TURKISH CONSUMER DECISIONS AFFECTING ICE CREAM CONSUMPTION

Abstract

The aim of the study is to determine the main factors affecting the national-branded ice cream preferences of Turkish consumers, and to analyze the relationships between their preferences and consumption amounts. The data obtained from 400 households in Kahramanmaras, Turkey were used for Principal Component, K-Means Cluster and Multiple Regression Analyses. The results of the study highlighted clearly that the consumers of the high (C1), middle (C2) and low-income users (C3) satisfied with the manufacturer brand, the individual private label, and the retailer brands on the ice cream purchase decision and consumption amounts, respectively. The manufacturers, retailers and marketers of the ice cream, therefore, should implement effectively the manufacturer brand, the private label and the retailer brand for C1, C2 and C3, respectively, and then they could also increase the demand trends of the target consumers segments satisfied.

Headnote

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to determine the main factors affecting the national-branded ice cream preferences of Turkish consumers, and to analyze the relationships between their preferences and consumption amounts. The data obtained from 400 households in Kahramanmaras, Turkey were used for Principal Component, K-Means Cluster and Multiple Regression Analyses. The results of the study highlighted clearly that the consumers of the high (C1), middle (C2) and low-income users (C3) satisfied with the manufacturer brand, the individual private label, and the retailer brands on the ice cream purchase decision and consumption amounts, respectively. The manufacturers, retailers and marketers of the ice cream, therefore, should implement effectively the manufacturer brand, the private label and the retailer brand for C1, C2 and C3, respectively, and then they could also increase the demand trends of the target consumers segments satisfied.

- Keywords: Ice cream attributes, manufacturer/national brand, principal component, cluster and multiple regression analyses, Turkish consumers' purchase decisions-

INTRODUCTION

Consumers purchase decisions towards the food products are a complex phenomenon influenced by a numerous factors classified as product-related (intrinsic and extrinsic food attributes), consumer-related (demographic, personal, psychological and physiological characteristics) and marketing environmental-related (economic, cultural, natural, technological, political and social environments) (REALINI et al., 2013; TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; TROY and KERRY, 2010; TOPCU et al., 2009). Traditional sensory analyses focused on the intrinsic product attributes are not sufficient to meet not only the requirements of today's fast developing food markets but also the food choices of the consumers at the sale points. In order to be able to reply the consumers' need and willingness to buy, therefore, the suppliers must evaluate the food products with integrated approaches covering their intrinsic and extrinsic attributes by thinking of the consumers' socioeconomics characteristics.

In order to design the actual food product image optimized, the suppliers have focused on not only the intrinsic ice cream1 attributes such as the sensory, structural, visual, nutritional, chemical and confidential properties including in aroma, taste, flavor, viscosity, color, texture and its content (REALINI et al., 2013; MENICHELLI et al., 2012; TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; SOUKOULIS et al., 2010; SIMEONE and MAROTTA, 2010; TOPCU et al., 2009) but also the extrinsic ones consisting of hedonic quality attributes such as the price, country of origin, actual product image and quality, brand, labelling, packaging, promotion, advertising, etc. (TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; TROY and KERRY, 2010; TOPCU et al., 2009; SIRO et al., 2008; McCARTY et al., 2003; ORTH and FIRBASOVA, 2003) along with the consumers' socioeconomic characteristics such as income, food expenditure, education, age and lifecycle, occupation, etc. (TOPCU, 2012; TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; TOPCU et al., 2009).

While the consumers have considered the hedonic and visual quality attributes of the ice creams at point of sale before purchase and the sensory ones after consumption; the manufacturer, retailer and marketers have also interested with their various attributes to develop, improve and design the innovative ice creams based on their need and willingness to buy.

Providing an important communication among the manufacturer, retailer and the consumers, and then establishing a strong bridge between each group; the brands, one of the utmost important pieces of the information read a foodstuff, play an important role on the consumers' purchase decision making processes (TOPCU et al., 2008; WULF et al., 2005; GUERRERO et al., 2000). Their effects on the purchase decisions, therefore, could be explained by several functions including in their identification and attributes, the reference function formalizing their purchase models, the guarantee function providing the quality image by reducing the feeling of risk, the personalization function allowing the consumers to locate themselves in their social environment, the entertainment function getting the consumers to motivate into the different brand choices, and the practical function allowing the consumers to learn and evaluate the results of different shopping experiences (TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; AILAWADI et al., 2011 ; ALDAZABAL et al., 2006; GUERRERO et al., 2000).

Not only has been consumed increasingly the ice cream by many consumer segments such as children, adolescents, adults and elder people during all the lifecycle due to their refreshing, sensational, nutritional and sanitarian attributes, on the other hand, but also the ice cream industry becoming a much profitable sub-sector owing to rapidly developing technological progresses has introduced 240 different types of ice cream resulting from the diverse ingredients and methods of freezing to the domestic markets under a strict competition between manufacturer and retailer in recent years (TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; TURGUT and CAKMAKCI, 2009).

Therefore, the upmost motivation drives of the fundamental selection criteria in the ice cream purchase decision making process of all the consumers under various product depths and varieties are the brands. Therefore, it makes possible to distinguish among the consumers in terms of their sensitivity and loyalty to the brand highlighting the persistent purchase of a specific brand within a well-defined context and having a positive attitude towards it. In other word, there is a strong relationship between their varieties and brand types impacting on their purchase decisions (TOPCU, 2012a; ENNEKING et al., 2007; GUERRERO et al., 2000).

The brand type or names of the food products could be generally explained in two categories as the manufacturer brands created by manufacturers and bearing their chosen brand name (the local, national, international and global brands) and private label products derived and owned by retailers functioning at a distribution channel (the store/retailer, store sub-brand, generic and individual product brands) (TOPCU et al., 2008). The effects of the brand types associated with the food choice and acceptability, and the consumers purchase attitude and behaviors were widely studied in marketing researches (FORNERINO and HAUTEVILLE, 2010; ZHOU et al, 2010; GEHLHAR et al., 2009; KUMAR et al., 2009; TOPCU et al., 2009; DIMOFTE étal., 2008; ENNEKING et al., 2007).

The brands of the leader manufacturer manufacturing the ice cream with the national and international brands in Turkey consist of Unilever's Algida, Ulker's Natura, Has Food's Panda, Dinamik Food's Alaska, Izmir Dairy Products' MEMO, Nestlé's Nestle, Yasar Food's MADO and Ferah Food's EDO (FOOD, 2009). Their annual production, export, import, consumption and per capita consumption amounts of the ice cream along with some macroeconomic indicators in Turkey are indicated in Table 1.

According to Table 1, as considered the annual increasing production (7.1%), consumption (7.5%) and export (8.3%) trends between 2005 and 2012; it should be increased dramatically the domestic production amount responding to the needs and willingness to buy of Turkish consumers. Additionally, the annual increase rate in the consumer population (0.6%) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita ( 1.9%) between 2005 and 2012 in Turkey could increase considerably its consumption trends. Furthermore, it has been estimated that the ice cream consumption at selected European markets reported by MGMN for Turkey will also increase about 64% between 2012 and 2016.

Annual ice cream consumption amounts per capita of the leader countries such as New-Zealand, US, Finland and Sweden in the ice cream consumption in 2012, on the other hand; were calculated as 25, 21, 14 and 12 liters, respectively (FUND, 2013). Furthermore, those per capita in Turkey, EU and the world in 2012 were calculated as 4, 12 and 6.0 liters, respectively (EICA, 2013; FAOSTAT, 2013; TUIK, 2013).

As a result of all this, compared with the consumers of the leader countries in the ice cream consumption, Turkish consumers have consumed about 3-6 times less ice cream than them, but this difference has continued to increase steadily. According to all the indicators, the ice cream production should be increased to be able to meet the increasing demands of Turkish consumers at domestic food markets.

In order to increase considerably the annual ice cream consumption amounts of Turkish consumers, traditional sensory analysis should be combined with integrated marketing approaches focused on the intrinsic and extrinsic ice cream attributes, and then they should develop/design the marketing tactic and strategies under homogenous consumer segments based on their socioeconomic characteristics. There is not any integrated scientific research taking into consideration all the conceptual frameworks with regard to the ice cream purchase decisions for the target consumers segments in the scientific literature. With the present study focused on integrated marketing approaches combined with all the factors influencing on the ice cream purchase decision making process of Turkish consumers, it could be filled an important gap in the literature by contributing considerably to the scientific literature.

This study, therefore, was designed to reach all the objectives mentioned above. In this scope, the main aims of the study are to explore the core factors related to the intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes impacting on the national-branded ice cream purchase decisions of Turkish consumers; and then to determine the target homogenous consumer segments based on their socioeconomic characteristics, and finally to analyze the effectiveness of the factors effecting on their consumption amounts.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Material

The primary data used in this study which include in the variables based on the national-branded ice cream attributes and Turkish consumers' socioeconomic characteristics influencing on their consumption decisions and amounts were obtained from a face-to face questionnaire in Kahramanmaras2 from autumn of 2012 until winter of 2013. The questionnaire was conducted with the heads of the households in their houses. The participants consuming the national-branded ice cream, and accepting the voluntary contribution were selected randomly. They have demographic and socioeconomic characteristics such as average 46 years old, $1282 income, 3.7 liters ice cream consumption, 4.3 family sizes 51% male population and 61% high school education.

Methods

Method used in determination of the sample size

In order to determine the sample size, while minimizing sample bias and representing correctly the population; the city center was divided into four parts covering the west, east, south and north-sides of Kahramanmaras with 73.929 households consisting of about six family members (APDK 2013; TUIK 2013).

In order to calculate the sample size for each district, the following formula was used (TOPCU et al. 2010).

(ProQuest: ... denotes formula omitted.)

Where

n = sample size

Z = z value, (1.96 for 95% confidence level)

p = percentage making a choice, (0.5 used for sample size needed)

c = confidence interval, (used 0.05 = ±5)

The minimum sample size having the capability of representing the main population was calculated as 385 households (but the study was conducted with 400 households). By considering the information obtained from the food science and marketing literature under the expert consultancy and the prior experiences of the researcher, a draft questionnaire was prepared (TOPCU, 2012). In order to check out non-sampling error which occurs due to ambiguous definitions, unclear instructions, questionnaire wording, format and length, a pre-test was carried out 15 consumers selected randomly in the target regions. The flow and nature of the questionnaire were tested, and the order and timing of the questions were re-arranged. The questionnaire was then modified and refined before starting the fieldwork.

Methods used in the preparation of the questionnaires

It was asked the participants in the survey to respond to each statement indicating the significance levels of the ice cream attributes by using a Ukert-format with 1-5 scale (where 1 refers to the least important and 5 refer to the most important attribute). Of eighteen ice cream attributes, five are related to the intrinsic ice cream attributes (ingredient quality, texture and aroma, taste and flavor, hardness and viscosity and organic content); six are covered by the extrinsic food attribute referring the marketing mix (the region of origin, advertisement and promotion, package material and appearance, product assortment, quality-price relation and price); two are determined by manufacturing process (the reliability of manufacturing process and food safety and hygiene); five are stated by the relationships between the consumer and marketing environments (brand recognition, store satisfaction and confidence, manufacturer brand satisfaction and image). The sources in the literature related to the intrinsic and extrinsic ice cream attributes and their items were showed in Table 2.

On the other hand, of the two string and three numeric variables referring to the consumer demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, three referred to the consumer demographic characteristics (age as a numeric variable; consumer education (0: primary and 1: high school and college graduate) and the occupation (0: others and 1: officer) as string variables); two included in the consumer socioeconomic characteristics (monthly consumer income ($) and the share of the ice cream expenditure within total food one as numeric variable).

Methods used in the statistics analyses

After editing and coding, the primary data were first used in Principal Component Analysis (PCA)3 to determine the main factors related to the product attitudes influencing on the national ice cream purchase patterns of Turkish consumers. PCA is a data reduction technique that reduces the number of variables used in an analysis by creating new variables (called factors) that combine redundancy in the data (SPSS 15.0 2006). The first step in PCA is to determine the number of relevant factors. This was conducted by PCA using Varimax Rotation Method (VRM)4. PCA was used initially to identify underlying aspects explaining a correlation among a set of the food product attributes. The purpose of PCA was to identify those attributes accounting for a relatively large proportion of the variance in the sample.

In the second and final steps of the statistics analyses, the main factors obtained from PCA were used for k-means cluster and multiple regression/correlation MRC Analyses, respectively. In the second step, according to monthly income levels of Turkish consumers, therefore, the target consumers were separated to three homogeneous clusters including in low-income users (less than $500 per month), middle-income users ($500-1250 per month) and high-income users (more than $1250 per month) (TOPCU 2012), and then the main factors were allocated to the homogeneous consumer clusters based on monthly income levels of the target consumers by k-means cluster analysis.

In the final step, the main factors obtained from PCA were used Multiple Regression/Correlation (MRC) Analysis. MRC analysis was used to measure the effects of variable factors delivered from the ice cream attributes and Turkish consumers' socioeconomic characteristics effecting on their ice cream amounts.

In order to test whether the normal distribution of the main factors delivered from PCA and the socioeconomic variables collected from the consumers exhibited or not was applied the various transformations techniques, and it was tested that the closest distribution to the normal of all the factors provided. On the other hand, the coefficient estimations were estimated by using ordinary least squares (OLS). Individual and group significance of these coefficients were tested using fand F tests, respectively.

In order to evaluate whether to be any econometrical problem among the variables, it was tested the overall multicollinarity and auto-correlation problems by considering Variance-Inflating Factor (VIF) and Durbin-Watson d statistics, respectively. Multicollinearity among variables was detected by calculating (VIF) (GUJARATI 2005; SPSS 15.0 2006). The analysis techniques have been widely used in many marketing researches with regard to the dairy food product attributes (DAVIES and CLINE, 2005; ISHII et al., 2007; BATRA et al, 2010; CADENA and BOLIN1, 2011).

SPSS 15.0 statistical software program was used to run the PCA and MRC analyses. MRC model could be written as follows:

ICC = f (RPRS, TMNF, MBST, HQLT, SQLT, ETH, INC, EXP,OCU, EDU, AGE, )

Dependent Variable

ICC: Monthly national ice cream consumption amount per household (1/month)

Independent Variables

RPRS: Retailer prestige

TMNF: Trust to manufacturer

MBST: Manufacturer brand satisfaction

HQLT: Hedonic quality

SQLT: Sensory quality

ETH: Ethnocentrism

INC: Monthly consumer income ($)

EXP: The shares of the ice cream expenditures within total food ones

OCU: Consumer occupation

EDU: Consumer education

AGE: Consumer age

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Demographic and socioeconomic profiles of the participants

The results of descriptive statistics related to the gender, marital status, tasks in the family, education levels, occupation and age of the household heads, and monthly income, national-branded ice cream consumption and expenditure of the households attaining in questionnaire were indicated in Table 3. The results of the statistics showed that 51.0, 90.2, 47.1,61.3 and 28.0% and 46.2 years of the participant household heads consisted of the male, married, husband, high school graduate and retailer, respectively. On the other hand, monthly average income, ice cream expenditure, ice cream consumption amount and family size of the households were calculated as $ 1281.9, $48.6, 3.9 l and 4.3 individuals, respectively.

The results of PCA related to the ice cream consumption satisfaction

Kaiser Normalization (KMO) which compares partial correlation coefficients with observed ones was calculated as 0.87 for the ice cream attributes, and this means that the data set was at a perfect level for the factor analysis since the test score was greater than 0.50 (Table 4).

The principal component analysis using VRM grouped the eighteen variables related to the ice cream attributes into the six factors with Eigenvalues greater than 1.0, which these factors explained the 71.96% of the total variance. FI being the first of these factors was explained by 19.00% of the total variance, and consisted of the retailer/ store positioning. Fl, therefore, could be called by retailer prestige (RPRS) (TOPCU et al., 2009). Explaining the 12.15% of the total variance, F2 gave us information about the manufacturing process and the used material quality, and thus this factor could be determined by trust to manufacturer (TMNF) (TOPCU, 2012).

Reporting the 10.99% of the total variance, F3 gathered together the variables related to the brand satisfaction, and it could be named as manufacturer brand satisfaction (MBST) (TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012). Referring to the 10.28% of the total variance, F4 could be represented hedonic quality (HQLT) covering the relationship between the product quality and its price (TOPCU, 2012, 2012a). Considering the 10.08% of the total variance, F5 was constituted by the sensory quality attributes of the ice cream, and could be entitled by sensory quality (SQLT) (TOPCU, 2012). Finally, referring the 7.20% of total variance, F6 stated the relationship between the country of origin and the ice cream consumption with manufacturer brand, and thus it could be denominated by ethnocentrism (ETH) (ORTH and FIRBASOWA, 2003).

The results of cluster analysis related to the ice cream consumption satisfaction

The main factors derived from the PCA and effecting on the ice cream purchase decisions of Turkish consumers were separated into three homogeneous consumers segments through k-means cluster according to their income levels including in the low, middle and high-income users (Table 5).

The results of the study showed that high-income users of the national-branded ice cream (Cl) formed their consumption satisfaction according to trust to manufacturer (TMNF) and manufacturer brand satisfaction (MBST) by taking into consideration the manufacturer-branded ice cream willingness to buy as an indicator of the main component of the hedonic quality attributes. The target homogeneous consumers in the Cl, therefore, gave a much more attention to the manufacturer brand satisfaction on their purchase decision and satisfactions, and thus it could be designed/developed the manufacturerbranded ice creams for the target consumers at this segment.

The results of the study also indicated that the middle-income users of the national-branded ice cream (C2) focused on the purchase patterns constructed by a combination of the factors such as the sensory quality (SQLT), trust to manufacturer (TMNF) and Ethnocentrism (ETH). The consumers in C2 provided much stronger purchase motivations for the private labels under trust to local manufacturers by emphasizing the core benefits of the ice cream based on the sensory quality attributes. It could be introduced the private labeled local ice creams for the target segments to the region retailers.

The results of the study explained that the low-income users of the national-branded ice cream (C3) tended to buy the ice cream with retailer prestige (RPRS) under hedonic quality attributes (HQLT). The target consumers in C3 focused on the actual ice cream-imaged purchase decision and satisfactions based on the retailer/ store brands. It could be presented, therefore, the retailer branded ice creams for this segment.

The results of MRC analysis with regard to the ice cream consumption amounts

VIF values calculated as 1.028 and 1.582 indicating the scores between 1.00 and 2.50 determining the acceptable reference range for multicollinearity problem showed that there was not it. Durbin-Watson d statistics, on the other hand, computed as 2.09 was not located between du (1.89) and 4-du (1.65). There, therefore, was no problem related to auto-correlation in the MRC model (KALAYCI, 2005). According to these statistical test results diagnosing the econometrics problems, we could directly use this data set for the MRC model.

The determination coefficient (Adj.R2) was calculated as 0.80 in the MRC model, this means that all the independent variables explained the 80% of the dependent variable. The OLS estimates of the model coefficients and other statistical measurements were presented in Table 6. The results of statistical measurements highlighted that the Fstatistic rejecting the null hypothesis that makes all the coefficients equal to zero was calculated as 153.76 (p<0.01). On the other hand, the partial regression coefficients of all the independent variables, except for those of RPRS, were statistically found to be meaningful (p<0.00 and p<0.05). Their signs, moreover, were also found in conformity with economic theory. However, RPRS and ETH were not important statistically (p=0.333 and p=0.384), and thus they were not evaluated for compliance with the economic theory. Additionally, they had no impact on the manufacturer/national-branded ice cream consumption amounts, and thus there was an inverse (negative) relationship between ETH and the consumption amounts of the ice cream. The findings were supported by the similar results of some studies (BRAKUS et al., 2009; TOPCU et al, 2009; DIMOFTE et al, 2008; STRIZHAKOVA et al, 2008; ENNEKING et al, 2007).

The results of the study indicated that of the six main factors, the four ones such as SQLT, TMNF, HQLT and MBST had an important effect on the national-branded ice cream consumption amount per household in C2; Cl and C2; Cland C3; and Cl, respectively. SQLT was regarded as their main determinant on their satisfaction after consumed, and thus it played an important role in this process for C2 by providing much important information about the consumer satisfaction associating with the intrinsic ice cream attributes. The results were similar with respect to those of the studies carried out by TOPCU (2012); TOPCU (2012a); TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU (2009); ENNEKING et al (2007); ISHII et al (2007); GUERRERO et al (2000).

The results of the study also showed that there was a positive relationship between TMNF giving much important information about the manufacturing process to Turkish consumers, reducing their health concern related to the ice cream based on the manufacturer confidence constructed with its ingredient quality at the manufacturing process under hygienic conditions and their consumption decision and amounts. This caused the consumers to increase dramatically the ice cream consumption trends in Cl and C2 due to the safe and hygienic ice cream manufactured by the manufacturers. This findings were quite similar to the results reported by several researchers (TOPCU, 2012; TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; TOPCU et al., 2010; SOBERMAN and PARKER, 2006; SCHUILING and KAPFERER, 2004).

The results of the present study also reported that there was a string relationship between HQLT having a bigger impact effect on the consumer demands making possible the product differentiation through the quality and price rating in Cl and C3, and their purchase decisions. The marketers could, therefore, separate target Turkish consumer masses into two homogenous segments, and then they could also stimulate much more effective marketing tactic and strategies for each segments (WOLK and SPANN, 2008; KUMAR et al, 2009; TOPCU et al, 2010; ZHOU et al, 2010).

The results of the study also revealed that MBST provided attitudinally a positive motivation on the national-branded ice cream consumption amounts in Cl, and it had a string relationship between TMNF and HQLT of the manufacturer-branded ice cream. As a result, MBST was of a strong linear relationship with these factors influencing on not only the ice cream purchase decision at the sale points but also its consumption satisfaction and amounts after consumed. There were a lot of the studies referring to the relationship between MBST and the food consumption amounts (TOPCU, 2012, TOPCU, 2012a; TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; ZHOU et al, 2010; AMROUCHE and ZACCOUR, 2009; STRIZHAKOVA et al, 2008).

The results of this study also provided the important information about how the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Turkish consumers affected their purchase decision and attitudes towards the national-branded ice cream. In this research considering their distinctive characteristics, the results of the study also referred that the share of the ice cream expenditure within total food ones (EXP), age (AGE), education (EDU), income (INC) and occupation (OCU) of Turkish consumers had a much bigger effect on the ice cream consumption amounts than the other preference factors, especially, EXP, AGE, EDU These findings were supported by results of previous researches based on the consumers purchase attitude and behaviors towards the food products (TOPCU, 2012; TOPCU and UZUNDUMLU, 2012; TOPCU et al., 2010; ZHOU et al, 2010; TOPCU et al, 2009; DIMOFTE et al, 2008; ENNEKING et al, 2007; LI and HOUSTON, 2001).

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, the integrated approaches patterns based on not only the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes of the national-branded ice cream but also the socioeconomic characteristics of Turkish consumers impacting on their ice cream purchase decisions and consumption amounts were evaluated. The measurement results of the study highlighted clearly that the consumers in Cl, C2 and C3 satisfied with the actual manufacturer brands linking between trust to manufacturer and the hedonic quality attributes, the individual private brands under trust to local manufacturers and the sensory ones, and the retailer brands emphasizing the hedonic ones on the ice cream purchase decision and consumption amounts, respectively. The manufacturers, retailers and marketers of the ice cream, therefore, should widely implement the manufacturer brand, the individual private label and the retailer brand for Cl, C2 and C3, respectively in order to be able to create the demand trend increases under the integrated marketing tactic and strategies affecting positively the ice cream purchase decisions and consumption amounts of the target consumer segments.

Although this study has some scientific merit for the academic and food manufacturing communities, there are some limitations. The results of this study have a limited generalizability since the data were obtained from only one city. If the survey is conducted nationally, more data will give more objective results about the purchase decisions of all the population. In future studies, furthermore, this model could be expanded to incorporate more factors and factor levels into the model.

Footnote

1 Ice cream has a complex food colloidal system including in air bubbles, ice crystals and partially destabilized fat globules dispersed in a continuous aqueous phase. Therefore, its manufacturing as the most popular frozen dairy dessert has fairly complex processes and follows the subsequent steps such as preparation of the mixture, pasteurization, homogenization, cooling, aging of the mixture, addition of fermented milk, freezing, packaging and storage of the final mixture (SOUKOULIS et al. 2010).

Footnote

2 Kahramanmaras is located in the southeastern part of Turkey. The province lies on plain at the foot of the Taurus Mountains and has a total population of 1.063.174 in 2013, and about 42% of those live in the city centre.

Footnote

3 A factor extraction method used to form uncorrelated linear combinations of the observed variables. The first component has the maximum variance. Successive components explain progressively smaller portions of the variance and are all uncorrelated with each other. PCA is used to obtain the initial factor solution. It can be used when there is a single correlation matrix.

4 This method is an orthogonal rotation method that minimizes the number of variables that have high loading on each factor. It simplifies the interpretation of the factors.

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Paper Received November 29,2013 Accepted April 26, 2014