The following appeared in a memo sent from a baseball team's marketing director:
In order to improve attendance and revenue, we should redo our logo, colors, and mascot. Over the past five seasons, while our attendance has stagnated and our merchandising has decreased, the four new teams in our league - all with kid-friendly mascots and hip new color schemes on their hats and jerseys - have been among the most profitable in the league. Moreover, both existing teams that redid their logos have seen a surge in both attendance and merchandise revenue. Our logo and colors may play to traditionalists, but it's hard to ignore the enthusiasm that comes from exciting new team apparel and kid-friendly mascots at the games.
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
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The argument claims that by redesigning logo, using different color and mascot will help to improve attendance and revenue. Author has based this conclusion on the profits from the four new teams which are using kid-friendly mascots and hip new color schemes on their hat and jerseys. Additionally it is mentioned that existing team which redid their logos have seen an increase in both attendance merchandise revenue. Author further argues that their logo and color may appeal to traditionalists, but the enthusiasm coming from new team's apparel and kid-friendly mascots cannot be ignored. The conclusion of this argument relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence and has several flaws.
First, the argument readily assumes that their is a positive correlation between logo,color,mascot,revenue and attendance. This statement solely relies on the fact the the new four teams are doing well in terms of attendance and revenue, and assumes that the reason behind their success is their kid-friendly mascots and new color schemes of hats and jerseys. However it is very mush possible that the new four teams are doing well because of better players,coach and training. It is also possible that the players of these four teams are more mature and seasoned players as compared to players of the existing teams. Clearly the author failed to consider the above stated possibilities and thus could not provide a clear relation between the improvement in attendance and revenue by redoing the logo,colors and mascot.
Second, it is stated that the existing team's improved attendance and revenue are tied to their use of modified logos.However author did not provide details of any other factor that could be related to expected improvements in attendance and revenue. For example, increase in attendance could be due to a new policy which makes attendance mandatory for every player, and those who fail to comply with new policy will be expelled. It is also possible that cost cutting measures adopted for existing team resulted in improved merchandise revenue.
In conclusion, the argument is flawed for the above stated reasons, and should be substantiated with more evidence.
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