The Impact of Product Innovation on the Growth of a Firm
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The objective of the study is to examine the impact of product innovation on the growth of the organization. The specific Objectives are:
- To identify the impact of product innovation on the sales of Nigeria Breweries plc Awo- Ommama Owerri.
- To determine how product innovation improve on the profit of the organization
- To ascertain the level of consumer satisfaction.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Marketing Concept
The satisfaction of the consumers has now become one of the means through which an organization could survive. The consumers who are regarded as “Kings” are now governing the business environment. In essence, we are now in the consumers’ or buyers’ market and a firm with intention of making profits, increase turnover will have to include customer satisfaction as part of its strategy.
Marketing concept is now the new philosophy in the business world. Stanton (1988) describes this concept as:
“Marketing concept is a business philosophy which assumes that ‘consumer-need satisfaction’ is the economic and social justification for a firm’s existence. It is a guide to business planning which aim at analyzing and maximizing firm objectives while satisfying consumer demand. The concept believes that instead of a Firm trying to market what is easiest for it to make, it must find out ore about what customers wants and is willing To buy”
In other word, the marketing concept is a new concept whereby all firm’s planning and operations should be customer-oriented while profitable sales should be firm’s goal. The purpose of adopting this new philosophy of business is to improve customer relations because better relationships would also benefit the firm as earlier mentioned. Profit enables a firm to grow and even provide many satisfactions to customers and to strengthen the economy as a whole. Many firms do set goals of increased sales or a greater share of the market. However, increase in sales may lead to profit maximization.
This theory is captured in Nickels (1986) and stated as: “One goal of business firm is to make profit, for without profits the business will eventually fail.
Product Defined
Boonz and Kotler (2004) see a product as “tangible tasks that satisfy the consumer and industrial user when efficiently developed and distributed to chosen market segment.
Stanton (2002) defines product as ”a set of tangible and intangible attributes include packing, colour, price, manufacturers and retailers service which the buyer may accept as offering want satisfaction”.
McCarthy (2002) ascertains that a product is “the benefit derivable from a physical entity or service marketed”. From the above definition, it can be clearly seen that when a consumer set out to buy a product, he actually desires to satisfy a need and thus sees the product as a means of satisfying ones desire.
Kotler (2006) defines product as “any want satisfying goods and services out of its perceived intangible attribution. This lead to emphasis on consumers satisfaction, which is the ultimate motives for buying the product by the users”.
It is opined that a product is any entity (goods or services) or idea that consumer believes will satisfy a want or desired.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design adopted for this study is survey design. Descriptive survey method is considered more appropriate for collecting, analyzing and interpreting data gathered from respondents (Osuala, 2001).
Population of the study
The population of the study consists of all management staff of Nigeria Breweries plc Awo- Ommama Owerri, Owerri Plant, with a population of 800 staffs, namely; top level management staff, middle level management staff and lower level management staff.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Data Presentation
Data for this study were presented based on the tables below:
Research Question 1: What is responsible for product innovation in your firm?
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
This research brings to light some of the benefits of product innovation, which can be regarded as organization’s survival strategy. Product innovation can be described as a situation where product is improved upon to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers, organizational turnover and profit. An “old” product can be placed as a “new” product in the market after making some minor changes .On the other hand, an entirely new product can also be introduced into the market as a result of research findings. Most technology based firm innovations are mostly technology-driven contrary to market-driven technology, which is stimulated by the consumers’ needs.
Conclusion
In this research paper, the impact of product innovation on the growth of manufacturing firm was examined. The background has revealed that most products require innovation due to constant changes in the taste of consumers and the need for firm to increase sales and maximized profit.
It appears that philosophy of marketing concept is yet to be taken seriously, most firms reckon with this concept in practice. In the practical sense, the needs and wants of the consumers are satisfied through the firm’s product(s). For a product to meet these objectives of satisfactions, it must undergo product innovation at regular intervals because of the dynamic nature of consumer’s needs and wants that changes over time.
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