Determinant of Adoption Pattern of New Product/Services in Hotel Industry in Awka, Nigeria

Abstract

In light of the intense competition facing the providers of hotel services/product, some managers are constantly engaged in the creation of new products that would hopefully win consumers acceptance. However, against a backdrop of changing technology and sophisticated consumer wants, inventing a successful innovation is an uphill task. The main aim of this research was to shed some light on the adoption pattern of consumers in relation to new hotel consumer innovations. In this study, the researcher chose hotel services to represent the various innovations in the consumer hospitality market. With the use of focus group discussions, interview followed by a survey in order to get an insight of consumers with regard to their adoption behaviour, the research finds factors that influenced adoption pattern of a consumer. High degree of confidence on the part of hotel staff, staff‟s good knowledge of product/service, new addition of service/product to company portfolio, influence of age, Boss influence, occupational influence, gift influence, product/service pricing, introductory marketing communication, continuing marketing communication, time effect of marketing communication. With the crunch in the consumer hospitality industry, managers are under tremendous pressure to create new products. The consumer hospitality industry has been a wave of innovation sweeping the industry, with companies experimenting with a wide range of products from lodging to atomic services. Given the advent of new technologies and shorter product development cycles, new products are constantly being introduced.