Análise de múltiplos fatores em dados qualitativos ordinais: estudo de caso do comportamento dos consumidores em relação à qualidade de cafés

Abstract

Coffee has a prominent position in the Brazilian socioeconomic scenario, for, in addition to beingrelevant in the generation of jobs and in all economics, whether directly or indirectly, it is also important in social relationships. Thestudy of the consumers’ behavior is an important tool to the identification of the motivations in the coffee purchasing processes in the different segments of this market. However, when considering groups of qualitative variables in a multivariate approach, the usual statistical techniques are limited or infeasible to describe adequately the sensory profile of consumers.This work was carried out with the objective of usingthe Multiple Factor Analysis technique in the study of the behavior of coffee consumers in a public opinion poll applied to a group of consumers located in the city of Varginha, MG. Six assertions (five-point Likert) were used related to consumers' perceptions regarding coffee quality. The results show moderate similarity in the responses given by individuals in the subsets of the variables (brand and quality) and (preference and price), and low similarity in the subsets of the variables (quantity of cups of coffee consumed), (roaster and producer) and (region and production). It follows that the use of this technique is viable, since it allows discriminating the behaviors of the coffee consumers.