The following appeared as part of a campaign to sell advertising time on a local radio station to local businesses:
“The Cumquat Café began advertising on our local radio station this year and was delighted to see its business
increase by 10 percent over last year’s totals. Their success shows you how you can use radio advertising to make
your business more profitable.”
The argument claims that since Cumquat Cafè started advertising on a local radio station its business grew 10% last year, hence this demonstrates how radio
advertising can make any business more profitable. Stated this way the argument fails to mention several key factors, on the basis of which it could be
evaluated. Moreover, the conclusion of the argument relies on assumptions for which there is no evidence. Hence the argument is rather weak, unconvincing
and has several flaws.
First, readily assumes that Cumquat Cafè 10% business increase is due to radio advertising. This statement is a stretch and not substantiated in any way.
In fact, it can be possible that the business increase might be subsequent to a variety of other events. For example, Cumquat Cafè could have introduced a
new coffee blend in its menu, which is liked more from customers than the one it had last year, hence this could have triggered an increase in sales. Clearly
it is difficult to find a connection between the advertising campaign and the business increase. The argument could have been much clearer if it
explicitely stated that for all the listeners of the local radio station there was a free coffee at the Cumquat Cafè (for example), thus creating a
logical connection between the campaign and the increase.
Second, the author claims that Cumquat Cafè business incrase could be replicated by any business trough radio advertising. This is a very weak and
unsupported claim as the argument does not demonstrate how it is possible for any business to increase trough radio advertising. The business world
is full of examples of business that grew at an exponential rate for decades, withou any kind of advertising,till they became multinational corporation.
One of these businesses is without any doubt the fashion retailer Zara, which has never done any advertising campaign on any kind of media, using customer's
satisfaction as the sole publicitary vehicle. If the argument had provided empirical evidence of how it is possible for any business to increase trough radio
advertising than it would have been more convincing.
In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and is therefore unconvincing.It could be considerably strenghtened if the author had
provided all the relevant data and facts to support the conclusion.
In order to assess the merits of a certain situation it is essential to have full knowledge of all contributing factors. In this particular case, without
any data creating a correletion between the events, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.
Thanks a lot