Marketing Practices of Dairy Products in India

India is the largest producer and consumer of milk and milk products in the world. With rapid economic growth, the demand for milk is expected to increase at a faster pace than supply and the resulting supply-demand gap could reach 40 million tonnes by 2022. This creates competition to the existing dairy firms in a big way in the coming future. Unless, the dairy firms are competitive enough, it cannot sustain in the market for the long time. For this reason, the present study aimed to suggest suitable marketing practices of dairy products by exploring the consumer behaviour in buying dairy products. A questionnaire survey on a convenience sample of 600 respondents was conducted by selecting major towns and villages of Chittoor district in India. The questionnaire consists of consumer demographics, motivational factors in buying dairy products, consumer buying preferences, perception towards packaging and factors influencing to choose organized or unorganized sector. The present study selected two dairy products: milk and ghee, which are regularly purchased by most of the consumers in Chittoor district. The findings suggest various factors that the dairy firms should focus.