A Study on the determination of marketing efficiency of traditional foods: the case of Kars Kashar Cheese

The objective of this study is to reveal the marketing efficiency of traditional foods with Kars kashar cheese sample which is one of the traditional cheeses of Turkey. The data of the study were obtained through face-to-face interviews with kashar cheese manufacturing plants in Kars Province of Turkey. This study performed an analysis to assess the marketing efficiency of kashar cheese manufacturing plants in direct and indirect marketing conditions. The analysis of marketing efficiency in the study revealed that the marketing efficiency index was high for Kars kashar cheese. However, the marketing efficiency of indirect marketing channel was lower than the direct marketing channel. Marketing efficiency index was found to be 18.43 and 1.52, respectively for both direct and indirect channel. The results of the analysis shows that it is required to support the effective use of direct marketing strategies to improve marketing efficiency for the manufacturers in traditional foods, such as Kars kashar cheese.