劉文勇GRE寫作Argument題庫 Day 152

Day 152 One year ago we introduced our first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal

The following appeared in a memo to the board of directors of Bargain Brand Cereals.

“One year ago we introduced our first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal. Our very low prices quickly drew many customers away from the top-selling cereal companies. Although the companies producing the top brands have since tried to compete with us by lowering their prices and although several plan to introduce their own budget brands, not once have we needed to raise our prices to continue making a profit. Given our success in selling cereal, we recommend that Bargain Brand now expand its business and begin marketing other low-priced food products as quickly as possible.”

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

五問：

（1）“One year ago we introduced our first product, Bargain Brand breakfast cereal”和“Although the companies producing the top brands have since tried to compete with us by lowering their prices and although several plan to introduce their own budget brands”是事實，“we recommend that Bargain Brand now expand its business and begin marketing other low-priced food products as quickly as possible”是結論，值得反駁嗎？

（2）一年前的情況與現在的情況是否相同？現在的情況與一年后是否相同？ Bargain Brand早餐麥片去年賣得好并不能說明以后也會賣得好。哪些外部因素可能會影響人們對不同特質商品的偏好？例如：經濟衰退時期，人們更容易對低價商品有所偏好。

（3）早餐麥片的成功除了價格低之外是否還有其他因素？例如口味、健康程度等。這些特質在產品線擴張后是否能得到延續(xù)？如果不能，將會如何影響本文的結論？如果口味、健康程度是人們選擇該麥片的主要原因，那么這些特質不能得以延續(xù)的話，即使價格低廉，人們或許也不愿繼續(xù)購買。

（4）在早餐麥片產品上競爭不過我們的企業(yè)，在其他產品上也一定競爭不過我們嗎？或者在新的領域是否存在新的強大的競爭對手？其他公司的策略對我們一定構不成威脅嗎？

（5）盡管我們現在能夠獲取利潤，但要進一步擴大企業(yè)經營規(guī)模，除了增加新的產品線外，是否可能有其他的路徑，例如：繼續(xù)在早餐麥片領域增加投入、提高利潤、擴大優(yōu)勢。另外，低價策略一定適用于其他食品嗎？