CW 2/2

1.                  Who is your intended audience? Who is your actual audience? How do they differ? What larger community might you connect your essay with?

Through my paper I am trying to explain to my audience why In-N-Out is so successful and popular when there are hundreds of other fast food burger chains. Therefore I want to direct my argument at an audience of people who are interested in learning why people prefer certain product to others. This fits into the criteria of my actual audience because my actual audience is my peers in my rhetoric class and, rhetoric is essentially the art of persuasion through argument.

2.                  What personal connections do you have with the space?

Growing up in southern California I have been around In-N-Out burger all my life and have never understood the fascination and cult following behind them. When a new one opened up in fort worth it was just as popular. I want to know why a restaurant with good but not great food is so popular among so many people.

3.                  What controlling idea do you have for the space? What argument do you see being made within the space? Think about the arguments we saw within the space we observed on Tuesday.

I think the argument can be made that the environment in In-N-Out reflects a family owned and operated franchise that is more concerned about its customer and its quality than its profits. I think this can be done by reflecting on the pathos of the space by looking at everything from the menu which hasn’t changed since the 40’s to the bible verses hidden underneath the soda cups.

4.                  Choose one observation you made within the space you have observed (whether that be the library or your intended space) and analyze it. What do the various things you have noticed/recorded regarding the space mean?

The menu looks like it hasn’t changed since the 1940’s. It uses an old style block font, like you would see announcing what movies are playing at a movie theater. Also it only has three food items to choose from burger, cheeseburger, or double cheeseburger. How in a day in age where taco bell, Mc Donald’s and jack in the box have 50+ things to order on their menus does In-N-Out turn a profit with 3? I believe that this simple menu gives the feel of a family owned business that has not been redesigned by its corporate heads to turn larger profits. The menu also says that “we only have three items” but they are high quality and are popular enough that we have not had to add anything else to our menu since we first opened.