Please follow the AWA forum rules and repost. Read the rules in the link below.
I am open to suggestions for improvement. Please evaluate it
Prompt:
Thank you
saumyap wrote:
I am open to suggestions for improvement. Please evaluate it
Prompt:
The following appeared as part of a promotional campaign to sell advertising space in the Daily Gazette to grocery stores in the Marston area:
“Advertising the reduced price of selected grocery items in the Daily Gazette will help you increase your sales. Consider the results of a study conducted last month. Thirty sale items from a store in downtown Marston were advertised in The Gazette for four days. Each time one or more of the 30 items was purchased, clerks asked whether the shopper had read the ad. Two-thirds of the 200 shoppers asked answered in the affirmative. Furthermore, more than half the customers who answered in the affirmative spent over $100 at the store.”
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.
Essay:
The above argument is flawed for numerous reasons. The claim made by the author stating, “Advertising the reduced price of selected grocery items in the Daily Gazette will help you increase your sales." is unsubstantiated because of the number of unwarranted assumptions made by the author to prove this.
Firstly, the author has stated the evidence from a study which was conducted in the downtown Marston area. It is not necessary that the other areas of Marston will produce similar results. Many factors like the population of the area, type of clientele, type of locality etc. affects the sales. The author has failed to account for any of these factors while stating the study as an evidence for the guaranteed increase in sales through advertising in the Daily Gazette.
Moreover, It is mentioned that each time when one or more of the 30 items were purchased by a customer then at least two thirds of those customers had read the ad. But, this does not mean that the customer bought the discounted items because of the ad. It can be the case that the items were essential items, and the customer would have bought them even without the sale.
Furthermore, the statement that , more than half of the buyers who read the ad spent more than 100 dollars does not support how it will lead to an increased profit. It might be the case that remaining percentage of the total customers spent substantially fewer than the 100 dollars. Hence, this data does not validate the increased sales of other items as well.
Lastly, the author could have strengthened argument by providing the relevant data corresponding to several other locations of the Marston area, and by giving the information pertaining to the type of customers who visited the store, and the items which were on the sale.
In conclusion, the author has failed to make a convincing argument regarding the increase in sales from advertising in the Daily Gazette.