[66's]异题 Argument 224

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argument 224The following appeared in a corporate planning memo at ABC Cereal Company, the makers of Better Bran cereal.
"Sales of Better Bran have declined in recent years, for reasons that management has now identified. First, Better Bran is a cereal with high sugar content, and recent research studies have found that most consumers say they are concerned about the amount of sugar added to their breakfast cereal. Second, the price of Better Bran has increased by 5 percent in each of the last three years. Therefore, to increase our company's profits we need to reduce the amount of sugar in Better Bran and lower Better Bran's price."


In the argument, the author concludes thatthe company should lower the sugar content and the reduce price of the BetterBran cereal to make more profits by make the high content of sugar and theincreasing price responsible for the declined sales. However, the author doesnot provide enough persuasive evidence to support his/her points, also, thefalse reasoning makes the conclusion unreliable.

In the first place, it is uncertain thatthe high content of sugar in Better Bran cereal is responsible for the declineof sales. The author provides no credible evidence that the sugar content isthe main reason that keeps people from buying it. Although it is said thatpeople are concerned about the amount of sugar added in their breakfastaccording to recent research, no evidence shows that the sugar content ofBetter Bran cereal is high enough to make people worry about. Moreover, thereliability of the research is suspicious, no persuasive data is included.

Secondly, the author is not able to provethat it is because of the increased price why people do not choose Better Brancereal. 5 percent of increased price is acceptable in 3 years for the reasonthat inflation and the price of other materials may raise. Therefore, it isunconvincing that the 5 percent of increasing makes the sales decline.

Even assuming that the high content ofsugar and the increasing price are the main reason that the sales declined, theconclusion of the author that reducing sugar content and lowering the pricewill increase profits is not stable. The present profit is unclear, and howmuch the sales will increase is unpredictable by taking measures above. As aresult, it is uncertain that whether the increasing amount of sales by reducingprice will bring more profits. Further more, based on the points above,lowering sugar content and reducing price may not necessarily increase sales.

In sum, reasons that responsible for thedeclined sales are still not clear, the company should take more investigationson other aspects like the quality of the products or the sales policy. What ismore, to make more profits, the company should make more detailed plans ratherthan merely counting on lowering sugar content and reducing price.