The following appeared in a brochure promoting the purchase of local franchises for a national chain of gyms.

“Now is the time to invest in a Power-Lift Gym franchise so that you can profit from opening one of our gyms in your town. Consider the current trends: Power-Lift Gyms are already popular among customers in 500 locations, and national surveys indicate increasing concern with weight loss and physical fitness. Furthermore, last year’s sales of books and magazines on personal health totaled more than $50 million, and purchases of home exercise equipment almost doubled. Investing now in a Power-Lift Gym franchise will guarantee a quick profit.”

The brochure promotes the purchase of Power-Lift Gym franchise in the above given argument. It supports its stand that this will be profitable by analyzing a few facts related to fitness and the popularity of the gym. However, it does not form a solid ground for the same since its reasons do not indicate towards profit alone but can prove to be the other way round as well.

Power-Lift Gyms, according to the latest trend, is popular amongst customers in 500 locations. However, it may or may not be popular in a new place where it is going to open. Consider the fact that there are Power-Lift Gyms in many locations throughout the nation. Taking all the locations together, a mere 500 locations being popular might be a small number. It might not be enough to say that the Power-Lift brand is popular by its name or that people should invest in it to gain profits. Moreover, there is a great possibility that another chain of gyms is more popular and has many more successfully running gyms around the nation than Power-Lift Gym. Hence, people would prefer to invest in more promising chains of gyms than this one.

If the national survey indicates that people are more concerned with weight loss and physical fitness than ever before, it does not indicate a tread of joining a gym for fitness. People could instead be conscious about their diet and lifestyle. Having a proper diet with lesser fattening substances is also an option that people consider for weight loss. Similarly, including a regular walk, yoga or jog in their daily routine also indicates a drive towards physical fitness. It is not important that they join a gym for weight loss or to remain physically fit.

Further, the sale of health magazines and books also does not point towards increasing number of people joining gyms. The fact that there has been an increase in the purchases of home exercise equipment also does not confirm the stand made in the argument. In fact, it can be said that the increase in the sale of books and home exercising equipment indicates towards the fact that people want to stay away from gyms. A person who has exercising material at home would not go to gyms for the same. Moreover, people buying magazines on health shows that they are becoming aware about fitness and are increasing their knowledge about the ways to remain healthy. Therefore, they do not need guidance from the experts of a gym to tell them what they can find in these books. All this shows that people prefer to stay away from gyms. Hence, it could be completely incorrect to say that Power-Lift Gyms are attracting more people if they are buying health magazines and exercising material on their own.

The brochure ignores the fact that Power-Lift Gyms may be popular in certain locations and unpopular at others. The success of the gym depends a lot upon the location where it opens. It is only if the people in that particular location prefer to join gyms that it becomes successful. For this they need to have the kind of lifestyle for which joining a gym is convenient as well as the attitude of joining it. If the gym will be successful or not also depends upon other factors like the marketing strategies used, discounts, offers or memberships offered at the gym, management and operational system of the gym etc. All these are ignored in the brochure.

It is clear that all reasons mentioned in the argument are not indicative of the assumption that investing in Power-Lift Gym franchise is profitable. These reasons can be interpreted in other ways as mentioned in the discussion above. Therefore, it can be said that the argument is lacking in logic and does not support its statement well.