Effect Of New Product Development On Consumer Patronage In A Manufacturing Company: A Study Of Pz Cussons Nigeria Plc Aba, Abia State

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the effects of new product development on the patronage of consumers of products of PZ Nigeria Plc, in Aba Abia State. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study in which a simple random sampling technique was used to select 150 respondents for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the target respondents who are customers of PZ Nigeria Plc. Data generated were subjected to analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that there was a negative correlation between new product development and consumer behaviour (r= -0.274). The result also showed that about 71% of the respondents did not prefer new products with a mean Liker score of 1.75(0.87). They also showed that a z-score of 9.129 which was significant at 1% was obtained when patronage for old and new products were compared. It is therefore concluded that new product development had a significant effect on the patronage of customers of PZ Nigeria Plc, Aba. It was recommended among other things, that the firm should, prior to development and introduction on new products, carry out extensive marketing research to ascertain the needs of their customers.