Understanding consumer behavior and preferences is not easy, because several factors can influence the choice before making a purchase decision. Through this information, agricultural marketing managers would be able to increase their competitiveness and guarantee long-term survival. This study aims to investigate the consumers’ preferences and its affecting factors. This research used the nested logit model in the Sari city, Iran in 2017. The results show that yogurt, milk and cheese had the most preferences among the dairy products and consumers had more tendencies to low fat dairy products than full fat. Results showed that the affecting factors on dairy products choosing and their preferences revealed that price and family cost decreased the probability of products choice, while the variables age, education and attention to exercise increased its probability. Marketing mix variables (p4) had also significant effect on the selection of dairy products.

Keywords: consumer preferences, agricultural marketing, nested logit model, marketing mix, dairy products.