Coffee is one of the most appreciated beverages worldwide. However, little is known about the factors that motivate the consumption of coffee in the form of capsules (CC), roasted beans (CB), and powder (CP). Thus, qualitative methodologies such as of completion task (CT) and hard laddering (HL) were used in this study to help understand the motivations that drive the choice of different coffee presentations. The results obtained show that CP was perceived as traditional, practical, low cost, low quality generating less pleasure during consumption when compared with the others. CC was perceived as more practical, with the practicality and variety of flavors, although the higher price, lower sensory quality and the environmental impacts were relevant perceptions. Although CB was perceived as a high-quality product, generating greater consumer satisfaction, its high cost and lack of convenience stood out. Therefore, both techniques were able to capture the consumers' perception with great similarity between the results; however, it is worth emphasizing that HL was able to achieve deeper values related to food choice and consumption of product. This information can be used by the coffee producers and the processing industries to develop effective marketing strategies to effectively reach market segments. Practical application As the demand for coffee consumption has increased over the years, driven by the diversification of commercial presentations of the product, it is of great value to understand the perception of consumers and the factors involved in purchase and consumption. Laddering is a useful in-depth interviewing technique of qualitative research that unveils opinions, attitudes and beliefs that are part of consumers' cognitive structure. Projective methodologies as completion task use ambiguous and indirect stimuli such as images or stories encourage participants to project their own experience onto the stimuli, allowing that values, ideas, and abstract need to be explored. We believe that the data obtained in such a deep and spontaneous way can be extrapolated to guide actions and can help several decisions of product development, labeling, packaging, and marketing.

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

O consumo de café no Brasil registrou crescimento em 2021. Contudo, de forma a posicionar e comercializar esse produto com sucesso, o setor deve compreender a percepção e expectativas do consumidor de forma eficaz. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a percepção do consumidor sobre cafés, identificando prioritariamente os fatores envolvidos no processo de escolha através da Escala de Diferença Máxima (MaxDiff). Inicialmente, participantes recrutados (n=154) realizaram uma tarefa de associação e levantamento livre de termos e atributos para um bom café. Posteriormente, os atributos selecionados foram empregados no exercício MaxDiff, desempenhado por consumidores de distintos tipos e versões de café (n = 330). A Estimativa Bayesiana hierárquica, ANOVA, teste de média de Tukey (diferença global) e o teste Kruskal-Wallis (tipo de café consumido) foram usados para interpretar os dados coletados. Observou-se que parâmetros intrínsecos apresentam mais relevância e frequência de menção que os extrínsecos para o café. Evidencia-se que sabor, aroma e intensidade configuram como os atributos mais importantes de um bom café, independentemente do café consumido. Notam-se ainda diferenças importantes entre a percepção dos consumidores de café em pó, em cápsula, solúvel e expresso. Assim, conclui-se que a técnica de MaxDiff permitiu identificar as percepções do consumidor sobre o café, podendo auxiliar o setor cafeeiro e suas iniciativas de marketing e comunicação.