Topic:
"The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company. "According to a recent report from our marketing department, during the past year, fewer people attended Super Screen-produced movies than in any other year. And yet the percentage of positive reviews by movie reviewers about specific Super Screen movies actually increased during the past year. Clearly, the contents of these reviews are not reaching enough of our prospective viewers. Thus, the problem lies not with the quality of our movies but with the public's lack of awareness that movies of good quality are available. Super Screen should therefore allocate a greater share of its budget next year to reaching the public through advertising."
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.
Essay:
The memo provided by the advertising director of the SSM Production Company states that lack of advertisement of the movies produced by the same production house is the reason behind low footfall for the previous year. The argument looks flawed and some very important questions should be answered to reach the stated conclusion.
The first question should be about the number of movies released in the past year compared to the previous years. As the argument is only providing that the reviews are good and footfall is low. There is no information about the number of movies released by the Super Screen Movie production company. So, it is very much possible that less number of movies were released by the production house and hence the number of people who watched movies by the production house were also lower than previous years.
Another flaw which can be seen is the direct correlation between the number of positive reviews and the number of people coming to see the movie. It is not a written rule that the movies receiving a greater percentage of positive reviews are sure to be a financial hit. It is quite likely that a sci-fi movie with a bunch of superheroes will receive higher footfall than a critically acclaimed movie which shows the difficulties faced by an autistic child. There are numerous examples of critically acclaimed movies not doing so good on the financial side. Therefore, the kind of movies produced by SSM production house should be provided to make sure the movies are as catchy as the movies produced by them in previous years.
Thirdly, some outside factors can also be the reason why fewer people attended the movies by SSM production house. For example, economy of the country can be going down and people are much more frugal than before and therefore the amount of money being used for entertainment such as movie going has dropped significantly. Another factor can be the culture of DVD, Blue Ray or Netflix increasing year by year and therefore the decrease in people going to theaters to watch movies. Therefore a lot of other factors need to be examined and answered before coming to the conclusion that advertising budget should be increased.
By carefully examining the above mentioned flaws of the argument, we can come to a conclusion whether the decrease in the amount of people attending is due to their lack of awareness about the good quality of the movies or whether it's something other than the lack of advertising. Good economy, culture of theater going, similar amount of movies and similar kind of movies will strengthen the argument that more advertising of the movies should be done, while contrasting answers will provide an insight about other factors that are affecting the observed decrease in audience.
"The following is taken from a memo from the advertising director of the Super Screen Movie Production Company. "According to a recent report from our marketing department, during the past year, fewer people attended Super Screen-produced movies than in any other year. And yet the percentage of positive reviews by movie reviewers about specific Super Screen movies actually increased during the past year. Clearly, the contents of these reviews are not reaching enough of our prospective viewers. Thus, the problem lies not with the quality of our movies but with the public's lack of awareness that movies of good quality are available. Super Screen should therefore allocate a greater share of its budget next year to reaching the public through advertising."
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.
Essay:
The memo provided by the advertising director of the SSM Production Company states that lack of advertisement of the movies produced by the same production house is the reason behind low footfall for the previous year. The argument looks flawed and some very important questions should be answered to reach the stated conclusion.
The first question should be about the number of movies released in the past year compared to the previous years. As the argument is only providing that the reviews are good and footfall is low. There is no information about the number of movies released by the Super Screen Movie production company. So, it is very much possible that less number of movies were released by the production house and hence the number of people who watched movies by the production house were also lower than previous years.
Another flaw which can be seen is the direct correlation between the number of positive reviews and the number of people coming to see the movie. It is not a written rule that the movies receiving a greater percentage of positive reviews are sure to be a financial hit. It is quite likely that a sci-fi movie with a bunch of superheroes will receive higher footfall than a critically acclaimed movie which shows the difficulties faced by an autistic child. There are numerous examples of critically acclaimed movies not doing so good on the financial side. Therefore, the kind of movies produced by SSM production house should be provided to make sure the movies are as catchy as the movies produced by them in previous years.
Thirdly, some outside factors can also be the reason why fewer people attended the movies by SSM production house. For example, economy of the country can be going down and people are much more frugal than before and therefore the amount of money being used for entertainment such as movie going has dropped significantly. Another factor can be the culture of DVD, Blue Ray or Netflix increasing year by year and therefore the decrease in people going to theaters to watch movies. Therefore a lot of other factors need to be examined and answered before coming to the conclusion that advertising budget should be increased.
By carefully examining the above mentioned flaws of the argument, we can come to a conclusion whether the decrease in the amount of people attending is due to their lack of awareness about the good quality of the movies or whether it's something other than the lack of advertising. Good economy, culture of theater going, similar amount of movies and similar kind of movies will strengthen the argument that more advertising of the movies should be done, while contrasting answers will provide an insight about other factors that are affecting the observed decrease in audience.