【0806G-奋斗小组】 第4次作业

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Argument232：The following appeared in a memo from the sales manager of Eco-Power, a company that manufactures tools and home appliances.
小弟的第一篇argue ， 又交晚了，反正也不奢求被改，求心安而已

The author's argument seems to be sound and appealing at first glance that Eco-Power-- a tools and home appliances production company--should attach a distinctive song to their advertisements for higher sales. The conclusion is based on the following reasons: First, many popular radio and television programs use memorable tunes. In addition, a survey points out that most high school students can easily recognize the tune to ads of soft drinks and fast-food restaurants. Finally, though  the company extended advertising in magazines, their sails declined. However, I'm afraid that further consideration reveals it suffers from several flaws.

  In evaluating the evidence of the survey, the respondents are students from high schools who are obviously not representative of overall group of people who take a significant proportion of purchasing power. It is those housewives who own the true right for deciding whether to buy or not. The author must show that the survey constitutes a sufficiently large sample of respondents. The percentage of participants, 85%, seems to be convincing, might be drawn from a small sample, 100 for example. Lacking evidence of a sufficiently representative sample, it is entirly possible that the author made a survey on a small group of students who are fast-food lovers, so that most of them can easily recognize the specific music. Or only be popular among young people, those tunes are of no significance among housewives or ones who can really afford the tools and home-appliances. So the manager can not rely on it to draw any firm conclusion about adding memorable tunes to advertisements.

  Even if one accepts the survey results, the argument remains problematic. The author overlooks the strong possibility that advertising in magazines is not the only significant means affecting sales. Common sense informs us that a variety of other means, such as advertising on radio or TV, making some promotions and so forth, also play important roles. Besides, the company might extend advertising in literary magazines or academic magazines, the readers of which focus their attention on prose or academic articles. And another possibility is that advertising on the mass media costs Eco-Power large sums of money, causes the rising cost of products and higher price which eventually serve to a decline of sales. Without ruling out alternative means of achieving the same goal, I think the manager can not make a convincing case.

  By comparing with soft drinks and fast-food restaurants, in which fields tunes are used to advertise, the author suggests that tools and home appliances production company should follow that suit. The reason rests on the assumption that a home appliances production company shares many similarities with the soft drinks and fast-food industries. However, differences between the two fields clearly outweigh the similarities, thus making the assumption and the suggestion suspect. For example, soft drinks and fast-food are bought-once product while tools and home appliances can be repeated buying. So the author made a comparison under an imprecise prerequisite.