Milk is a rich source of nutrients and energy. It is one of the complex foods and it can be called as a “superfood” because it contains the numerous nutrients. Most of the ingredients that are present in milk do not act in isolation but in interactions. Milk can contribute significantly to the intake of substances such as magnesium, selenium, riboflavin, vitamin B12 and pantothenic acid. The bioavailability of some nutrients in milk, such as calcium, is very high compared to other foodstuffs, and therefore, drinking milk in childhood is of a great importance in promoting growth and healthy bone development. Milk sugar, called lactose, participates in the formation of brain cells. Among other things, milk has a low sodium content and contains up to 87% water what makes it suitable for maintaining a daily drinking regime. In addition, milk does not contain the substances that inhibit the bioavailability of minerals such as phytates or oxalates. The recent research has highlighted the beneficial effects of milk on the health of the subjects (Weaver, 2014), body weight (Wang et al., 2014), and obesity related diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Markey et al., 2014; O'Connor et al., 2014). Therefore, the role of milk and dairy products has been the subject of debate in the recent years, both in the scientific and popular-scientific literature.

However, the opinions on the issue of drinking milk are divided into two contradictory streams today. According to Norton (2015) the most common reasons why people who can drink cow's milk tend to choose alternative sources of milk (plant based drinks) or even completely exclude milk and dairy products from their diet are following:

On the positive side, the actual research done by (Golian et al., 2019) marks these upper mentioned reasons as myths and scientifically refuses them.

Milk and dairy products have been a traditional food of the people in our country since the time immemorial. This fact was confirmed in the publication written by authors Podolák and Mjartan (1974) who wrote about the ancestors of the Slovaks as breeders, since the history of dairy production has been developed for around more than 100 years. Milk along with cheese and yoghurt are three most commonly consumed dairy products. Most countries have the quantitative recommendations that usually range from 2 to 3 servings or cups of milk or yoghurt, or sometimes the equivalent serving of cheese a day. In 1989, according to Kubicová, Kádeková and Dobák (2014), Czechoslovakia consumed nearly 80 kg of milk per capita but during 17 years (1995 – 2012) milk consumption as well as dairy products per capita had a downward trend. In the last decade, consumption (VUEPP, 2019) hit the historical lows (Figure 1) and it was below the recommended annual dose, which according to Chlebo, Šrámková and Harasník (2009) is 91 liters per person. The Slovak Republic has considerable reserves in this indicator, hence it is important to examine quality and marketing tools which can persuade people (Chandon, and Wansink, 2012) to buy and subsequently consume milk.

The main objective of this research paper was to examine the quality of milk produced by two selected competing companies and identify various factors affecting consumers´ decision-making process when purchasing products. The focus was targeted at the sensory attributes (colour, appearance, smell, taste and quality) and marketing tools (brand, packaging, label and price).

The first part of this paper is a theoretical overview that allowed a better understanding of the topic. The secondary information was obtained by using the method of collecting data from publicly available information, the internet sources, literary sources of domestic and foreign authors, as well as articles by experts on consumer behavior on milk market.

Since many authors are currently devoted to this topic, we have sorted the data by using selection and processed it into the appropriate form for this paper via deduction, analysis and synthesis. This theoretical overview became the basis for the realization of questionnaire surveys which served as a source of primary information and was supplemented with a blind testing. The aim of the questionnaire survey was to determine consumer habits in the process of purchasing and consumption of milk and sensory preferences of milk. The respondents were addressed in person and they filled in the electronical questionnaire form which was created in the Google Forms. Firstly, people were asked 8 classification questions and then 22 factual questions, which were primarily open or semi-open, with pre-selected options for answering. The data were collected from 284 respondents in the period from 4 February 2019 to 19 October 2019.

In total, 135 men and 149 women participated in the questionnaire survey. Maintaining representativeness was also important when categorizing respondents by age. The respondents of all ages were approached in order to copy the structure of the population of the Slovak Republic. The respondents aged from 36 to 45 (20.42%) represented the largest share. The same percentage of respondents (15.85%) identified the options 'from 46 to 55 years' and 'from 56 to 65 years'. 2% more (17.96%) were over the age of 66 years. The lowest representation was in the age category over 18 to 26 years. Only 32 respondents were included, which represents 11.27% of the sample in terms of percentage. The remaining 18.66% belonged to the age group from 26 to 35 years. The questionnaire form also included the question asking about the highest achieved education. 7 respondents (2.46%) completed only the elementary education. The secondary education without a school-leaving exam was marked by 16.20% and the similar education which ended with school-leaving exam by 53.87%. In the case of the higher education, the respondents had the choice of three alternatives. 11.27% completed university education of bachelor´s degree, 15.14% of master´s degree and 1.06% the doctoral university education. The fourth classification question was devoted to the economic activity of the respondents. The smallest groups were economically inactive respondents without any job (3.52%) and mothers in the maternity leave (4.93%). They were followed by 'self-employed or entrepreneur' with 8.45%. The category 'student' was the third biggest group with 15.85% and the second biggest group was that of pensioners (22.89%).

The majority of respondents (44.37%) were employed, who were also asked to write what position they were working at. Since this additional question was open, we received the different answers. The total income of household depended on the economic activity of the respondents. The most numerous groups earned from 1,001 to 1,500 € (30.28%) and from 501 to 1,000 € (26.06%). In terms of place of residence, 54.93% came from villages and 45.07% identified with the option city. All of these respondents were inhabitants of Slovakia.

The consumers are familiar with Rajo and Tami brands in the selected market. Up to 97.54% of them knew the Rajo brand and 85.56% Tami. This high representation can be due to the fact that customers can find milk or other dairy products from at least one of these brands in almost every grocery store in Slovakia.

Majority of the respondents liked and were satisfied with the design of the Rajo and Tami logos. Only 13.03% are dissatisfied with the design of Rajo and 19.36% with the Tami design. In the following open question this minority stated that the Rajo logo is too simple, lacks colour and the used red color is very aggressive. On the other hand, the Tami logo is old-fashioned and many people have described it as "retro". In addition to the above-mentioned suggestions, the respondents who disliked logos agreed on an overall redesign that would change the font type and size, and in their opinion, it also lacked the slogan and image of something associated with milk (according to many respondents, it would be appropriate to add an image of cows).

According to the results of the questionnaire survey, the logos of selected brands are relatively easy to remember. Only 3.87% have trouble remembering the Rajo logo and 13.38% the Tami logo. Marketing and advertising agency Navigation Advertising (2018) claims that a logo must be easy to read, recognize, remember and reproduce. We tested this question using chi-square test for independence:

Both tests showed that there is a correlation between awareness of brands and memorability of logos because p-value was smaller than alpha and we accepted the alternative hypotheses.

Approximately 60% of milk purchases are made based on brand. 21.83% of respondents targeted exclusively at Rajo and 9.51% at Tami Packaging.

The results of the questionnaire survey, the conducted blind testing and microbiological testing showed the following: the majority of respondents liked both logos (Rajo 86.97 % and Tami 80.64 %) and they also thought that they are easy to remember. Packagings were evaluated as clear, readable and attractive, but some respondents would make minor changes. When both types of milk are sold at full price, the respondents prefer Rajo semi-skimmed milk but when it comes to price reductions, they tend to be price-sensitive and purchase milk whichever is available for a lower price (Merlo, 2015). The respondents preferred Rajo semi-skimmed milk in all categories and they identified it as the one with higher quality even though based on microbiological testing there was no difference between the examined samples. All of our assumptions were also confirmed by the statistical methods.