Abstract:
In view of highly competitive market, companies must quickly clasp opportunities in product differentiation in order to respond to threats and outperform their rivals to maintain competitiveness. Consequently, the study investigated the effect of product differentiation on the performance of bakery industry in Akure with a view to improving its performance. Using Ex Post facto research design, primary data were collected with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire administered to respondents in 169 sampled bakeries out of the 300 in the study area. The respondents included sales representatives, marketing managers and bakery owners in Akure. The data collected were analyzed using both the descriptive (frequency and percentage distributions and mean score ranking) and inferential statistics (Regression analysis). The study reveals that all the product differentiation strategies are in use to a ‘very high’ extent with features (4.56) and performance (4.21) of the bakery products in the first and last positions out of the six strategies adopted in the study. Secondly, the study found that all the selected factors have a ‘very high’ influences on product differentiation in the study but price related factors (4.65) have the highest level of influence, while customer satisfaction (4.35) and marketing efforts (4.35) were the least influencing factors. The selected factors exert some degree of influence on product differentiation of the bakery industry in Akure. However, only price (β = 0.267, p < .05) and service quality (β = 0.166, p < .05) individually exerted significant positive influence. While the study establishes that sales turnover in the bakery industry in the study area generally increased in the last five years, product differentiation significantly affect the sales performance of bakery industry in Akure though product conformance (β =3.094, p < .05) and design of product (β = 2.202, p < .05) exerted significant positive influence while product performance (β = -2.027, p < .05) exerted significant negative effect on sales performance. Therefore, the study suggested that bakeries in Akure need to give more attention to performance aspect of their products and leverage on price and service quality with a view to enhancing sales a performance in the study area.
