Analyze Argument

[sunilrawat]

Hi,

Please somebody rate this.

ESSAY QUESTION:
The following appeared in an article in a consumer-electronics magazine:

"Company X's latest model of digital camera to be released next month, the TR12, is being promoted as the most portable, user-friendly digital camera available, and also an excellent bargain. It can be expected to live up to these claims, because Company X's previous model, the TR11, was universally lauded as setting the standard in these areas last year."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound.


YOUR RESPONSE:

The argument suggests that the company's new product, the TR12 will live up to the company's claim and will turn out as an excellent bargain. This argument is based on the premise that the company's another product launched last year was received very well in the market and the company's promotion for the new product will be successful. However, this argument is flawed as it assumes several impractical assumptions.
Firstly, the company assumes that the the promotion itself for the TR12 is sufficient for the product's success. And that people will buy the product for the sake of company's brand value which the company could have developed over the last year. But this assumption fails to take into account that the brand value cannot be judged by as success of a single product. It is quite possible that the success of TR11 was due to unavailability of other similar products in the market last year. This much knowledge is insufficient to judge the competitiveness of TR12.
Secondly, the argument assumes that the technical specifications have no important role in the sale of the product. This again, is a very weak assumption. The TR11 might have succeed because of a new technology. People might have bought TR11 because of new features. However, the argument doesn't explain whether those features were accepted favorably. And if the company has now attributing the success of TR12 to that of TR11 only, it might not be taking into account the need of improvement of technical features of the product.
Lastly, the argument also assumes that other competitors have not developed any product which might give TR12 a head on competition. TR11's success might have prompted other competitors to launch their own products as well which might lead to failure of TR12.
In all the argument is weak and cannot be sufficiently regarded as a fair judgement to the TR12's success. However, if the TR12's technical features as compared to TR11 and other competitors' products are also taken into consideration, and whether the product TR12 still seems to be superior after those considerations, the argument might be strengthened. Without these considerations, the argument fails to stand as a true judgement over TR12's success.

[StaceyKoprince]

Hi, thanks for posting your essays! Just an FYI that instructors don't grade or give feedback on essays (see the forum guidelines for details).

But I certainly hope other community members respond. Also, if you're in our class, you'll have an opportunity to get essays graded and get written feedback during the course (after class 6). Finally, you can get essays graded by GMAT Write (the official essay grading service from the makers of the exam) - they'll both grade the essays and provide feedback as to how to improve (for a fee). For details and pricing, go to www.mba.com and search for GMAT Write.