Determinants of Consumers’ Choice of Instant Noodles Brands in Nigeria

Abstract

The recent publication of the World Instant Noodles Association (WINA) on global demand for instant noodles placed Nigeria on the 12th position worldwide, with 1,540 million servings for the year 2015.However, since 1996 indomie instant noodles brand has been leading with about 71% of the market share. This study seeks to ascertain the factors that affect consumers in their choice of instant noodles brands in Nigeria. Data for the study was collected using questionnaire. The population of the study consisted of consumers of instant noodles in Nigeria. 1120 consumers were selected and sampled using convenience sampling technique. The Data were analyzed using simple frequency tables, Chi-square and T-test. Findings from the study point out that, price, sales promotion, advertisement, social class and nutritional information do not significantly affect consumers’ in their choice of instant noodle brands. Rather, consumers are more concerned with and influenced by the product taste flavor, distributional activities (availability), age and family choice. First mover concept also had a significant effect. The findings from this research suggest that instant noodle producers and distributors can improve their businesses and market share by paying attention to these factors which affect consumers in taking a decision on the brand of instant noodle to buy. Noodle value chain is a very competitive one with new players joining the market regularly, the players should not concentrate on using price and discount to gain more market shares but should also keep their eyes on product characteristics such as taste, flavor and other sensory factors in addition to factors of distribution.