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发表于 2007-12-1 14:02:01
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ARGUMENT111 求砖,有拍必回
In the memo, the vice president concludes that it is a waste of money to purchase the "Endure" manufacturing process by citing the results of two surveys preformed among the customers. And the vice president continues to indicate that discarding this process could inctrease the profits. Unfortunately, via a careful review of the cited surveys and the reasoning procedures, I cast doubt on the validity of the conclusions.
To begin with, the first study which demonstrates that the customers purchase new stocks every month lends little credible support to the unnecessary of the manufacturing process. Firstly, the methodology of the study should be taken into consideration, which is closely associated with the credibility of the results. Detailed information of the survey including the sample size, inclusion/exclusion criteria, the design of the questionnaires, training of the performers and the interviewing techniques should be listed and confirmed before readers make their judgment on the validity of the results. Without such information, it is entirely possible that the participants failed to cover Dura-Stock customers of all ages, gender, professions or social statuses so that the result might represent merely a minor proportion of the customers. Secondly, the author deduces his conclusion on the assumption that the customers discard their old pairs of stocks after they obtain new ones, which seems unsounded on several aspects. Entirely possible is that the customers purchase new stocks every three months to keep in pace of the fashion and they may continue to wear the old ones for a long period of time. For that matter, the customers are likely to focus on the endurance of the stocks. For another, even if the customers replace their old stocks with new ones, they could still attach importance to the endurance of the stocks for it serves as one of the marks for quality as well as their consuming level.
Furthermore, the survey preformed among the customers in the largest markets could hardly confirm that the quality seems trivial compared with stylish appearance and abundant choices of color. On the one hand, the customers' highest value of the stocks weakly relates to the concern on the quality. Perhaps the customers rank the quality or endurance of the stock as the second highest value. And it is entirely possible that other brands of stocks could easily imitate the design of Dura-Stock products while their quality can hardly match that of the Dura-Stock as the manufacturing process is patented. Therefore, the customers may face with equal choices for the designs of the stocks among various manufacturers while the quality or endurance could become the decisive factor in their judgment. On the other hand, the participants of this survey may not represent the opinions of the customers as a whole. It is possible that the majority of the customers in the northeastern US consist of teenagers who tend to concern the style of the stocks whereas the customers of other regions mainly include adults or seniors citizens who focus on the quality of the stocks. Moreover, the proportion of the northeastern American market in the whole sharing of the whole market should be under scrutiny. Possibly, markets of the Dura-Stock cover a wide range of regions with the northeastern US, which is the comparatively largest one in them, contributing minor to the total sharing of the market. And the determination of customers in other market may differ form that in northeastern America. In a word, without excluding the numerous factors, the authors could hardly convince me that the endurance of the stocks is ignorable in the customers’ determination.
Finally, other factors besides the patent fees of the manufacturing process that contribute to the profits have been left out of consideration. The costs include wide sources such as the patent fees for the manufacturing process, the costs of raw materials and the operation expenses while the fees for the patent might turn out to be trivial in totality. And the management, finance or marketing strategy could increase the costs, resulting in decline in profits. On the other hand, the revenues could decrease as a result of economic depression or fierce competition in the market. In a word, without complete assessment of the costs and revenues of the company, the vice president could hardly convince me to discord the manufacturing procedure.
In sum, the reasoning procedure of the memo seems unsounded to me. To persuade me to abandon the patented manufacturing procedure, the vice president should at a minimum investigate into the market for the exact opinions of the customers. Besides, evaluation of the complicated factors pertaining to the profits should be presented. |
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