AA 124 124. The following appeared in a memorandum from the owner of Carlo’s Clothing to the staff. “Since Disc Depot, the music store on the next block, began a new radio advertising campaign last year, its business has grown dramatically, as evidenced by the large increase in foot traffic into the store. While the Disc Depot’s owners have apparently become wealthy enough to retire, profits at Carlo’s Clothing have remained stagnant for the past three years. In order to boost our sales and profits, we should therefore switch from newspaper advertising to frequent radio advertisements like those for Disc Depot.”
In this memorandum, the author suggests that Carlo's Clothing use radio advertisement rather than the newspaper advertisement. In order to support this suggestion, the author uses the cause of Disc Depot. The author is impressed by the large increase in foot traffic into the Disc Depot, and, at the same time, attributes the result to the radio advertisement of Disc Depot. However, without falling under the author's spell, we could found that the author's suggestion is ill-convincing for several critical flaws. First, the author make a false analogy between the business of Disc Depot and that of Carlo's Clothing; second, the author assumes that the more people in the store, the larger sales revenue; third, the author neglect others method that could bring more business to Carlo's Clothing.
The major problem with this suggestion is that the author makes a false analogy between the business of Disc Depot and that of Carlo's Clothing. It is well known that the music consumers' behaviors differ from those of clothes consumers. Those consumers may contact different media. Under this circumstance, although the Disc Depot attracts many customers through radio advertisements, it is not necessary mean that Carlo's Clothing could attract its customers by doing so.
Not only does the author makes the false analogy, but also assumes that the more people in the store, the larger sales revenue. Although, admittly, sometimes, more customers mean higher sales revenue, we could not reach the conclusion that more customers mean higher profits. First, it is that there is large increase in foot traffic into the store, however, how many of customers just look around without buying anything? Second, the owner of Carlo's Clothing needs to compare the cost of radio advertisement with that of newspaper advertisement. If the increase of cost could not be covered by the sales revenue increasing, doing so is unjustified.
More over, it is necessary to point out that there are others business strategies to improve the business of Carlo's Clothing. Advertisement is not the only method to attract customers’ attention. Promotions, shows and coupons are effective way that drives consumers to the stores.
In summary, the conclusion reached in this argument is invalid. To make the argument more persuasive, it is necessary to supplement the argument with more information, such as survey of consumers' behavior, the sales data of Disc Depot, the comparison between the cost of radio advertisement and that of newspaper advertisement, and so on. |