Attitude of Consumers Towards Nigerian Made Goods
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:
The presence of economic problem facing the Nigerian economy has not been very well for the locally manufactures. This situation has been blamed on many factors of which the attitude of Nigeria towards locally manufactured product is among. Textile industry has suffered this predicament along with others; and this ugly situation is eating up the country’s economy seriously. The government has been trying to solve this problem using different strategies. To help the government find out the relevant causes of this problem, the research is expected to find.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
To the man in the street, consumer behaviour could be the behaviour of consumer under particular marketing situation to the general behaviour of consumer at any moment in time. But to a marketer, it means more than that; hence several marketing scholars have tried to give contemporaneously relevant definitions of consumer behaviour. It is at this level that the researcher wants to review related literature in this area of study.
Kanayo (1986) carried out a research. He made are of 280 customers. These were made up of students, civil servants and business men. From the data collected, the researcher found that the complaints made by customers is nothing to write home about. He made known that most of the goods produced locally are claimed to be foreign made by placing foreign labels on them. Thereby selling them at exuberant prices. He concluded that the noncleavant attitude of the marketer wasn’t intentional. Rather, it was due to the economy situation of the country that most marketers want to make much gains in other to meet ends met. He also found out that in terms of finish i.e packaging, branding and the use of trade mark, that locally made goods lack such qualities. Researcher claims that marketer never take time to put all these into consideration. For the fact that the marketer is looking for his daily brand, he never have the consumer in mind by providing what will give them satisfaction so as to retain patronage.
In 1988, Abayomi in his research study on “Problems and prospects of locally manufactured products towards consumer (A case study of children’s wears in Enugu metropolis). His findings were that customers complained of inferiority complex in most of the locally manufactured product.
He added that the texture, colour and design does not motivate or attract customers to make purchase of them. He also found that those product never serve its purpose for which it was purchased. He observed that when such products are dipped into liquid, they fade off easily. Based on these findings the researcher concluded that the locally manufactured good should be wiped off entirely and importation of foreign wears should be put into cognizance. This conclusion was based on the data collected from a sample of 95 boutique officials and 250 customers of the boutique.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
SOURCES OF DATA
The data for this study were collected from two major sources, primary and secondary sources.
SECONDARY DATA:
The materials that constitute the secondary data for this study were collected from the library, professional journals, textbooks, magazines and so on. These secondary data were particularly needful in the area of literature review for this study.
PRIMARY DATA:
In addition to the secondary sources of data, the following sources of data were also used by the researcher;
QUESTIONNAIRE:
The researcher made use of questionnaire to find out more important information. It was designed in such a way that it will accommodate both the dealers comprising of wholesalers and retailers and the consumer within the Enugu urban.
Their opinion were sought and the data gathered were of relevance to the researcher for the purpose of this study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
In this chapter, the researcher went on to present and analyze the primary data for this study. The researcher distributed two types of questionnaires. Once was sent to the customers and the other was sent to the dealers / wholesalers.
A total of 290 questionnaire were distributed to buyers while a total of 30 were distributed to dealers. Out of 285 returned by buyers 5 or 1.75% were invalid hence rejected. Also 10 of dealers rejected due to inconsistency.
The collection of questionnaire from the various zones is shown in the table below.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
Through the analysis of information gathered from the field work earlier presented, the exercise disclosed some relevant issues which includes;
MAJOR FINDINGS
The major findings of the research work are;
- Most buyers does not purchase locally manufactured women’s wears due to their inferiority in relation to foreign competing brands.
- Presence of foreign women’s wears affects the purchase of locally made ones by reducing the number of its purchase.
- Social class does not affect the purchase of buyers on the aforementioned topic.
OTHER FINDINGS
Civil servants and petty traders buy more of locally made women’s wears.
Majority of buyers and dealers of women’s wears accepted rated locally made women wears as poor.
Income level influence the purchase of locally manufactured women’s wears.
High income earners mostly buy foreign women’s wears furthermore, dealers and buyers perceive the price of locally manufactured women’s wears as high in relation to their foreign competing brand. Dealers attributed this to the cost of production.
RECOMMENDATION
Having done all that is required in this exercise to this extent, the researcher therefore recommend the following.
Since the average Nigerian buyer / consumer has long been disillusioned with made in Nigerian goods and complains that that product of which women wears are not only of poor quality but are over priced compared to its foreign competing brands, our local manufacturers should try as much as possible to improve on the quality of their products by using high quality raw materials. Also, they should engage in mass production using modern techniques and technologies so as to reduce price. If these are done, they will attract consumers / buyers and at the same time, change their belief thereby their non challant attitude towards made in Nigeria goods.
- A well organized campaign should be carried out by manufacturers association of Nigeria (MAN) to convince the public that their product in terms of quality and price are as good as the imported ones.
- Textiles manufactures should try to make cost affordable to the manufacturers so that the cost of manufacturing the women’s wears and other materials will be reduced thereby causing manufacturers to sell to buyers at cost that will not be perceived being to high.
- Importation of foreign women’s wears in Nigeria should be minimized if not banned so that consumers will not hang so much emphasized on it against our competing brands. However, the control measure should be such that manufacturers will not take advantage of by producing what ever they can for the market. Also little importation will put our balance of payment at a better position.
CONCLUSION
Based on the research findings, the researcher therefore concludes that, present of foreign women’s wears does affect the purchase of locally made ones, by reducing the purchase quantity of locally made ones. Also it serves as competing brand against locally manufactured wears.
Also acceptance of locally made women’s wears is not encouraging compared to its foreign competing brands due to its inferior quality and over priced.
Moreover, social class to which a buyer belongs does not normally affect his purchase choice.
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