Argument94 by lesheng

qinleshengUID: 2309050

TOPIC: ARGUMENT94 - The following appeared in a memo from the president of Bower Builders, a company that constructs new homes.
"A nationwide survey reveals that the two most desired home features are a bathroom with a whirlpool tub and a large kitchen. Homes in a nearby development built by our competitor, Domus Construction, have whirlpool tubs and have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices than the average. To increase our sales and profits, we should include whirlpool tubs and larger kitchens as standard features in all our new homes. Since our recent buyers have voiced no complaints about small yards, we can also increase profits by decreasing the size of our yards."
WORDS: 395          TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 2009/2/5 15:41:27
To increase sales and profits in the Bower Builders,a company that constructs new homes, certain measures such as including whirlpool tubs and larger kitchens as standard features are proposed.Also, the company think it would be all right to decrease the size of the yards.This argument might seem amenable at first glance, however it suffers from several critical fallacies.
The arguer fails to demonstrate how the nationalwide survey on the housing is  done and further details of the survey is unavailable.If a construction company intend to increase sales, the company might have to make sure those survey results are credible and analyze the possible features desired by the customers instead of simply bet a company's fortune on a particular feature(A bathroom with a whirlpool tub and a large kitchen).Also, the result of the survey, though may be convincing in the nationalwide, might not be applicable in the local area.
Also in this argument,the arguer unfairly assume the Domus Construction have benefited a lot from the new home features.On one hand, the arguer built a causual relationship between the new home features and the increase sales,which is unwarranted.On the other hand, even though homes with whirlpool tubs have sold much faster and at significantly higher prices that than average, it dose not mean the Domus Construction earn more money from it because it is obviously seen to everyone that the cost of house would increase accordingly.
Granted that the Domus Construction's new homes is a great success, it does not represent the certain new home features built by the Bower Builders would be welcomed by the buyers.The target customers of these two companies might not be the identical group of people and the land they have must not be  the same one.In addition, the Domus Construction might be good at building a more compliacted homes whereas Bower Builders' specializes in constructing simpler houses.
In addition, the decision of decreasing the size of yards should be reconsidered.The recent buyer,unsatisfied with the small yard, might not report their complaint until now; And the arguer provides no evidence to demonstrate the buyers would still be happy after certain adjustment.
To conclude,the Bower Builders should think carefully before they accept this new solutions.They might do more analyzing job about the survey and its competitors.To better evaluate the argument, the company should  also figure what their potential buyers really want.