The following memorandum is from the business manager of Happy Pancake House restaurants."Butter has now been replaced by margarine in Happy Pancake House restaurants throughout the southwestern United States. Only about 2 percent of customers have compla

The author of the memorandum asserts that butter has been replaced by margraine in Happy Pancake House restaurants in southwestern US. Author suggests that they should apply similar change to all their restaurants in southeast and northwest. Author corroborates his suggestion with some data such as only 2 percent of the customers complained in southwestern restaurants about this change and hence they can conclude that 98 percent customers are happy with the change. Author further provides information that when customers ask for butter but served margarine,they did not complain. Finally author tries to convince the readers of memorandum that replacing butter with margarine would be very cost effective for the company. Author's suggestion, however is not fortified with sufficient data and hence it lacks the convincing power. There are many flaws in the information provided and author must add more information to present his suggestion cogently.

First of all, author mentions that only 2 percent of the customers have complained. He, however has not provided ample data as to how many customers were surveyed and whether all the Happy Pancake restaurants in southwestern US were included in the survey. Without this information, it's very difficult to establish the claim. Had the author provided these details such as most of the customers were surveyed and all the restaurants were included in the survey, it would have been easier to reconcile the suggestion. In absence of such claims, it's possible that only few of the restaurants were included in survey and there were not many customers present at the time of survey. It's also possible that it was rush hour and customers did not complain because they were in hurry.

Second, it's possible that customers did notice the chance, however they ignored it. However, it's possible that if they see the repetition in future, they start complaining and stop coming to the restaurant. A survey which actually includes specific questions to the people such as - do they like margarine instead of butter is needed. If the people respond positively then author's suggestion is fortified. However, it's possible that people dislike the change when specifically asked. Hence contemplating on biased assumptions would be dangerous.

Third, data from southwestern US is not ample to establish the opinion about other regions. It's possible that people in other regions have specific choices and they do not like the change. Hence, a detailed survey needs to be conducted in all the regions targeted for butter to margarine change.

Finally, author has tried to push his suggestion with statement that this change would increase profit margins. There is a big part of information missing here. Author has not given per unit prices of butter and margarine which could convince the readers about the profit statement. Author must provide per unit prices of butter and margarine and prove to the readers that there is indeed a big difference in the margin. In the absence of this data, there is a possibility that there is no difference between the prices of butter and margarine. It's also possible that author is biased towards this change due to some hidden reason and hence he has not disclosed the prices intentionally.

Hence, it can be concluded that author needs to provide much more information in addition to the existing incomplete information in order to convince readers of memorandum with his suggestion. Author does not succeed in convincing the readers With existing incomplete information.