PrepTest 141, Section 4, Question 22
Advertising tends to have a greater influence on(40 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(11 more words not shown)
- AThere has recently(21 more words not shown)
- BThe typical shopper(19 more words not shown)
- CShoppers at LargeCo(18 more words not shown)
- DSupermarkets throughout the(12 more words not shown)
- EConsumers tend to(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A stronger advertising effect on yogurt preferences doesn't automatically mean a bigger increase in yogurt sales.
My first guess is that the two markets might be different sizes. Imagine there are only one-tenth as many yogurt buyers as milk buyers. An advertisement could influence a larger share of yogurt buyers while still generating fewer additional sales than it does among the much larger group buying milk. We don't know that those are the actual market sizes; it's a possible way the two facts could fit.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for an explanation of the discrepancy. Keep the comparison precise: LargeCo's milk sales increased more than its yogurt sales, despite the usual stronger advertising influence on yogurt-brand preferences. A helpful answer needs to explain why the sales outcome can go that way. It needn't deny the stated tendency of advertising, and it needn't match my first market-size guess.
Working the answers
- A
Increased demand for yogurt doesn't explain why its sales increase trails milk's. This gives yogurt another favorable influence, but supplies no comparison that accounts for milk pulling further ahead. It also doesn't tell us the relative sizes of the two markets.
- B
This describes shoppers already selected for going to buy milk. It doesn't tell us how many such shoppers there are compared with yogurt buyers, or how either group's purchases changed after advertising began. We could similarly describe shoppers who go only for yogurt without explaining the overall sales pattern.
- C
Favoring LargeCo's dairy brand over competitors' brands doesn't distinguish its milk from its yogurt. Both products are part of the store brand being advertised. We still need to know why one product's sales increased more than the other's.
- DCorrect
This supplies a different explanation: the yogurt category is facing a broad decline. Advertising could successfully steer yogurt buyers toward LargeCo's brand while the overall drop in yogurt purchases limits its sales growth. LargeCo's yogurt sales could even rise despite that trend, just by less than its milk sales. The answer doesn't say nobody buys yogurt; it gives yogurt a countervailing pressure that helps explain the comparison.
- E
We aren't told that LargeCo's milk is the cheapest, that its price fell, or that advertising changed what people knew about its price. The suggested milk-buying rule therefore doesn't establish why this chain's milk sales rose more. General preference for store-brand yogurt doesn't fill that gap either.
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