Read the argument and the instructions that follow it, and then make any notes that will help you plan your response. Begin typing your response in the box at the bottom of the screen.
The following appeared in an Excelsior Company memorandum.
The Excelsior Company plans to introduce its own brand of coffee. Since coffee is an expensive food item, and since there are already many established brands of coffee, the best way to gain customers for the Excelsior brand is to do what Superior, the leading coffee company, did when it introduced the newest brand in its line of coffees: conduct a temporary sales promotion that offers free samples, price reductions, and discount coupons for the new brand.
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
The argument that a temporary sales promotion is the best way to set up a new brand and to gain customers for the The Excelsior Company omits some important concerns that must be addressed to substantiate the argument. The argument states that this sales promotion worked for Superior, the leading coffee company, when it introduced the newest brand in its line of coffees using the same strategy. This alone does not constitute a logical argument in favor of the same strategy that it will work every time and for every company, and it certainly does not provide support or proof for the main argument.
Most conspicuously, the argument does not address the reason behind what lead to the success of the Superior's sales promotion strategy? The argument does not establish the missing link as to why the same strategy will work for The Excelsior Company? On top of it calling this strategy "the best way" to gain customers is stretching it too far. One needs to answer few questions before drawing such a extreme conclusion.
Firslty, are the products offered by the two companies of same quality? We all know that when it comes to edible products, specially beverages, quality, taste and aroma play a crucial role in the success of the a product like coffee. Surprisingly the argument is completely silent on such a crucial parameter which would determine the success or failure of the new brand. On the one hand the argument is all about the strategy which needs to be adopted but compeletely silent on what could contribute to the success of such a strategy.
Secondly, it is mentioned that the new strategy will be implemented by giving free samples, price reductions, and discount coupons for the new brand. Before we talk of discounts, it needs to be clarified as to at what price is the new brand going to be launched for the The Excelsior Company? What are the setup and operating costs? how long does the company plan to offer such discounts? Will it be financially viable for the company to offer such price reductions and offering free samples?
Third but not the last, it is mentioned that there are already many established brands in the industry. How can one be so sure that this strategy will work for the company? Moreover, what if competitors follow the same suit and does not allow the new entrant in the market to establish itself. Hence one needs to be very careful while adopting a brand establisment strategy keeping in mind how the competitors would react to such a sales promotion and whether or not the company is able to counter the same using some sound planning and execution.
Finally, the company should study other factors which may have contributed to the success of the "Superior's new brand". However, the argument can be strengthened if it states what would happen in the event that aforesaid sales promotion strategy does not work for The Excelsior Company and it could overcome difficulties while executing this strategy.
Because the argument leaves out several key issues, it is not sound or persuasive. If it included the items discussed above instead of solely explaining that the sales promotion strategy is the best way to gain customers, the argument would have been more thorough and convincing.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-01-22 | essayfreak | 86 | view |
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Comments
Essay evaluation report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 23 15
No. of Words: 552 350
No. of Characters: 2638 1500
No. of Different Words: 236 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.847 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.779 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.549 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 176 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 151 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 101 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 24 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 8.837 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.478 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.337 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.593 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.118 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 7 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 111, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
...p a new brand and to gain customers for the The Excelsior Company omits some important ...
^^^^^^^
Line 1, column 111, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'The' is left.
Suggestion: the; The
...p a new brand and to gain customers for the The Excelsior Company omits some important ...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 285, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...pany? On top of it calling this strategy 'the best way' to gain custome...
^^
Line 3, column 410, Rule ID: EN_A_VS_AN
Message: Use 'an' instead of 'a' if the following word starts with a vowel sound, e.g. 'an article', 'an hour'
Suggestion: an
...nswer few questions before drawing such a extreme conclusion. Firslty, are the...
^
Line 5, column 208, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'a' is left.
Suggestion: the; a
...a play a crucial role in the success of the a product like coffee. Surprisingly the a...
^^^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
... to the success of such a strategy. Secondly, it is mentioned that the new s...
^^^^^
Line 9, column 267, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a word
Suggestion: the
... the new brand going to be launched for the The Excelsior Company? What are the setup a...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 267, Rule ID: DT_DT[1]
Message: Maybe you need to remove one determiner so that only 'the' or 'The' is left.
Suggestion: the; The
... the new brand going to be launched for the The Excelsior Company? What are the setup a...
^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 334, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: How
...What are the setup and operating costs? how long does the company plan to offer suc...
^^^
Line 11, column 295, Rule ID: SENT_START_CONJUNCTIVE_LINKING_ADVERB_COMMA[1]
Message: Did you forget a comma after a conjunctive/linking adverb?
Suggestion: Hence,
...rant in the market to establish itself. Hence one needs to be very careful while adop...
^^^^^
Line 11, column 453, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...uld react to such a sales promotion and whether or not the company is able to counter the same...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, finally, hence, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, third, while, as to
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 23.0 19.6327345309 117% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 16.0 12.9520958084 124% => OK
Conjunction : 18.0 11.1786427146 161% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 33.0 28.8173652695 115% => OK
Preposition: 53.0 55.5748502994 95% => OK
Nominalization: 20.0 16.3942115768 122% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2730.0 2260.96107784 121% => OK
No of words: 552.0 441.139720559 125% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94565217391 5.12650576532 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.84713113593 4.56307096286 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69120474245 2.78398813304 97% => OK
Unique words: 242.0 204.123752495 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.438405797101 0.468620217663 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 848.7 705.55239521 120% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.76447105788 103% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 2.70958083832 148% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.67365269461 119% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 24.0 19.7664670659 121% => OK
Sentence length: 23.0 22.8473053892 101% => OK
Sentence length SD: 56.5286155412 57.8364921388 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 113.75 119.503703932 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 23.0 23.324526521 99% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.0 5.70786347227 70% => OK
Paragraphs: 7.0 5.15768463074 136% => Less paragraphs wanted.
Language errors: 11.0 5.25449101796 209% => Less language errors wanted.
Sentences with positive sentiment : 16.0 8.20758483034 195% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.67664670659 107% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.11019345658 0.218282227539 50% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0369246996725 0.0743258471296 50% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0298020021201 0.0701772020484 42% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0603967986387 0.128457276422 47% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0224064393846 0.0628817314937 36% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.4 14.3799401198 93% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 56.59 48.3550499002 117% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 12.197005988 91% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.73 12.5979740519 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.18 8.32208582834 98% => OK
difficult_words: 119.0 98.500998004 121% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 17.5 12.3882235529 141% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.2 11.1389221557 101% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Maximum six paragraphs wanted.
Rates: 58.33 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.5 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.