measured, using a 9-point hedonic scale. Survey data were analysed using partial
least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test a wellbeing-driven experiential
framework linking psychological states and contextual cues to product liking, music liking,
and overall combination liking. The data revealed several strong relationships. Wine liking
substantially impacted combination liking (β = 0.503, p < 0.001), as did musical involvement
(β = 0.412, p < 0.001). Emotional well-being was a significant predictor of wine liking (β =
0.313, p < 0.001). Additionally, individual profile features strongly influenced musical
engagement (β = 0.501, p < 0.001), and food neophilia significantly influenced product liking
(β = 0.087, p < 0.01). The model explains nearly 50% of the variance in combination liking. The
findings highlight that experiential value is created through emotionally and socially engaging
environments rather than isolated sensory cues. The study positions consumer wellbeing as a
strategic antecedent of experiential value creation, extending sensory marketing research
with actionable insights.
Publish date 2026-08-11
Author(s) Célia Rocha; António J. D. V. T. Melo; Bruna Barbosa; Ana Pinto; Rui Costa Lima; José Carlos Ribeiro; Luís Miguel Cunha
