“Branded World” is an effective argument due to the author’s usage of quotes from a variety of sources. Often times, authors incorporate quotes from only one or two sources, and these individuals are often from one field of expertise. Instead of quoting just one person or group of people, …show more content…
In doing so, Levine builds a robust argument, because Levine now gains a wide variety of reliable evidences, which in turn, convinces the audience with regards to his argument. This essay’s effectiveness also comes from the statistics Levine weaves into his essay. When portraying how large the Nike company is, he states that Nike is a “massive $14 billion business”, which “managed to grab an astounding 45 percent of the market by year 2000” (313). If Levine had simply stated: “Nike is a large company”, the audience wouldn’t have been convinced—they would want to see the facts and statistics backing this up. But when he presents a statistic and paints a picture in the mind of the audience, they are far more convinced. They realize that $14 billion is not just large, but gigantic. They get a real sense of what Nike is, yet they wouldn’t have seen that if Levine just used the word “large”. In using a statistic to portray the size of Nike, Levine effectively supports his claim in the beginning of the essay: “There are few branding tales as epic and impressive as Nike”(313). Now we know why this “tale” is “epic”- it is because of how much Nike has made in billions of dollars because of their brand and symbol. Readers are captivated by this statistic, are interested in what …show more content…
One major improvement that Levine could make is employing analytical graphs when referencing statistics in support of his opinion. Though he does use percentages, using an appropriate analytical graph would have made his argument much more powerful. Instead of simply stating that Nike gains $14 billion, using a line graph to show the annual growth of Nike since its beginnings around 1970 would help enhance and prove Levine’s thesis. If the graph sowed an upward trend, he could point out that Nike’s use of the logo has been successful. Levine could even show places on the graph where Nike had “bumps” and issues, and their recovery from each incident. In these places, the graph might go slightly downward, and make Levine’s point more convincing to the audience. By being able to look at a graph and see the growth of Nike, the audience would understand that Nike has been growing, though it has had