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.

The recommendation appeared in a memo suggests Bargan Brand to expand its business by producing low-priced food products since the company has been successful with its low-priced breakfast cereal. To properly evaluate the soundness of the recommendation, several questions have to be made for the author to answer.

First, the author posit that low prices offered by the cereal is the primary reason for the success of Bargain Brand. However, the author needs to contemplate if he or she misinterpretated correlation as causation. It is hasty to regard low prices as the causal effect of success of the company just because they coincided, especially since the company retained its customers despite its competitors' cost reduction of their products. Perhaps, Bargain Brand's was fruitful owing to its products' quality and flavorful recipe. The author's argument gives no evidence about the assumed causal relation; the author should provide sufficient proofs to bolster the claim.

Second question that needs an answer is if the number of customers remains constant. The author contends that it is because the company has always made profits without having to increase the price of its cereals. Nevertheless, the company being profitable may not imply that the company is not losing customers. Competing firms might be already taking the customers, which is not yet in effect, thus meaning future success of Bargain Brand is not guaranteed. The author has to give more explanation about the company's future success.

Third enquiry is that if what happened in case of cereals will be replicated in other products of the company as well. The author supposes that similar results will be drawn in other products without explaning the similarities between cereals and other products of the company. Situation could be different with products of different categories and market conditions at the time of launch. Without proper establishment of the similarities and theories behind the success of other products with same strategy, the author cannot prove the validity of his or her claim.

All in all, the author should provide aforementioned information to effectively explain and buttress the validity of the recommendation. Failing to do so will make the argument remain ill-advised.