The following appeared in a memo to the board of directors of Bargain Brand Cereals.
"One year ago we introduced our first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal. Our very low prices quickly drew many customers away from the top-selling cereal companies. Although the companies producing the top brands have since tried to compete with us by lowering their prices and although several plan to introduce their own budget brands, not once have we needed to raise our prices to continue making a profit. Given our success in selling cereal, we recommend that Bargain Brand now expand its business and begin marketing other low-priced food products as quickly as possible."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
The memo cites that Bargain Brand Cereals began the business one year ago and their low price strategy successfully attracts many customers. They do not need to increase their price to gain more interest. The author assumes that it is a suitable time to enlarge their business and produce different kind of food. However, there are some issues of the assumptions rendering the argument a little unconvincing.
First of all, the writer contends that many consumers less focus on the top-selling products, but does not touch on the numbers of their consumers. Nevertheless, there is no clear connection between drawing customers away from other popular products and Bargain Brand Cereals has great sales. Probably, a litter proportion of consumers who purchased other products before are intrigued in Bargain Brand Cereals, but the amount of altogether consumers of Bargain Brand Cereals are not large. Therefore, the assumption that they have successful sales and broadening their market would be auspicious might not hold water.
Moreover, the argument mentions that they do not have to heighten their price to earn more profits, while other companies also serve low price merchandise. Nonetheless, the author does not provide the current interest condition. It is possible that they could not gain more profit even if they increase the price. On the contrary, they might need to decrease the price to attract more customers to enlarge their benefit. Thus, there is no obvious causation between no needs to increase the price and no needs to gain more profits. As a result, the assumption of expanding the market since they have excellent sales might be plausible and not become true.
Finally, the author supports beginning marketing other low-priced food products instantly. Notwithstanding, even if they have outstanding results in cereals, it does not mean that they could definitely have the same superb sales in other foods. Perhaps, other brands already have the low price foods or Bargain Brand Cereals might not have the ability to produce the same high quality food at the same low prices as their cereals. There is no direct relation between success in cereals and success in other foods. Hence, they might not reach the conclusion that they would be promising if they enlarge their business.
To sum up, the assumptions that it is an excellent point for Bargain Brand Cereals to initiate new products and expanding their business could fail. It is because that they might not accumulate an enough amount of customers, profits, and ability to succeed on other kinds of foods.
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argument 1 -- not OK. Maybe there is no causation between very low prices and success business, but something else, for example, the taste is good
argument 2 -- not exactly. the overall profits of the company may significantly decrease, so it would be necessary to raise the cereal price if the total economic condition is getting worse, for example, the cost is getting more.
argument 3 -- OK
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flaws:
In GRE/GMAT, we have to accept all data or evidence are true. Don't cast doubt on them. It is important to find out loopholes behind data or evidence (surveys or studies). Loopholes mean that we accept all surveys told are true, but there are some conditions applied, for example:
It works for time A (10 years ago), but it doesn't mean it works for time B (nowadays).
It works for location A (a city, community, nation), but it doesn't mean it works for location B (another city, community, nation).
It works for people A (a manager), but it doesn't mean it works for people B (a worker).
It works for event A (one event, project... ), but it doesn't mean it works for event B (another event, project...).
It works for A and B, but not C.
...
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Attribute Value Ideal
Score: 3.0 out of 6
Category: Satisfactory Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 21 15
No. of Words: 420 350
No. of Characters: 2121 1500
No. of Different Words: 189 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.527 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.05 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.497 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 144 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 124 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 77 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 20 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 5.904 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.762 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.317 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.526 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.064 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5