Chapter 1

A study on customer perception towards dairy products

Madurai city.

INTRODUCTION
India dairying is emerging as a successful industry. India represents one of the
world’s largest and fastest growing markets for milk and dairy products due to
the increasing disposable incomes among the 250 million strong middle class.
The world dairy is zooming around India for its rapidly growing markets that
promise the ‘moon’. The changing international dairy trade pattern, following
GATT and the emergence of the World Trade Organization (WTO), offers to
the Indian dairy industry an opportunity to take its bow as an exporter. India’s
enthusiasm to integrate with the world economy is reflected in technological
upgradation, professional excellence, and cost-effective approach. In India,
dairying occupies a prominent place in rural life and provides not only a
subsidiary occupation and better nutritional standards but also a source of
organic manure and draught power. Though the contribution of overall
agriculture to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country has declined
during the last decade, the contribution of the livestock sector to the Gross
Domestic Product has improved from about 6 to 8.5 percentage. It is also
pertinent to note that milk is the single largest contributor in the agriculture
sector to the national Gross Domestic Product. The growth of dairying in India
with the total milk production of 74.3 million tones and per capita milk
availability of 214 gm/day has been a commendable achievement and well
recognized. The Indian dairy sector is vibrant with an exciting future and the
world dairy industry is also zooming on India for its aridly growing markets.
Statement of the problem:
The milk processing industry is small compared to the huge amount of milk
produced every year. Only 10 percentage of all the milk is delivered from some
400 dairy plants. A specific Indian phenomenon is the unorganized sector of
milkmen, vendors who collect the milk from local producers and sell the milk in
both, urban and non-urban areas, which handles around 65-70 percentage of the
national milk production. In the organized dairy industry, the cooperative milk
producers have a 60percentage market share. The cooperative dairies process 90
percentage of the collected milk as liquid milk whereas the private dairies
process and sell only 20 percentage of the milk collected as liquid milk and 80
percent for other dairy products with a focus on value-added products.

One of the major reasons for the poor shelf life of traditional dairy products is
thatthere exists either no packaging or inadequate packaging. The challenge to
the packaging fraternity is to deliver the nutritious dairy foods to the consumer
in most economical, hygienic, safe and environmentally friendly packages.

Scopeof the study :

The study that covers the attitude and perception of the consumer’s preference
for dairy products in Madurai district. This will be of immense use to the
marketers in the dairy industry. This study will help the private brands to
improve and to bring some innovation in their products which will fulfill the
needs and desires of the consumers. Moreover, this study will help the
policymakers to frame the policies to improve the productivity of milk based on
the increasing demand for milk and dairy products.

OBJECTIVES
 To analyze the profile of sector at state level and
district (Madurai)level
  To analyze the brand preferences and influencing
factor of the respondents towards dairy products.
 To go into the problems faced by the respondents in
dairy products
 To offer suggestions for the development of the
dairy

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF THE CONCEPTS

Consumer

An individual who buys the products or services for personal use andnot for
manufacture or resale. A consumer is someone who can make thedecision
whether or not to purchase an item at the store, and someone whocan be
influenced by marketing and advertisements.

Perception

The ability to see, hear or become aware of something through the

senses.

Dairy
A production plant for the processing of milk is called a dairy or a dairyfactory.

Dairy Products
A dairy product or milk product is food produced from the milk ofmammals.
Dairy products are usually high energy-yielding food products.Apart from
breastfed infants, the human consumption of dairy products issourced primarily
from the milk of cows, water buffaloes, goats, sheep, yaks,horses, camels,
domestic buffaloes, and other mammals. In this study thedairy products refer to
milk, milk biscuit, milk chocolate, curd, ghee, butter,paneer, ice-cream and
flavored milk.

Skimmed Milk Powder

Skimmed milk powder has an extremely low fat percentage (0.5%).Through the
method of spray, drying, skimmed milk is obtained. In powderform it is creamy
white in color and smooth to the touch. When mixed witwater it reconstitutes
easily. Skimmed milk shall have vitamin A added sothat each quart of food
contains not less than 2,000 international units ofVitamin A.

Whole Milk Powder

Whole milk powder is white to light cream in color with a clean,pleasing taste.
Typically, dry whole milk is obtained by removing waterfrom pasteurized,
homogenized or non-homogenized milk. It mayalternatively be manufactured by
blending fluid, condensed or nonfat drymilk with liquid or dry cream or with
fluid, condensed or dry milk, providedthe composition of the whole milk
powder conforms to the standard of43identity, which says it must contain
between 26 percentage and 40 percentagemilk fat (by weight) on an “as is” basis
and not more than 5 percentagemoisture (by weight) on a milk solids-not-fat
basis. By removing moisture tothe greatest extent possible, microbial growth is
prevented. Vitamin A and/orD fortification of whole milk powder is an
acceptable option.

Homogenized Milk

Homogenized milk is milk which has been treated to ensure breakup ofthe fat
globules to such an extent that, after 48 hours of quiescent storage at45 degree
F., no visible cream separation occurs on the milk, and the fatpercentage of the
top 100 milliliters of milk in a quart, or of proportionatevolumes in containers of
other sizes, does not differ by more than 10 percentagefrom the fat percentage
of the remaining milk as determined after thoroughmixing. The word "milk"
shall be interpreted to include homogenized milk.

Pasteurization Milk

Pasteurization is a process of heating the milk below its boiling point todestroy
the micro-organisms present in it. Pasteurization is the act or processof heating a
food, especially a beverage such as milk, to a specifictemperature for a specific
period of time in order to kill microorganisms thatcould cause disease, spoilage,
or undesired fermentation.

Ultra Heat Treatment

Ultra-high temperature processing (UHT), or ultra-heat treatment,sterilizes food

by heating it above 135 °C (275 °F) – the temperaturerequired to kill spores in
milk - for 1 to 2 seconds. UHT is most commonlyused in milk production, but
the process is also used for making fruit juices,cream, soy milk, yogurt, wine,
soups, honey, and stews. UHT milk was firstdeveloped in the 1960s and became
generally available for consumption inthe 1970s. It has a shelf life of six to nine
months. It was introduced in theU.S. market back in 1993.
Milk Equivalent (Me)

Milk equivalent is a measure of the quantity of fluid milk used in aprocessed

dairy product. Measured on a milk fat basis, it takes about 21.8pounds of farm
milk to make a pound of butter.

Bastion

Anything seen as preserving or protecting some quality, condition, etcis called

bastion. Here it refers to the preservation of milk.

Operation Flood
Operation Flood, launched in 1970 is a project of the National
DairyDevelopment Board (NDDB), which was the world's biggest
dairydevelopment program, that made India, a milk-sufficient nation, the
largestmilk producer in the world, surpassing the USA in 1998, with about
17,45 percentage of global output in 2010–11.The operation in 30 years doubled
themilk available per person, and which made dairy farming India’s largest self
sustainable rural employment generator. It was launched to help farmersdirect
their own development, placing control of the resources they create intheir own
hands. All this was achieved not merely by mass production, butby production
by the masses.

Bactofugation

Bactofugation is a process in which a specially designed centrifugecalled a

Bactofuge is used to separate micro-organisms from milk.Originally the
Bactofuge was developed to improve the keeping quality ofmarket milk. At the
present time bactofugation is also used to improve thebacteriological quality of
milk intended for other products like cheese, milkpowder and whey for baby
food.

Faida

Financial Access for Investing in the Development of Afghanistan(FAIDA)

seeks to build a sustainable, diverse, and inclusive Afghanfinancial sector that
can generate and sustain quality employment and meetthe needs of businesses of
all size (micro, small and medium enterprise) witha special focus on the
agricultural sector and the southern and eastern region.The $108 million
program began in February 2011 and ends in February2016.

Geriatrics
The branch of medicine is concerned with the diagnosis, treatment
andprevention of disease in older people and the problems specific to
aging.From the Greek "geron" meaning "old man" + "iatreia" meaning
"thetreatment of disease".

Low Density Lipoprotein:

LDL cholesterol is considered as the “bad” cholesterol because itcontributes to

plaque, a thick, hard deposit that can clog arteries and makethem less flexible.
This condition is known as atherosclerosis.

High Density Lipoprotein

HDL cholesterol is considered “good” cholesterol because it helps

remove LDL cholesterol from the arteries.

Dairy Storage and Shelf Life

Dairy storage and shelf life represents the timeline for the milk from
not being deteriorated. It is a period that a product can be kept underpractical
storage conditions and still retains acceptable quality. The onlyexception is
infant formula. Infant food and formula is required to carry anexpiration date to
ensure that the nutrient value has not deteriorated.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this study, descriptive research design was adopted. The researcherhas
collected both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected47
directly from the respondents with the help of a structured interviewschedule.
Personal interviewing method was adopted to collect the primarydata. The
secondary data was collected from the books, journals, magazines,newspapers,
periodicals, theses and websites.In this study, the factors influencing the
individuals to prefer theparticular brand were studied by taking into certain
factors like price,quality, quantity, taste, colour, form, brand image and place of
purchase.

Research design

This research is descriptive study in nature. A descriptive research is concerned

withconditions, practices, structures, differences or relationships that exist,
opinion held, processthat are going on or trends that are evident. The overall
plan for the conduct of this researchto find out the answers to the research
questions during the initial stages is explained inresearch design. It also includes
the sampling technique to be adopted, the collection of datathrough various
instruments, statistical tools deployed for data analysis and interpretation.

Sources of data

In this study, the descriptive research design was adopted. The researcher has
collected both primary and secondary data. For the purpose of collecting
primary data with regard to the behavior of consumers, the researcher has
designed a comprehensive interview schedule which is duly pretested. Those
who consume milk and milk products have been considered as sample
respondents for the present analysis. The secondary data was collected from the
books, journals, magazines, newspapers, periodicals, theses and websites.

Sample design
 It was very difficult to conduct a study from the entirepopulation in
Madurai city. So representative samples are drawn from the purpose
ofstudy.

Selection Sampling area

Madurai city is the second largest district in the population of the 32 districts of
the state of tamilnadu. The city of Madurai serves as a district headquarters. A
good literacy rate is also noticed in Madurai city and majority of consumers give
importance to dairy products. A study has been therefore undertaken to know
the consumers preference for dairy products in Madurai city.

Sample size
Sample size is an important feature of any empirical study in which the
goal is to make inferences about a population from a sample. In practice, the
sample size used in a study is usually determined based on the cost, time or
convenience of collecting the data and the need for it to offer sufficient statical
power. The sample size is 80 the consumers preference for dairy products in
Madurai city.

Periodof the study

This research covers the period of study from only. It islimited to Madurai city
only. Data was collected during this period and results pertain to this period of
study

Limitationof the study:

This investigation was directed in the Madurai Tamil Nādu with an example
size of 80 respondents. This investigation may not address the genuine image of
the all-out populace. However most extreme consideration has been taken to
keep away from one-sided sees structure the clients by setting up an all around
communicated survey, still the respondents may have offered inclined
viewpoints that might influence the consequences of the investigation. The
information gathered for this investigation is restricted to the select Dairy Item
classifications and choose client base. The example for this examination is
advantageous example from select the retail outlets.

Toolsfor analysis

In this study, the researcher adopted various statistical techniques like

percentage analysis, cross tabulation, chi-square test and ranking techniques.
For diagrammatic presentation pie chat, bar charts are also used.
CHAPTER SCHEME
CHAPTER IDeal with “Introduction and design of the study”. It involves
statementof the problem, objectives of the study, scope of the study, research
methodology, tools usedfor analysis and limitations of the study.
CHAPTER IIDeals with “ Review of various literatures”
CHAPTER IIIDeals with profile of study.
CHAPTER IVDeals with “The brand loyalty and consumer preference towards
dairy product in Madurai city”. Thestatistical tools are used to make an analysis
and to interpret the data collected.
CHAPTER VDeals with “Findings, Suggestions and Conclusions” are derived
fromThe brand loyalty and consumer preference towards dairy product in
Madurai city”.