▶ Your Answer :
According to the given memo, the author asserts that Top Dog Pet Stores should start placing their own ads in Exotic Pets Monthly magazine to make a profit as Fish Emporium did. While supporting the argument, however, the author makes numerous assumptions which cannot be taken for granted thus the argument remains largely unconvincing without further evidence to verify unjustified assumptions.
Firstly, the author assumes that Fish Emporium’s advertising in the Exotic Pets Monthly magazine has made 15 percent increase in their sales and this will happen similarly to Top Dog Pet Stores. However, Fish Emporium started their advertising five years ago. If the advertising takes such a long time to show a positive result, it will be not helpful to Top Dog Pet Stores’ recent trend of declining sales. Moreover, through the last five years, there might be other reasons that affect Fish Emporium’s sales increase. If there was a fashion that breeding tropical fish, the sales of Fish Emporium might be increased because of the fashion not because of the advertising. Thus, further evidence such as recent trend of Fish Emporium’s sales and recent fashions about breeding pet pertaining to author’s assumption is needed to support the claim and assess it, as a lack thereof significantly weaken the argument.
Secondly, three Fish Emporium stores in Gulf City saw an even greater increase than that of Fish Emporium through the advertising is not conclusively proven. While, the sales of three Fish Emporium stores might be increased, it needs to be verified that when they started their ads and how long does it take to increase their sales. It is possible that three Fish Emporium stores have started their advertisement five years ago and there might be a fashion of breeding fish in the Gulf City. In addition, the assumption that Top Dog Pet Stores' sales will increase with ads in the Exotic Pets Monthly because Top Dog Pet Stores is based in Gulf City like other Fish Emporiums is not valid. The subscribers of the Exotic Pets Monthly might like only exotic pets such as fish, turtle and snakes and they might not like familiar pets like dogs and cats. Also, if the people on Gulf City like fish but not dogs, advertising in the magazine might not be effective. As such, more detailed data about three Fish Emporium stores’ term of advertising and recent sales as well as people’s preference of animal is needed to make the author’s argument more sounds.
Even if, the sales of Fish Emporium has increased because of the ads, Top Dog Pet Stores sales might still remain and even decrease. Although, the advertisement can help Top Dog Pet Stores to increase sales, this may not be the case if the costs of making and printing ads are significantly high. Moreover, if the increase of sales is not sufficient enough, because of the significant expenses for the ads the profit of Top Dog Pet Stores will not increase. Since the argument chiefly rests on the assumption that the advertising will helpful for sales and profit, the costs of the ads are necessary to compound the suggestion.
In sum, the author’s argument is not very supportive in its current form. Further evidence pertaining to Fish Emporium’s term of advertising, subscribers of the magazine’s preference as well as the comparison between expected costs and sales is crucial in determining the validity of the argument. |