ABSTRACT
This study assesses the evaluation of consumer attitudes towards Nigerian and foreign made food supplement in the food supplement market, a case study of Enugu metropolis. Three hundred and six respondents were randomly selected. Primary data was collected with the aid of a well structured questionnaire. The result of the analysis shows that 145 of the respondents were male and 120 for female, those married are 50.6%, also majority of the respondents have B.Sc and HND Degrees (41.9%). Furthermore, the analysis revealed that most consumers use more of foreign made food supplements than Nigerian made ones. The use of marketers to sell and distribute food supplements was also found to be of the relevance to firms as accounted for 49-71% of the group influencing the consumption of food supplements. Quality is a major factor as 59.4% of respondents say that the Nigerian made food supplement has low quality. To enhance consumption of Nigerian made food supplements, the study recommends that local food supplement producers emphasize on quality by enhancing quality control and ban importation of foreign made goods.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgment v
Table of content vi
List of Tables x
Abstract xi
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Objectives of the Study 4
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Hypotheses Formulation 5
1.6 Significance of the Study 6
1.7 Scope of the Study 7
1.8 Limitations 8
1.9 Definition of Terms 8
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction 11
2.2 General Overview of the Concept of Consumer Behaviour 11
2.3 Brief History of Firms in the Food Supplement Market 14
2.3.1 Edmark International 14
2.3.2 Tianshi 17
2.3.3 Godlen Neolife Diamite 19
2.3.4 Forever Living Products 21
2.4 The Concept of Attitude 22
2.4.1 Definitions of Attitude 22
2.4.2 Attitude Formation and Change 24
2.4.3 Causes of Attitudinal Change 25
2.4.4 Sources of Attitude 27
2.4.5 Functions of Attitude 28
2.4.6. Components of Attitude 29
2.4.7 Types of Buying Behavioural 30
2.5 Foreign Goods versus Nigerian-made Goods 32
2.6 Summary 34
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 36
3.2 Research Design 36
3.3 Source of Data 36
3.3.1 Primary Data 37
3.4 Pilot Survey 37
3.5 Population of the Study 37
3.6 Sample Size Determination 38
3.7 Sampling Technique 39
3.8 Data Collection Procedure 39
3.9 Validity of Research Instrument 40
3.10 Reliability of Research Instrument 40
3.11 Data Presentation and Analysis Techniques 41
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Data Presentation 42
4.2 Test of Hypotheses 53
4.3 Discussion of Finding 57
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary 61
5.2 Summary of Finding 61
5.3 Conclusion 64
5.4 Recommendations 65
5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies 66
Bibliography
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1:0 On Distribution and Return of Questionnaire 42
Table4.2.1 On Sex Distribution of Respondents 43
Table 4.2.2 On Marital Status of Respondents 44
Table 4.2.3 On Age Distribution of Respondents 44
Table 4.2.4 On Education Qualification of Respondents 45
Table 4.2.5 Income Distribution of Respondents 45
Table4.2.6 On Respondents Knowledge of Food Supplement 46
Table 4.2.7 On Food Supplement Used By Consumers 46
with the Knowledge
Table 4.2.8 On Criteria for Choice of Food Supplements 47
Table4.2.9 On Factors That Determine Choice of Food Supplement 48
Table 4.3.0 On How the Consumers Rate the Quality of Made-In
Nigeria Food Supplement Against Foreign Made Ones 48
Table4.3.1 On Rating of the Prices of Made – Nigeria Food
Supplement and Foreign – Made Ones 49
Table 4.3.2: On Group Influencing Consumption of Food Supplement 50
Table 4.3.3: On Food Supplements Firms that Staff Work for 50
Table 4.3.4: On Customers Value about Food Supplements 51
Table 4.3.5: On Factors Affecting Business Growth 52
Table 4.3.6: On the Receipt of Financial/Technical Support
From Government And Non – Governmental Agencies 52
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The changing work place has demonstrated that there is no security in the traditional corporate structure and career path, automation and technological advances are streamlining businesses and changing entire industries. Millions of people will be out of work searching for the same kinds of jobs their former employers just eliminated, in another company that just has not yet streamlined. Marketing on a part-time effort can provide a financial cushion of residual income to protect oneself from such events.
With the coming of multi-level marketing (MLM) companies into Nigeria, led by GNLD in the year 2000, food supplements became popular products in the country. These foreign food supplement firms thrived successfully due to the fact that consumers are becoming more conscious of their health, thus desire a healthier living and also as they earn little money as consumer-distributors. The spread of these companies were also fast because the company relies on the customers turned distributors to get out its product(s), promote them on person-to-person basis and make sales.
Consumers in Nigeria like their counterparts in most developing countries have incredible appetite and preference for foreign products especially those brands from more technologically advanced countries (Agbonifoh and Elimimian, 1999).
Nigerian consumers’ preference for foreign products continues to increase appreciably despite the availability and high technical quality of some categories of locally produced substitutes. The value configuration of the average consumer in Nigeria is positively skewed to foreign goods with little or no attention to made-in-Nigeria products which have less credible image and market. The consequence is that the Nigerian market is dominated by brands from technologically more advanced countries with cheaper production costs and more competitive prices.
The vast market of Nigeria has become very attractive and as such a good destination for a variety of foreign products. The wave of trade liberalization and deregulation propelled by globalization and World Trade Organization’s (WTO) prompting have exposed the Nigerian manufacturers to unprecedented competition from various type of international firms.
The situation of food supplements in the Nigerian market has assumed a disturbing situation and deserves an investigation to provide answers to the attitude of Nigerian consumers of food supplement to foreign made and Nigerian-made food supplements. This is what this research work tries to unravel.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In the view of Okechukwu and Onyema (1999), Nigerian consumers have special preference for foreign products especially from technologically and more advanced economies. The problems have been known to be culturally, economically, technologically and politically motivated. The unfortunate situation has placed Nigerian manufacturers and industrialists in a precarious unenviable position as their factories are fast becoming moribund due to the lack of patronage from consumers. The consequences include that industries are not able to produce at full capacity, unemployment is increasing geometrically and a number of local manufacturers have resorted to importation of finished products. The few that are still manufacturing are doing so by engaging in various strategies, even the antics of falsely labeling their products as foreign. The consumers of these products call the Nigerian made ones all sorts of name such as ‘Igbo made’, ‘taiwan’ etc all meaning inferior.
The Nigeria industrial sector, today, is operating below average capacity due to a catalogue of problems which negate the growth and development of the industrial sector and Nigeria as a whole. The challenges facing the sector as Olutayo and Akanle (2009) observed include: “high cost of production, energy crises, weak exchange rates and very low patronage”. Others include poor quality domestic production, smuggling and the Nigerian consumers’ obsession for foreign or imported products.
The situation is very unhealthy for industrial development, employment and indeed economic development in Nigeria and as such calls for concern of all stakeholders.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to investigate the attitude of Nigerian consumers of food supplement towards Nigerian and foreign made ones. The specific objectives include:
1. To determine how consumers react towards made in Nigeria goods
2. To find out factors which influence the attitude of Nigerian food supplement consumers.
3. To find out the attributes of foreign food supplement that affect consumer preference for them.
4. To determine what local manufacturers should do to make Nigerian-made goods compete favorably with foreign made ones.
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions are relevant for this study.
1. Do Nigerian consumers really have greater preference foe foreign products?
2. What are the reasons for their attitude?
3. What attributes do foreign food supplements posses that influence Nigeria consumers’ preference for them?
4. Are there strategies to be adopted by local manufacturers to improve the competitive position of their products vis-à-vis foreign made ones?
1.5 Hypotheses Formulation
For the purpose of this research, the following research hypotheses were formulated. They include:
1. There is no significant difference between the consumers’ preference for Nigerian made products over foreign made products.
2. Consumers’ income does not influence the purchase of Nigerian made products.
3. The presence of foreign made food supplement does not affect the consumption of Nigerian made ones.
4. Nigerian local manufacturers cannot do anything to better the competitive position of their products when compared to foreign made ones.
1.6 Significance of the Study
It is obvious that in any field of human endeavor, enrichment in knowledge and awareness is the key to successful adventuring. In this regard, this research will be beneficial to members of the public, the government, students and Nigerian manufacturers especially those in food supplement industries.
Local manufacturers will find out from the research findings why consumers of their products tend to have preference for their foreign counterparts. Knowledge of this will help them to make activities consumer-oriented for enhanced market size.
The government will see the impact of its effort at promoting the use of locally produced goods as this study wills serve as an evaluation of its effort, this will encourage it to sustain the campaign and make adjustment in its policies were necessary.
With full exposition of the factors influencing patronage of food supplement in Nigeria, this study will make suggestions on how these factors can be made to favour made-in-Nigeria food supplements. This will encourage local investors to enter the food supplement industry.
Finally, the study will be useful for academic purpose. It will serve as databank for all those who will carry out related studies in the future besides, the research findings can provide the basis for further studies.
1.7 Scope of the Study
It is obvious that so many food supplements exists in the Nigerian market, this work covers study on GNLD, Forever Living Products, Edmark International (foreign firms) and Oosa Herbal International (local firm). Also this work covers only the influence of consumer attitude on patronage of food supplements.
Besides, it centered on individuals or persons living and operating in Enugu; mostly adults who have interest in living a healthier life.
1.8 Limitations
A lot of limitations stood against this project work and need to be spelt out here. The limitations includes: dearth of relevant materials and uncooperative attitude of respondents.
There were very little materials available on food supplements generally and locally food supplements in particular. The researcher needed to source materials from both far and wide for the research work.
Also, workers in the food supplement firms and consumers of food supplement were uncooperative during the gathering of data for this work. Some would not want to attend to the researcher while some were always busy and the researcher has to wait for many hours before seeing the required persons.
1.9 Definition of Terms
For the purpose of clarity of some basic terms which are used repeatedly in this work, the following conceptual and operational definitions have been adopted.
Consumer: A consumer consists of all the individuals an households buying or acquiring products and services for personal consumption (Nnabuko, 1998).
Product: A product is a physical good, service, idea, person or place that is capable of offering tangible and intangible attributes that individuals or organizations regard as so necessary, worthwhile or satisfying that they are prepared to exchange money, patronage or some other unit of value in order to acquire it (Brassington and Petit, 1977).
Attitude: Attitude describes a person’s relatively consistent evaluations, feelings and tendencies towards an object or idea (Phlip. K and Garry. A, 2012).
Multi-Level-Marketing: Network marketing, also called multi-level marketing (MLM), is a marketing system that eliminates the middleman and sells directly to the consumer who usually signs up for preferred customer status.
Food Supplement: A dietary supplement, also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement is a preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, that may be missing or may not consumed in sufficient quantities in a person’s diet.
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