The argument is comparing the spending pattern of middle aged customers and youngers. They claim that middle aged people spend more on department store product i.e 39% of their retail expenditure and the younger people spend only 25%. It suggests store managers to attract middle aged customers more than younger ones as middle aged customers will increase within next decade. This claim is somehow correct but it could be more persuasive if the comparison was made with the information about the sectors of age group in the area. For example, the middle aged people can be only 10% of the society and younger may be about 40%. So this missing information makes the argument vague and less persuasive.
In any business defining the target market is the most important and primary step. Market share of a certain target market is also very necessary to keep in view. Niche marketing is a good strategy but it requires massive amount of capital to be profitable. If your target market does not make a good market share then it becomes very hard to survive. Similarly market share of middle aged people and youth is different and it varies from area to area and country to country. Burgeoning companies mainly focus on the target market and their market share keeps on increasing. For example, in Pakistan McDonalds focuses more on kids, as the population of Paksitan is rapidly increasing so the market share of kids are increasing which has helped McDonalds to maintain a strong hold in the market.
Secondly the percentage given by the statement gives an unclear view of the issue. It asserts that middle aged people spend 39% of the retail expenditure on department store products. This percentage of expenditure cannot be generalized as the income level of people varies. 39% of the income of a person may be $800 and 25% of the income of any other person may be $2000. We cannot determine from the statement how much people spend by only a percentage. The store managers had made this report on very indistinct facts. It could be improved if the income level generally was presented of middle aged group and youth of the society.
The store managers want to take advantage of the trend by replacing the products which attract youth with the products for middle aged people because in future middle aged people will increase. This impractical proclamation is overlooking the fact the within next decade children will be turned into youth as well. This again depends on the society trends in some societies children are more than middle aged people and vice versa. This again cannot be taken as a broad view unless age division in certain society is studied carefully.
This indistinct statement contains fallacious claims. The store managers should study the age division, market share of their target market and income level of their target market in order to compete more efficiently and to define long term plans, which eventually will make them better than their competitors.
5/6