Logical Reasoning

PT141 · S4 · Q22 Advertising tends to have

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Advertising tends to have a greater influence on consumer preferences regarding brands of yogurt than it does on consumer preferences regarding brands of milk.

Background

Advertising tends to have more influence on customers when it comes to brands of yogurt than brands of milk.

Surprising Claim

LargeCo supermarket chain started advertising its store-brand of products, and sales of its milk increased more than sales of its yogurt.

Evaluate / Goal

GIVEN THAT advertisements are supposed to have more effect on yougurt-buying than on milk-buying,

WHY IS IT THAT since these ads started, sales of LargeCo milk has gone up more than sales of LargeCo yogurt?

22.

Which one of the following, if true, most helps to resolve the apparent discrepancy described above?

  1. There has recently been increased

    Deepens the Paradox

    If there's a yogurt buying bonanza going down, then we're even more confused why milk sales are beating yogurt sales.

    4% picked this

  2. The typical shopper going to

    Irrelevant Distinction

    It doesn't impact this conversation one way or the other, whether people buy milk and yogurt at the same time, different times, whether some just buy milk and some just buy yogurt. None of the particulars of how they usually do or don't procure their milk or yogurt help us explain why milk sales have gone up more than yogurt sales.

    23% picked this

  3. Shoppers at LargeCo tend to

    No Distinction

    This answer makes a distinction between LargeCo dairy and other companies' diary. We need a distinction between LargeCo's milk and LargeCo's yogurt.

    8% picked this

  4. Correct

    Supermarkets throughout the entire nation

    Why this is right

    Here, we have a way to explain why milk sales increased more than yogurt sales: yogurt sales are experiencing a steep, nationwide decrease right now. Milk isn't, so the new ads boosted milk sales a bunch. Yogurt was starting out from a negative, with headwinds pushing it down (the national decrease), so if sales went up even some, that's a huge victory for the ads! This answer probably doesn't appeal to people because it is not contained within the bubble of LargeCo and its shoppers, but all we're looking for is an explanatory mechanism. A correct answer should fit into this sentence: Even though ads do more for yogurt than for milk, following the recent ads, milk sales are higher than yogurt sales because [answer choice]. ... because yogurt sales are down a ton nationwide.

    Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    55% picked this

  5. Consumers tend to purchase store

    Unclear Impact / Too Weak

    This seems like maybe we could say, "yogurt sales didn't change much, because customers were already buying the store brand of yogurt, whereas customers just buy whichever milk is least expensive". I don't know about your grocery store, but at every grocery store I've ever shopped at, the store brand is the least expensive brand (of basically everything ... soda / pasta / milk / yogurt / aspirin / etc.) So it's not clear that this answer even offers a distinction between LargeCo's yogurt and milk, thus this might not have any power to explain why there have been more sales of milk than yogurt, following the ads. This definitely doesn't have the conclusive punch that (D) has, with its steep, nationwide decrease of yogurt sales.

    11% picked this

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