PRODUCT QUALITY AS STRATEGY FOR INCREASING SALES VOLUME IN C-WAY FOODS AND BEVERAGES LIMITED, KADUNA

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study If a produet fulfils the customer's expectations, the customer will be pleased with the product and will consider the products to be of high quality and thereby acceptable. If his or her expectations are not fulfilled, the customer will consider that the product is of low quality.This means that the quality of a product may be defined as "its ability to fulfilled the customer's needs and expectations" (UNIDO, 2006). Quality needs to be defined firstly in terms of parameters or characteristics,which vary from product to product. For example, for a mechanical or electronic product these are performance, reliability, safety and appearance.For pharmaceutical products, parameters such as physical and chemical characteristics,medicinal effect, toxicity, taste and shelf life may be important. For a food product they will include taste. nutritional properties, texture, shelf life and so on (UNIDO,2006).The quality of products is subjective, almost by definition, and as such difficult to quantify'. However, if quality isto be controlled, it must be defined. According to Porrerta (2017) an objective definition of good quality largely depends on the area of interest. It can be deterrained by organ elliptic attributes, chemical composition, physical properties, and level of microbiological and toxicological contaminants, the shelf life and/or packing and labelling.User's preferences and socio- psychological factors ach as the users attitude towards the product may, however, not be discharged (Sloof, 2013) as the consumers perception of quality may depend on the actual market situation.