Argu8 第一篇习作 求狠拍

sillydsUID: 2985444

题目：ARGUMENT8 - The following appeared in a memorandum issued by the strategic planning department at Omni Inc.

"Mesa Foods, a manufacturer of snack foods that currently markets its products within a relatively small region of the country, has strong growth potential. Mesa enjoyed a 20 percent increase in profits last year, and its best-selling product, Diabolique Salsa, has had increased sales over each of the past three years. Since Omni Inc. is interested in reaching 14-to-25 year olds, the age group that consumes the most snack food, we should buy Mesa Foods, and concentrate in particular on marketing Diabolique Salsa throughout the country."
字数：490          用时：02:00:00          日期：2011/3/12 22:17:08

The memo suggests that the Omni Inc. should buy Mesa Foods, a manufacturer of snack foods, and particularly concentrate on marketing Diabolique Salsa(DS) nationwide. However, the suggestion was concluded on the basis of some questionable premises, namely the Mesa Foods has strong growth potential and its products particularly match Omni's target customers. A careful analysis reveals several flaws of it.

To begin with, the increases in profits and sales do not necessarily indicate strong growth potential of the company. We should notice that the 20% increase in profits is merely based on a one-year timeframe. It is possible that due to the economic depression, profits of the year before last year suddenly slumped whereas the one in last year recovered soon and even had a slightly increase. In addition, continue sales increases of the best-selling product DS does not equal to the profits growth. Perhaps strategy of “small margins and big sales” has been adopted by the Mesa Foods. Furthermore, the author has ignored the sales of other snack foods. Perhaps the increasing rate of profits contributed by DS is greater than 20% and therefore indicates a loss in other products. Without ruling out all this possible situations, it is hard to say the Mesa Food is a strong potential company.

Even assuming that the Mesa Foods has strong growth potential, whether its products can match the consumption preference of those aging from 14 to 25 is doubtful. There is no sufficient evidence provided in the memo to show that the large consumer group of the country would be interested in Mesa's snack foods. However, people’s choice of a certain product can be determined by many factors, such as brand, taste, and price, etc. It is possible that those target customers, the age group Omni Inc. intends to reach, has great brand loyalty of some other famous brands, which have been occupying the snack food markets for many years. In addition, the sales territory is a big problem. Due to different eating habits, taste of people in the small region may be different from those in other regions of the country. And if so, Mesa’s snacks are possibly not favored by other consumers in the country. The author should provide more information to prove that the Mesa Foods can suit the target customers’ interests and therefore maintain profitable after the acquisition.

Even if those products match the target customers' favors, particularly concentration on DS marketing may not effective. The best-selling product in a relatively small region may not be the best-selling one throughout the country. Again, the author fails to consider the marketing costs versus the potential revenues.

In sum, the memo depends on dubious premises and therefore the suggestion of buying the Mesa Foods is unpersuasive. The author must provide more data concerning the company’s growth potential. Also an insightful analysis of the nationwide snack foods market should be conducted in order to prove that Mesa’s snack foods can bring growing profits for Omni Inc..

写完后大概修改了一下语法，第一篇水平一般

guiyujuanUID: 2898340

首先很感谢楼主的修改，我在Argu上的论证老做不到充分。。。
个人水平有限，多多指教了~~

sillydsUID: 2985444

你的意见很有启发，确实跟论点联系不足