Coffee quality: Insights of Brazilian consumers from different sociodemographic levels combining modified Word Association and Maximum Difference Scaling (MaxDiff)

Abstract

The coffee market is dynamic and offers several products (e.g., powder, capsule, instant, and grain) distributed in different quality categories, such as traditional, extra strong, special, gourmet, and premium. However, despite the diversity of products, there is little information about how consumers with different sociodemographic characteristics perceive and idealize high-quality coffees. This study used a modified Word Association task (n = 142) to determine the attributes of high-quality coffee and the Maximum Difference Scale (n = 330) to organize the attributes concerning their importance between groups of consumers from different sociodemographic levels. Consumers considered flavor, aroma, and intensity as the most important attributes of high-quality coffees, regardless of gender or socioeconomic class. In addition, price and sweetness were important attributes for class C consumers, while temperature and roasting were more important for class A.

Practical Application

Knowing the specificities of coffee consumers allows the manufacturer to direct their products to different niches that perceive the product differently.