ICVV researchers from the Aroma, Flavor and Oenology Analysis group (LAAE-Rioja) publish the results of a study that aims to identify the dimensions that make up the wine consumption experience, as well as its weight among individuals with different levels of involvement And experience.
Classically, most consumer studies focus on measuring, on a linear, one-dimensional scale, the quality, acceptability, or preference of a product by the consumer.
This conventional approach is not exhaustive in itself, since differences in product experiences go beyond a one-dimensional scale, and to understand acceptability it is important to understand the interaction of the product with the consumer in a given context.
Hence, there is a need to introduce new concepts from other disciplines, which allow us to measure the acceptability of our product.
The research team’s proposal is based on the experiential model suggested by Warrel in 2008 for the evaluation of perceived experience in the field of automobile design.
In this model, experience is considered as a multidimensional configuration that can be explored by measuring cognitive, affective, and sensory responses.
In this context, the objectives of this work were: 1) Understanding the wine consumer using the theoretical framework derived from the product experience and 2) identifying the basic components of wine appreciation among consumers with different levels of involvement and experience.
For this, a preliminary study was carried out to identify groups of consumers with different levels of involvement in the world of wine. Next, a total of six contextualized focus groups were carried out with 43 Spanish wine consumers and professionals who were categorized according to their level of involvement and experience.
The main findings show that the experiences of wine consumers are the result of pre-, peri- and post-consumption experiences.
In addition, it has been observed that the level of experience and involvement of the consumer determine the weight given to each of the dimensions involved in the consumer experience. Thus, consumers with low involvement in the world of wine favor the sensory and affective dimensions, experts operate mainly in the sensory and cognitive dimensions, while highly involved consumers oscillate between the three dimensions (sensory, affective and cognitive).
The results show the importance of multidimensionality to understand the consumer experience beyond exclusively hedonic or emotional measures.
This work has been financed by the Ministry of Science and Universities (AGL-2017-87373-C3-3-R). MPSN thanks the State Research Agency, Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Fund for its postdoctoral contract: Ramón y Cajal Program (RYC2019-027995-I).
Source: www.icvv.es For more information you can access the full article: Oyinseye, P., Suárez, A., Saldaña, E., Fernández-Zurbano, P., Valentin, D., Sáenz-Navajas, M. -P. Multidimensional representation of wine drinking experience: Effects of the level of consumers’ expertise and involvement (2022) Food Quality and Preference, 98, art. No. 104536,
