Product Differentiation and the Performance of Aluminum Firms in North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between product differentiation and the performance of Aluminum Extrusion Firms in North- Central Nigeria. The study was anchored on discrete theory of product differentiation by Anderson (1992). To accomplish the study objective, a survey research design was employed. The population of the study was 509 made up of management and staff of the focused Aluminum Extrusion Firms and Dealers in Aluminum products otherwise referred to customers out of which 260 were  staff and management of Aluminum Extrusion Firms and 249 were Aluminum dealers otherwise refers to as customers. Primary source of data was used in collecting data for the study through self-administered questionnaire designed in five points Likert scale of strongly agree to strongly disagree. Data collected were analyzed with the aids of descriptive statistics in which tables, percentages and mean scores were used to reduce the data into comprehensible form.  The hypothesis formulated for the study was tested using simple linear regression. The test revealed a significant positive relationship between product differentiation as proxy of Blue Ocean Strategy and customer loyalty as proxy of performance at (r=0.867, p- value<0.005). Based on this finding, the study recommended that Management of Aluminum Extrusion Firms should as their strategy build strongly distinguishing features like colour, textures, and depths into their product so as to gain customer loyalty.