Experienced value is what a user actually feels when they use a product: the subjective sense of quality, of this being good, of the product delivering what it promised. It's the "this is incredible" vs "this is fine" vs "this is not for me." The conventional model treats experienced value as a function of features: better features deliver more value, and users can recognize and evaluate that value objectively through use. This model is incomplete in a way that matters enormously. Experienced value is a byproduct of meaning. The expectations created by the product's meaning before use shape what is actually experienced during use. You experience what you expect to experience. The Mogami cable and the eight-pound cable measure identically; the Mogami sounds better. The Nike shoe on the podium and the same shoe on the discount rack are identical; the podium shoe feels better. The supermarket wine with the fake prestigious label won an international competition against wines that cost many times more. This is not a cognitive trick that a sufficiently rational person could override. It reflects how perception works. Meaning creates expectations, expectations shape perception, and perception is the experience. The practical implication is that improving features without improving meaning does not reliably improve experienced value. And improving meaning without improving features can dramatically improve experienced value; up to the point where the functional product fails to support the meaning that's been established. See also: Product Meaning, Symbolic Product, Functional Product.