ABSTRACT

The study examined the influence of product innovation on customers purchase intention for beverage products in Abia State, Nigeria. A study of Friesland Peak Choco and Cadbury hot Choco 3 in 1 products. Specifically, the study examined how package rebranding affects consumers’ willingness to buy; examined how modifications in nutritional benefits affect consumers’ trial purchase; examine how product taste improvement affect consumers’ preference; and examine how product quantity adjustment affect consumers’ purchase intention. Casual and survey research design were used for the study. The total population of study was 1,495,186 consumers above 18 years of age. With a known population, Yamane (1967) formula was adopted to select 384 sample size. Multi-stage and convenience sampling techniques were adopted for the selection of respondents. Questionnaire was the major instrument for data collection. The data were subjected to Cronbach Alpha reliability test and 0.709 value was realized which showed that the instrument was highly reliable. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics such as mean, frequency and percentage distribution. The hypotheses were tested with simple regression analysis model. The descriptive results revealed that, 47.9% of the consumers’ strongly agreed that, the pictures and instructions on the products impelled them to buy the product. The empirical result revealed that package rebranding has significant effect on consumers’ willingness to buy. Modifications in nutritional benefits have significant effect on consumers’ trial purchase. Product taste modification has significant effect on consumers’ preference of the studied products. And product quantity adjustment has significant effect on consumers’ purchase intention. It is therefore, concluded that product innovation is one of the fundamental instruments of growth strategies to enter new markets, to increase the existing market share and to provide the company with a competitive edge. We recommended that, incorporation of nutritional value label on the package would enhance the demand and preference for the products and it would be an appropriate strategic task for the efficient innovation. Thereby, producers of Peak Choco 3 in 1 sachet and Cadbury Hot Choco 3 in 1 sachet could compete with the other products with nutritional value labels and also it would be an ideal strategy in penetrating new markets where the nutritional values are requirement.