CONSUMER SATISFATION OF MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS OF MILMAINTRODUCTION

Milk is an opaque white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals (including monotremes). It provides the primary source of nutrition for newborns before they are able to digest other types of food. The early lactation milk is known as colostrum and carries the mothers antibodie to the baby. The exact component of rawmilk varies by species, but it contains significant amounts of saturated fat, protein and calcium as well as vitamin C.

In biblical times, the ideal home was in a land flowing in milk and honey. In India, the Hindu cultures demand the cow a sacred animal not to be killed. But the age of worship of cow is gone; it is now a biological machine. The rate of child death in India is about 40 percent and nearly 10 lakh children are dying due o under nourishment. Milk contains all the important ingredients like lactose, protein, calcium and riboflavin, which help to overcome under nourishment and thus reduce child death rate. The milk revolution in India was in the early 1950s stretching to a period of twenty years. Technically milk is lacteal secretion which is free of colostrums and it contain on average 83.4 percent water, 6.5 percent fact, 4.9 percent lactose, 4 percent protein,0.7 percent ash and 0.5 percent vitamins. It is believed that milk contains approximately thirteen times as much phosphorous, 5 times much potassium but only one-seventh chloride as does blood plasma. About 85 percent of the worlds human population prefers foodstuff of animal origin in the form of milk and meat in their regular diet.Though milk has high nutritive value, it is often seen that it is not within the research of an average Indian. Therefore the overall picture in the national sense is very grim. However it is very significant to note that about 85-86 percent of the families in India do not have the means to consume milk even for a day (protein association of India).

Further it is a very well known fact that the lack of adequate milk consumption makes the human body environment very fertile for the growth and development of various diseases. This, in the long run, affects the national health preservation and development programs.

Milma is an organization concerned with procurement, processing and marketing of milk and milk products. It is a well known source of milk in Kerala state and enjoys a monopoly status in the state, especially in Trivandrum. This project work is a study on the consumer satisfaction of Milma milk in Trivandrum District.

Objectives of the study

To find the acceptability of the product. To know the reasons for consumers switching over to competitors product. To know the level of consumers satisfaction of the product. To find out the factor influencing purchase decision.

Methodology

Collect the data from the consumers through questionnaires.

Limitations of the study

Due to the short span of time allotted for this project work intense study was not possible. Since people working in the department were dealing with tight schedules of work, the data collection was delayed. It was difficult to collect information from the consumers in Trivandrum District.

2.1 Industry profile

Dairy Industry in India

In 1998, India achieved the distinction of becoming the worlds largest milk producer. Milk production the year 2000 was 81 million tons representing 14% of the world production. In the year 2000 Indias milk production grew almost 4.2% as against the worlds average growth of less than 1%. India is well set to retain its position as he worlds top milk producers.

Started in 1970, the 3 phases of operation flood have pushed Indias milk production from 21 million tons to 81 million tons in 2000. According to the World Bank impact study, Rs 200 crores invested in the programme in 1981 returned s 24,000 crores per year between1985-1995. It may be noted that the growth in milk has surpassed the growth in grains and cereals and today milk is Indias number one farm produce worth Rs.100000 crores annually. It has had tremendous impact on the rural sector and has proven blessing for small and marginal farmers and landless laborers. Undoubtedly milk is the most powerful tool available to us for fighting poverty.

India has almost 90 millions milk animals. As illustrated in the table below 54% of Indias milk comes from the buffalo only 42% comes from the cow as against worlds average of 85%. This matter has significance for exports since the worlds preference is for product made from cows milk.

Break up of milk production by Species

MILK TYPE INDIA WORLDBUFFALO MILK 54 % 11.6 %COW MILK 42 % 85 %OTHERS 4 % 3.4 %

In spite of being the worlds largest milk producer, Indias milk processing industry is not very large. Only 12% of milk is delivered to dairies as the world average of 70%. In certain countries like New Zealand almost 98% of milk production is processed. Bulk of Indian milk is utilized for drinking or in the unorganized sector for making sweets or other traditional products.

The organized sector processing industry can be divided in to three segments:

a) Government/Semi-Governmentb) Co-operativesc) Private sector

With the exception of a few units the processing industry is largely involved either in liquid pasteurized milk of conversion of milk to milk powder and ghee. Value addition, consequently, is low. Instead of producing value added products the domestic processors continue to fight for a share of reducing domestic market of milk powders for reconstitution. Most domestic processors do not have the quality or the marketing knowledge to access the international markets.

Role of competitors in the milk market

Majority of the milk market remains with co-operatives which were formed under operation flood and over India. The milk marketing federation and its affiliated districts milk Unions control majority of milk market in the organized sector.

Major brands under Co-operative Umbrella are

Milma Verka Nandini Vijaya Aavin Parag Mother dairy etc.

These are few major companies which are in the forefront of dairy product marketing such as Britania, Nestle, Cadburys etc. New international players such as Anchor, Fonteero, Compina, Landolakes, etc are expected to enter the Indian marker very soon either directly or through joint ventures. The change in retail formats and opening of big retail malls like Reliance, Bharains wall mart, Trinetra etc has started the concept of store branding.

Kerala Market

Coming to Kerala Milma stalls enjoys a near monopoly in the organized milk marketing. However there are 35-40 brands of packaged milk being sold in Kerala. Some of the brands are Penta, Cowma, Balaji, Kairali, Royal, Ambadi, Arogya, Omgo, Taste milk etc. Few charitable organizations PDDP, Malanadu etc are also having their presence in the milk marker. Most of the private brands of milk are bringing milk from other states and sell it in Kerala.

Milma is the brand name of Kerala co-operative milk marketing federation Ltd (KCMMF), the apex co-operative of three Regional Unions viz, Thiruvanathapuram Regional Unions, Ernakulam Regional Union, and Malabar Regional Union. KCMMF was set up in 1980 to implement the popular operation flood project-ll in Kerala. The objective of Milma is to provide an assured market for the milk produced by the rural milk producers and at the same time provide wholesome, clean and nutritious milk and milk product to the urban consumers fully eliminating the middlemen in the dairy sector, thereby providing maximum returns to its farmers.

For the rural community of the country comprising of 74000 villages and over 90 lakh Dairy farmers, milk has become a commodity that has helped them to build a new life and provide stable income. Milma believes in developing rural village community which only helps to develop a strong nation. In its endeavor to meet the ever increasing consumer demand, Milma strives to provide quality products at competitive price and at the same time ensures better remuneration to the dairy farmers of the state.

Thiruvananthapuram Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Union (TRCMPU) covers the southers most district of the state viz Thiruvananthapuram, kollam, Aleppey and Pathanamthitta. TRCMPU operates three moderns dairies which are ISO certified and poised to acquire HACCP Certification.

Though there are large number of brands the share of each of these brands are too small. Altogether these private brands sell around three lakhs liters of milk per day. In the dairy product category all the multinational brands are available.

The total estimated milk consumption in the state is around 85 lakh liters per day. The organized sector caters to approximately 13 lakh liters per day. The remaining is completely under un-organized sector especially house-hold sales, own consumptions, sale by cycle vendors etc.

2.2 Organisation Profile

Milma is an oganisation concerned with the procurement, processing and marketing of milk and milk products. It is a well knows source of milk in Kerala state and enjoys a monopoly status in the state especially in Trivandrum. Marketing has its own origins in the fact that humans are creatures of needs and wants. Since may products can satisfy a given need, product choice is guided by the concept of values, cost and satisfaction. A thorough study of consumers and non-consumers of Milma reveals that people today are selective in their attitudes towards the purchasing of even basic necessities. The high literacy rate has made the majority of the consumers aware both the good and bad effects of each and every product.

Milk, during early times was considered as a rich mans product. But now situation has changed and every people irrespective of their income include milk in their daily diet. As the consumption increased, people begun to think about the quality, availability, type of packaging etc of the milk they consumed. Now the situation is such that there is a tough competition in the milk industry, so a study will throw light in to the various aspects of consumer behavior towards milk and milk market and also describe various features of milk market. The survey of consumers clarifies what they actually need, what are their complaints, what they expect from Milma etc. This study was conducted at the Milma Plant Ambalathara.

MILMAS MISSION

Farmers prosperity through Consumer satisfaction.

MILMAS OBJECTIVES

To channelise marketable surplus milk from the rural areas to urban deficit areas to maximize the returns to the producer and provide quality milk and milk products to the consumers. To carryout activities for promoting production, procurement, processing and marketing of milk and milk product for economic development of farming community. To build-up a farming community. To provide constant market and stable price to the dairy farmers for their produce

NETWORK OF MILMA

The motto of co-operation of the people, by the people and for the people is the foundation of the three tier system followed by the organization. At the village level we have the village milk co-operative societies which have the local milk producers as its members. These villages co-operatives unit at the regional level and from Regional Co-operative unit at the regional level and from Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Unions. These Unions are federated at the state level to form State Federation namely Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF).

ANAND MODEL

During sixties in Anand (Kaira district, Gujarat) thousands of milk producers united together on co-operative lines with an integrated approach to production, procurement, processing and marketing of milk. This resulted in the formation of farmer owned, AMUL (Anand Milk Producers Union Ltd), which is a success story on the dairy scene in India.

Over the years this evolved itself into a model based on self rule by farmers ensuring maximum return to them. This model came to be known as ANAND PATTERN. The Anand pattern is a three tier structure consisting of:-

Village level primary co-operative societies called APCOS (Anand Pattern Co-operative Societies). District/Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Unions and State Level Milk Marketing Federation.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Side by side with development of milk procurement and sale, Milma has also concentrated on infra structural development with financial assistance from the National Dairy Development Board. As on date, there are ten milk processing plants with a combined processing capacity of 9.90 lakhs litres per day with further expansion envisaged over the next couple of years and 14 milk chilling plants scattered across the state. A milk powder plant is set up at Aleppey with a capacity for production of 10 MT milk powder per day. Apart from there are two cattle feed plants one at Pattanakkad and other one at Malampuzha the combined capacity of them is 500 TPD. The cattle feed manufactured in these plants are well accepted in the market. There is a centralized training to society staff, farmers and employees of Milma.

SUPPORT STRUCTURES

The major reason for the popularity of operation flood has become the Package Deal offered. The motto of providing all necessary facilities under one roof or the single window system has reinstated the faith that the farming in general and Kerala farmers in particular had in the Dairying.

The packages deal offered includes;Organizational structure

Milma is having a three tier structure with

Villae level Primary Co-operative Societies called APCOS. Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Unions (TRCMPU, ERCMPU, and MRCMPU) at Trivandrum, Ernakulam and Calicut. State level Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF).

MILMA PRODUCTS

The name of MILMA and its motto your health is our concern has become synonymous with assured quality. This is amply proved by fact of all its product mainly Ghee, selling solely under the trade name of MILMA, Milma has a range of products from wholesome pasteurized milk to pure ghee, creamy butter, nourishing sterilized flavoured milk and ice-creams. All the products strictly adhere to the PFA Rules and are sent to the market only after stringent quality checks. In the market Milma have built up a consumer orientation, which few other organizations can match. A marketing chain consisting of near 8000 outlets across the state ensures accessibility of Milmas products to one and all. Milma is commitment to the quality of milk that they deliver starts right at the doorsteps of the village producer. The Milma Ambalathara plant is producing the following products.

Milk

Milma provides pasteurized milk free from adulterants and harmful chemicals which is pure and safe. To meet the consumer s four variants of milk are marketed by TRCMPU:

Milma smart -: For the health conscious, Milma smart is the low cholesterol milk have 15% fat and 9.0% SNF which is ideal for heart patients and senior citizens. Toned Milk -: The milk which the consumers are more accustomed to Milma toned milk is having 3% fat and 8.5% SNF. Milma Jersy -: Another variant with 3.5% fat and 8.5% SNF, Milma jersey is ideal for making tea, coffee and delicious payasams. Milma Rich Plus -: The high energy milk, Milma rich plus is ideal for growing children and has 3.8% fat and 9% SNF.

Ghee

Made from cows milk, the golden colour Milma ghee which is Agmark Certified is famous for its aroma and taste. Available in consumers packs of 50ml, 100ml, 200ml, 500ml, 1 ltr, 2 ltr, and 5 ltr PET Jars.

Butter

With its natural golden colour, Milma butter is available in 100g and 500g with salted as well as unsalted packs.

Milcream

The popular ice cream manufactured by TRCMPU, milcream is made from Dairy fresh cream and using the state of the art technology and comes in variety of flavours like vanilla, pinapple, strawberry, mango etc to name a few. Apart from these, Milma cassata, chocobar, milcream delite, kulfi, pre packed cone etc are also manufactured at Thiruvananthapuram Dairy.

Curd

Ideal for home use and marriaes, Milma curd is available in 500g packings.

Sambaram

Keralas traditional thirst quencher, sambaram is made from curd using natural ingredients like ginger, chilly, curry leaves and salt. Free from any king of artificial flavours, a packet of Milma sambaram can rejudenate our body.

Peda

A milk based sweet made from concentrated milk, Milma peda is available in 18g, 400g packs.

Paneer

Pure vegetarians meat, Milma paneer is a fast growing milk product made by coagulating milk and is available in 100g and 1kg packings.

Dairy Whitener

Milma Dairy Whitener is widely used to prepare tea, coffee, delicious curd and is available in 200g and 500g packings.

Milk Lolly

Childrens favourate milk lolly is made from pasteurished milk with added sugar and avialble in different flavours.

Chocolate

The new product of Milma very much popular among the youngsters. Available in 5 different variants as per the consumer preference milk beats is the milk based chocolate, white choco beats is chocolate bar. Milma Krispy is chocomass coated with water biscuit and milky thunder is tasty enerty bar enrobed with creamy milk chocomass. Chocochat is caramel boughat coated with creamy milk chocomass.

Milma Soda

Popularly knows as 1.2E: Milma soda is UV sterilized and available in easy carry home packs of 500ml and 1.5 ltr PET bottles.

Milma Mango

Manufactured using UHT Technology, Milma mango is available in 200ml tetra packs as well as 500 ml and 1 ltr bottles.

Milma Plus

Sterilized flavoured milk which is available in five different flavours in 200ml single service glass bottle.

Ice Candy

Water based lolly hygienically made using pasteurized water and safe to consume.

Yoghurt

Fermented milk product plain as well as flavoured Milma yoghurt is available in 100ml packing. Rich source of lactobacillus bacteria required in stomach and intestine.

Shrikhand

Indigenous milk product semisoft sweetish/sour whole milk product prepared from lactic fermented curd.

Milma Drinking Water

Targeting the commuters, Milma drinking water is available in 1ltre packing.

Palada Mix

Ready made payasam milk ideal for making delicious payasams. Milma palada mix is available in 200g packings.

Milma always ofter the best to the consumers through a variety of products.When you buy a Milma product, you are contributing to the rural economy of the country which helps to build a stable foundation for the development of our nation.

Milmas Social Responsibility

Milma being a farmers organization catering to lakhs of milk consumers in the state has the twin responsibility of ensuring regular market and reasonable price to the milk purchased by the farmers and ensuring availability to lakhs of consumers in the state at reasonable price. Milma has successfully carrying out this social responsibility in the last few decades.

Plan of Milma

Milmas dream is to ensure prosperity through milk be it for the producer or for the consumer. Milma look forward t a bright future for this farmers organization and reiterate. Milmas resolve to strive relentlessly to make this a full fledged co-operatives of the farmers who would grow along with the organization.

Literature Review

Topic of study

Consumer satisfaction an overview

Whether the buyer is satisfied after purchase depends on the office performance in relation to the buyers expectations. In general satisfaction is a persons feeling of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product perceived performance in relation to his/her expectations.

As this definition makes clear, satisfaction is a function of received performance and expectation. If the performance falls short of expectations the consumer is dissatisfied. If the performance matches the expectations, the consumer is satisfied. If the performance exceeds expectations the customer is highly satisfied or delighted.

Many companies are aiming for satisfaction because customers who are just satisfied still find it easy to switch when a better offer comes along. Those who are highly satisfied are much less ready to switch. High satisfaction or delight creates an emotional affinity with the brand, not just a rational preference. The result is high customer loyalty. For consumer centered companies consumer satisfaction is both a goal and a marketing tool. Companies that achieve high consumer satisfaction rating make sure that their target market knows it.

Buying motives

A person has many needs at a given time. Some needs are biogenic need while some others are psychogenesis.

Biogenic needs: Needs which arise from psychological state of tension like hunger, discomfortable etc.

Psychogenic: Needs, which arise from psychological state of tension like need for recognition, esteem, belongingness etc.

A need becomes a motive when it is aroused to a sufficient level of intensity. So a motive can be defined as a need that is sufficiently pressing to drive the person to act motive which induce a person to purchase a product are called buying motives.

Generally individuals are motivated to buy because of external and internal motive. External motives are outside one for eg. Income, culture, occupation etc. Internal motives are those which originated in the mind of people. They may be either psychogenic and psychogenic.

Buying motives can be classified as

Ecorelated motives: For example the desire for a better self image or a desire for a state among ones peers.

Emotional motives: For example attraction for opposite sex, love and affection for others, social assistance, satisfaction of pride.

Rational motives: motives that generate because the feeling of gaining economic, efficiency and depended.Patronage motives: The motives, which explain why a consumer purchases a product only from one seller. Important patronage motives are price, location, quality, service etc.

The motives which express why consumers purchase the product only from one seller.

Buying motives can be explained on the basis of the following theory of motivation.

1, Maslows need hierarchy theory

a, Psychological need(food, water)b, Security and safety needs(security & protection)c, Social needs(sense of belongings, love)d, Esteem needs(self esteem, recognition)e, Self actualization need(self development & realization)

2, Herzberg two factor theory

Dissatisfiers: That goes dissatisfaction and satisfiers that goes satisfaction.

Tools for measuring consumer satisfaction

1, Complaint and suggestion system

A consumer centered organization makes it easy for its consumers to delivery suggestions and complaints. This information on flow provides the company with man good ideas and enables than to act more rapidly to the resource problems.

2, Consumer satisfaction surveys

Certain consumers cannot use complaint cell a measure of consumer satisfaction. Responsive consumers obtained a direct measure of consumer satisfaction by conducting periodic surveys.

3, Ghost shopping

Companies can hire persons to post as potential buyers to report their finding on strong and week points, the experiences in being company and competitive products.

4, Cost customer analysis

Customer should contact who have stopped buying or who have switched to other supplies to learn why this happened.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

The data after collection has to be processed and analysed in accordance with the out line laid down for the purpose at the time of developing the research plan. This is essential for a scientific study and for ensuring that we have all elevant data for making contemplated comparison and analysis. The term analysis refers to the computation of certain measures along with searching from palters of selection ship that exist among data groups.

Interpretation

After collecting and analyzing the data, the researcher has to accomplish the task of drawing inferences followed report writing through interpretation the researcher ca expose relations and processes that underlie his findings interpretation refers to the task of drawing inferences the collected facts after an analytical study.

Percentage of Analysis

In this method all the given data is converted to percentage and is represented in the form of chart diagram. This method helps in knowing the ups and down of data respectively. The formula for calculating percentage is

Percentage= (No. of respondents/Total no. of respondents) *100FINDINGS

1, A majority of the respondents are those who have been using MILMA products for more than 6 years.2, More than half of the respondents (54%) are those who consume MILMA products daily.3, Most of the consumers seek information through word of mouth.4, Advertising influence consumers in their purchase decision moderately.5, Price is an important factor which influences consumers in preferring MILMA products.6, Consumers provide utmost importance to quality in their buying preference.7, More than 65% of the consumers prefer MILMA because of its brand image.8, Packing is an important criteria preferred by the consumers in purchase of MILMA products.9, A large number of respondents (60%) prefer MILMA products due to its easy availability.10, Most of the consumers prefer mainly MILMA stall and bakery for their purchases and super markets and provision shops are also preferred.11, Consumers select the place of purchase depending on the availability of products, easy to purchase, cleanliness of shop and promotional activities.12, Majority of the respondents are satisfied with the current mode of distribution of MILMA products.13, Consumers are satisfied with the overall services offered by MILMA.

CONCLUSION

MILMA is the first product and inimitable organization, which created a revolution in procurement, processing, marketing and distribution of pure milk in the state. Your health our concern has now become a synonym for assured quality. The name MILMA is familiar with each and every house in Kerala.

For retaining potential consumers of MILMA it is necessary to identify those factors which motivate consumers in purchase of MILMA products. From the study made it is found that quality and brand images are important aspects which motivate consumers to buy MILMA products. The easy availability of MILMA products is an added advantage. More consumer awareness can be created through print and visual media. And to retain the potential consumers, their changing needs and preferences should be continually monitored and MILMA should be able to supply commodities according to the expectations of the consumers.

SUGGESSTIONS

1, The MILMA products should be made available to the ultimate consumers at the same quality at which they are produced.2, Make more provision to increase the commission for retailers so that they will be motivated to sell more MILMA products.3, Make provision to improve the services of middleman which will ultimately result in more consumer satisfaction.4, Create more awareness about MILMA products through print and visual media.5, As the completion is very high in the market the marketing departments should take active measures to retain its potential consumers.6, As consumer preference and taste fluctuate from time to time, a market analysis should be carried out at regular intervals to monitor the changing needs and taste of the consumers.7, More MILMA stall should be set up to reduce the dependency on retailers.

BIBLOGRAPHY

BOOKS

1, C.R.Kothari, Research Methodology, New Age International Publishers, New Delhi 2004.2, M.N.Brose, Reseatch Methodology, Shree Niwas Publications, Jaipur, 2004.

WEBSITES

1, www.soho.org2, www.milma.com3, www.kcmf.com4, www.citehr.com5, www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz6, www.learnmarketing.net

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