54. The following appeared in an Excelsior Company memorandum².
“The Excelsior Company plans to introduce its own brand of coffee. Since coffee is an expensive food item, and since there are already many established brands of coffee, the best way to gain customers for the Excelsior brand is to do what Superior, the leading coffee company, did when it introduced the newest brand in its line of coffees: conduct a temporary sales promotion³ that offers free samples, price reductions, and discount coupons⁴ for the new brand.”
Discuss how well reasoned... etc.
精工公司的备忘录：
精工公司计划引入它自己的咖啡品牌。因为咖啡是一种昂贵的食品，而且已经有很多知名的咖啡品牌了，所以精工公司获得顾客的最好方法是做最主要的咖啡公司——高手公司在其系列产品中加入它的最新品牌的时候所作的事情：通过派发免费样品，降价和优惠卷制造新品牌的暂时的销售高潮。
1.         别的公司的经验是否可以被套用在该公司身上尚待考证
2.         该公司是否承担的起诸如发送免费样品降价等促销策略
3.         那个公司采取上述措施的时候是否获得了成功并没有证据论证
 
1，             没有证据证明SUPERIOR的策略成功了。
2，             就算成功了，也不一定会适合EC。因为那个公司可能有很强的实力，创造出high quality coffee，所以经过促销后很可能会win large amount of customers。但是EC不一定能创造出这样好的咖啡。
3，             就算是创造出了好咖啡，也不一定有实力实行这样的策略。很可能销售的增加不能off set那些cost.
 
This company memorandum recommends that Excelsior conduct a temporary sales promotion for its new brand of coffee that includes offering free samples, price reductions, and discount coupons. This recommendation is based on the fact that Superior, the leading coffee company, used just such a promotion to introduce the newest brand in its line of coffees. This argument is unconvincing because it relies on three questionable⁵ assumptions.
First of all, the argument rests on the assumption that a promotional strategy that works for one company will work for another. However, Excelsior and Superior may not be sufficiently⁶ similar to warrant this assumption. Promotional techniques that work for a leader with established name recognition for its brand of coffees may be ineffective for a company with no similar name recognition new to the brand coffee market. Accordingly, Excelsior might be better advised to employ some other strategy, such as a media advertising⁷ plan, to first attain⁸ broad name recognition.
The argument also depends on the assumption that Excelsior can afford a promotional plan similar to Superior’s. However, free samples, price reductions, and discounts all reduce profits and may actually result in temporary losses. While a leading company with other profitable products in the same line can absorb a temporary loss, for a fledgling competitor this strategy might be very risky⁹ and may even result in business failure.
Finally, the argument relies on the assumption that Superior’s promotional campaign for its newest coffee was successful. However, the memo¹ provides no evidence that this was the case. It is possible that the promotion was entirely¹⁰ ineffective, and that Superior remains¹¹ the leader in its field despite this small failure. If so, Excelsior may be ill-advised to follow Superior’s promotional strategy.
In conclusion, the two companies are too dissimilar to justify¹² the recommendation that Excelsior model its promotional strategy on Superior’s. To strengthen the argument, the author of the memo must establish that Excelsior has sufficient operating capital to launch the recommended sales campaign, and that this strategy would be more effective than another strategy, such as using extensive media advertising.

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