The following appeared as part of an article in the business section of a local newspaper:
“Motorcycle X has been manufactured in the United States for more than 70 years. Although one foreign company has copied the motorcycle and is selling it for less, the company has failed to attract motorcycle X customers—some say because its product lacks the exceptionally loud noise made by motorcycle X. But there must be some other explanation. After all, foreign cars tend to be quieter than similar American-made cars, but they sell at least as well. Also, television advertisements for motorcycle X highlight its durability and sleek lines, not its noisiness, and the ads typically have voice-overs or rock music rather than engine-roar on the sound track.”
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RESPONSE===================================
The argument states that the motorcycle X that has been manufactured in united states for more than 70 years . Recently it has been reported that the motorcycle's design has been copied by another foreign company . The author of the argument states that though the company has been able to replicate the design it has failed to attract customers. He also draws an analogy between sale of foreign cars which are quiter to the sale of similar American made cars ,where in no such issue of less has been observed. The argument is flawed for the below reasons and business idea needs research and analysis before jumping over to conclusions.
Firstly the author assumes that copying the design of one company's product can also help the other company and attract the original company's customer base by attracting their customers to the copied product. This reasoning is baseless with a lot of assumptions. There is no surety that the customers will go to the new company just because the price is less. In general less prices of a similar product always develops doubts in the minds of customers. The foreign company might be using lower quality raw materials to manufacture these bikes. They might be using poor grade machinery. outdated technologies. The company might have even compromised on several safety factors too. Are we assure that the foreign company has created an exact replica of the original model? No we are not aware and these factors might be hidden from the customers as well. Hence research needs to be done on these factors to compares apples to apples.
Next the author draws and analogy between sales of two similar variety of cars with that of the sale of bikes. This is wrong . Customers might have a preference of using cars with less noise and would be liking bikes with loud noise. Do we have any survey data set for this? are we sure that customers choices remain same whether it's a bike or a car. These surveys needs to be carried out and research needs to be done on this loopholes of the analogy.
Furthermore the argument mentions about the television ads for motorcycle X . The argument mentions that the ads highlight its durability and sleek line and not it's noisiness and the ads typically have voice overs or rock music rather than engine roar. It draws a conclusion that a disadvantage earlier pointed out might not be a deciding factor. This argument again needs data or research points to support them . Are we sure that customers who are attracted by the product through ads will buy them for sure. Also sometimes the looks might even be different between both the models. The foreign company in their attempt to copy motorcycle X might have compromised on it's looks as they anyways wanted to sell it for a lesser price. This would have helped in distinguishing both the models. Also customers might have an pre existing idea about the type of bikes the company produces and loud noise would be something that might be by default present in all its models. Do we have any data about the bikes these companies generally produce. No again . Therefore just that one point which was a differentiator earlier as it was not included in ads doesn't make it less important or not a distinguisher . More details are needed to support the argument.
In conclusion the argument does contain a lot of loopholes and open ends. It needs a lot research work , market studies, customer preferences. It could be strengthened by producing correct facts and figures ad filling in the loopholes with right information .
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Sajjad1994bbGMATNinjaVeritasKarishma 
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29 Jul 2021, 07:23
