AWA - Argument 3

"Your vacation resort can ill afford not to publicize its offerings on Travelshack.com.Our readership has more than doubled in the past year alone and is dominated by savvy consumers with large disposable incomes.Witness the experience of Snowbert Ski Lodge. Since it began advertising itself on our webiste a year ago, it is regularly booked to capacity and its annual profits have increased more than threefold from the previous year."
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The argument in discussion might lead one to believe that advertising on travelshack.com will result in good profits.But a careful observation of the reasoning used and a look at the assumptions involved convinces us that the argument is weak. These weaknesses can be removed by providing more convincing evidence. A look at each of these factors will make our understanding clear.

The line of reasoning is misleading since it says that the consumer base of the online magazine/catalogue has doubled, but doesn't exactly quote the number of consumers. Though it might be a good thing for the company it doesn't show that a large percentage of the vacationing population actully reads this particular magazine. For example the readership might have increased from say 10,000 to 20,000 people.For a total vacationing population of 200,000 this accounts to just 10%.

Also the argument points out that the readers are mostly affluent people. It assumes that as soon as they see an advertisemt they will go and vacation at the particular advertised resort. But in reality the rich might only vacation at the high-end resorts. In such a case economy resorts cannot benefit from advertising their services on travelshack.com.

When we look at the evidence the argumnet uses to support itself, we can see that the underlying assumption involved is that the only reason the Ski Lodge's profit increased was due to advertising. This disregards any other reasons applicable for ex. reduction in the room rent at the resort, addition of new attractions near the Ski Lodge etc.

Inspite of the above weak links the argument can be made more convincing if it can provide further evidence linking the improved profits at Ski Lode to it's advertising on travelshack.com.For instance the results of a survey of the customers at the resort indicating that maximum customers heard about the resort through travelshack.com.Another convincing evidence can involve the comparision of Ski Lodge to it's neighbouring resorts and a deduction that only Ski Lodge's profits have improved.