Abstract:
The major purpose of this study was to determine the level of application of product differentiation strategies by small and medium scale enterprises in South-East geo-political zone of Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted in this study. It was guided by six research questions and eight null hypotheses. The null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population for the study comprised 282 registered SMEs in the South-East geo-political zone that are engaged in processing food and beverage products. The entire population was surveyed. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Three experts face validated the instrument and it was tested for internal consistency reliability using Cronbach Alpha Formular. The reliability coefficient for the various sections of the instrument ranged between 0.92 and 0.97. The reliability coefficient of the entire instrument tested for internal consistency was 0.93. Frequency counts and the mean were used to answer the research questions while t-test and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the null hypotheses. It was found among others that: SME operators often applied physical product differentiation strategies. Brand name differentiation strategies and price differentiation strategies were also often applied by SME operators; augmented service differentiation strategies were sometimes applied while promotional differentiation strategies were often applied by the SME operators; no significant differences existed between the mean responses of rural and urban SMEs on pricing and augmented services differentiation and educational qualification was a significant source of difference among the four groups of respondents on the application of channel and brand name differentiation strategies. It was recommended among others that SMEs in the South-East geo-political zone should make concerted efforts to improve on the level of application of product differentiation strategies where they sometimes and rarely apply the strategies.
