The following appeared in a memo to the board of directors of Bargain Brand Cereals.
"One year ago we introduced our first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal. Our very low prices quickly drew many customers away from the top-selling cereal companies. Although the companies producing the top brands have since tried to compete with us by lowering their prices and although several plan to introduce their own budget brands, not once have we needed to raise our prices to continue making a profit. Given our success in selling cereal, we recommend that Bargain Brand now expand its business and begin marketing other low-priced food products as quickly as possible."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
Based on the information provided, the board of directors of Bargain Brand Cereals are recommending expanding its business by marketing other low-priced food products. They have come to this conclusion based on the success of their low-priced cereal products in comparison to their competitors, as well as not having to raise their prices to continue making a profit. However, before this recommendation can be properly evaluated, three questions must be answered.
First, what are the production costs of Bargain Brand’s other products in comparison to their cereal line? Bargain Brand has assumed that similar to their cereal products, they can also offer other products at exceptionally low prices. However, perhaps the reason they can offer cereal cheaper than others is because its their cheapest product to produce. If no other products are cheap to produce, then it would be impossible for them to replicate such a strategy. Furthermore, assuming the moved forward anyway, could they expect this trend to continue into the reasonable future? For example, perhaps the materials needed for their new products suddenly become short-supplied or new equipment / technology develops that is necessary; which would surely raise production costs and the likelihood of price increases.
Secondly, would there ever be any demand for these new products should they move forward? One could argue that people only buy cereal from Bargain Brand because of their cheap prices, but prefer to get other products (like fresh produce or meat) from other companies even if it costs more. If fact, one could also argue that in order for Bargain Brand to become competitive in other spaces, they would have to spend money on advertising and sales; which would likely cut into their profit margins and lead to price increases.
Finally, was Bargain Brand cereal originally successful because people actually liked the cereal and its low cost? Or was it because there were no other better options at the time of its launch? For example, suppose that oatmeal is the preferred option among consumers, but that one year ago there was a huge shortage of production materials; thus causing a massive price increase and shift to cereal.
Overall, the argument, as it stands now, is considerably flawed due to its reliance and several unwarranted assumptions. This includes the assumption that their production costs for other products will be similarly low and long lasting, that there will be demand for their new products, and that the initial success of their cereal was based on taste and price and not because there were no other options at the time. That said, if the author can answer these three questions and offer more evidence, perhaps in the form of a systematic research study, then it would be possible to fully examine the viability of offering new low cost products.
Comments
Essay evaluation report
argument 1 -- OK
argument 2 -- not exactly. need to argue:
Although the companies producing the top brands have since tried to compete with us by lowering their prices and although several plan to introduce their own budget brands, not once have we needed to raise our prices to continue making a profit.
argument 3 -- OK
----------------
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.5 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 0 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 18 15
No. of Words: 464 350
No. of Characters: 2341 1500
No. of Different Words: 223 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.641 4.7
Average Word Length: 5.045 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.498 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 166 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 125 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 81 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 47 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 25.778 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 10.927 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.833 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.338 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.553 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.088 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 5 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 323, Rule ID: IT_IS[17]
Message: Did you mean 'it's' (='it is') instead of 'its' (possessive pronoun)?
Suggestion: it's; it is
...r cereal cheaper than others is because its their cheapest product to produce. If n...
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, anyway, but, finally, first, furthermore, however, if, second, secondly, similarly, so, then, thus, well, for example, as well as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 20.0 19.6327345309 102% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 17.0 12.9520958084 131% => OK
Conjunction : 16.0 11.1786427146 143% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 13.6137724551 88% => OK
Pronoun: 45.0 28.8173652695 156% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 49.0 55.5748502994 88% => OK
Nominalization: 11.0 16.3942115768 67% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2412.0 2260.96107784 107% => OK
No of words: 464.0 441.139720559 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.19827586207 5.12650576532 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.64119157421 4.56307096286 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.61458329101 2.78398813304 94% => OK
Unique words: 229.0 204.123752495 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.493534482759 0.468620217663 105% => OK
syllable_count: 737.1 705.55239521 104% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 4.96107784431 121% => OK
Article: 2.0 8.76447105788 23% => OK
Subordination: 6.0 2.70958083832 221% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 4.22255489022 24% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 18.0 19.7664670659 91% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 22.8473053892 109% => OK
Sentence length SD: 61.4548162835 57.8364921388 106% => OK
Chars per sentence: 134.0 119.503703932 112% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.7777777778 23.324526521 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.05555555556 5.70786347227 141% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 5.25449101796 19% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 9.0 8.20758483034 110% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 6.88822355289 87% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.19763191542 0.218282227539 91% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0819516565449 0.0743258471296 110% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0785769570174 0.0701772020484 112% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.134802313601 0.128457276422 105% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0417905352346 0.0628817314937 66% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.0 14.3799401198 111% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 48.3550499002 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.1628742515 123% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 12.197005988 107% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.18 12.5979740519 105% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.45 8.32208582834 102% => OK
difficult_words: 105.0 98.500998004 107% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 11.1389221557 108% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 66.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.