GMAT Essays (AWA)

I am so thankful to the experts here for doing such a tedious and selfless job of reviewing essays that we participants post. All our success is because of you. Here is one more that I attempted. (Looks like I took too much time to organize my thoughts, hence ended up rushing. )

ESSAY QUESTION:
The following appeared in a market research report examining consumer perceptions of a chain of clothing stores:

"A recent survey commissioned by the market research department of XY Gen Stores indicated a high level of recognition among consumers of the brand and the nature of the apparel sold in XY Gen Stores. However, the survey also indicated that approximately 60% of those surveyed that recognized the name of XY Gen Stores had never shopped at one of the company's stores. Because of this result, XY Gen Stores executives should launch a significant rebranding and marketing campaign to change the company's image and thereby bring new consumers into the stores.


YOUR RESPONSE:
The data about of modern days consumers show a common pattern in consumer's behavior that they usually feel a sense of pride by associating themselves with a reputed brand particularly when it comes to apparel. Hence companies invest a lot to establish brand names and reach out to as many new consumers possible to maximize profits. However the author's argument here about opening more stores in order to rebrand the company and bringing new customers to the store may not convince many, due to his poorly reasoned argument based on inadequate premises and unproven assumptions.

The primary issue with the argument is that the data point that the author provides is one dimensional. The author fails to provide data regarding what is the factor that the consumers most like about the brand. The company could invest in the direction which would enhance those factors that the customers like about. This information can help executives to decide on a strategy that would increase the sell as well as attract more customers. So the incomplete nature of the data provided is inconclusive to the decision of opening new stores to attract more customers.

Additionally the author makes an assumption that 60% people who participated in survey and have not shopped at one of the store, have never bought apparels of the brand XY Gen Stores from any other popular stores or its online store. Without validating this information it would not be appropriate to draw a conclusion that opening new stores would ensure that many of those 60% people would start buying the apparels. There is another possibility that though majority people like the apparels of brand XY Gen, they do not buy due to high prices of the apparels, or XY Gen does not make clothes for a significant age group of consumers. Thus with these assumptions which do not clearly show the reason behind 60% people who have never been to XY Gen store, the conclusion to open new stores does not convince many.

Though there are several flaws with the argument the author has merit in the argument. If the author can find out the reason why people like the brand and what distinguishes the brand from its competitors, the executives can make a decision on whether opening new stores to attract customers makes more sense or trying another type of brand campaigning such as tv commercials, or offers and discounts makes more sense to draw attention of new customers. Also finding more information to find what is the major source of sales of the brand if not store, would help the executives to invest more in encouraging that direction of sale, such as enhancing the website in case of more transactions taking place online. If all these multidimensional data narrow down the decision to open new stores to attract new customers, the argument will become more convincing to the readers.

To summarize though the author's argument about opening a new store to attract new customers may have merit, it is flawed with poor reasoning, inadequate data and unproven assumptions. By careful analysis of the assumptions, and by more research to explore sufficient data to be able to predict that opening new store indeed would attract more customers, would make this argument more logical.