Intern
Joined: 05 Jul 2013
Posts: 34
Given Kudos: 14
Location: India
Concentration: Strategy, General Management
GMAT 1: 750 Q51 V39
GPA: 3.7
WE:Consulting (Consulting)
GMAT Write - AWA rating and improvements
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25 Apr 2016, 02:15
Hi guys,
I wrote the below AWA in GMAT Write and got the following scores
Analyzes the issue 5
Supports ideas 5
Organizes a coherent idea 5
Language control 5
Would like to know the improvement areas so that I can get a 5.5 or 6.
P.S - I am aware of the 5-6 spelling mistakes, but does that contribute to a low score ?
Prompt :- 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.
Essay
The argument claims that the best way to gain customers for Excelsior, a new entrant in coffee market, is to do what Superior did when it introduced a new brand in its existing line of coffee brands. Stated in this way the argument presents examples of leap of faith and poor reasoning. The argument does not mention the relevant facts affecting the conclusion of the argument. The conclusion makes assumptions for which there is no clear evidence and hence, is unconvincing and has several flaws.
First, the argument suggests that imitating Superior is the best way of gaining new customers, however it fails to mention why this is considered as the best strategy. Just becasue Superior is a leading brand of coffee does not mean that all decisions taken by it are correct and more so are also suited for Excelsior, a new entrant in a competitive market.
Second, the argument fails to mention key facts about Superior launching its new brand of coffee such as the year of launch, target market and segment. Each of the aforesaid factors can affect the outcome in a substantial way. For example, it could be that Superior launched its brand of coffee a decade back, and over the course of time the marketing strategies and customer responses to them have evolved significantly. Additionally, it is very much possible that Excelsior has a different target audience than Superior and hence, may need a completely different marketing strategy.
Finally, The argument fails to mention the correlation between introducing a new brand of coffee, by a new entrant and introducing a new brand of coffee by an existing company. Superior,a leading coffee company, already would have its sales channels in place, its distributions channels would have been developed. Hence offering free samples, discount coupans may influcence its existing customers to try its new brand as well. However, Excelsior being a new entrant won't have these things in place and hence maynot be able to get the most benefit out of this strategy.
In conclusion, the argument is flawed for above mentioned reasons and is therefore unconvincing. It can be strengthened by mentioning the relevant facts which affect the conclusion. In order to assess the merits, full knowledge of contributing factors is needed. Without this info the argument is unsubstantiated and open to debate