A restaurant that comes up with an innovative dish can normally increa

Need explanation on A ...On a first go , i eliminated the choice
argument is all about marketing ..and it is written in argument , new dish normally produces profits...
Even if most of them try new dish , what about marketing effect on profit ....

A) The patrons of a restaurant are the ones who are most likely to try a new dish at the restaurant.
Correct. Advertising selectively to the patrons of a restaurant seems to help the restaurant not only keep the new dish secret but also maximum the revenue.

B) The word of mouth publicity generated by the customers of the restaurant is a good enough reason for the competitors to replicate the dish.
This choice weaken the argument. This choice indicates that even if the restaurant chooses to advertise selectively,
the dish is still replicated easily.

C) The recipes for the innovative dishes are usually kept under close guard by the restaurants that develop the dishes.
This choice is irrelevant to the argument.

D) Aggressive marketing usually generates far more profits than does selective marketing.
Same as C

E) Selective marketing has been proven to be an effective strategy for fast food restaurant chains.
"effective strategy" is irrelevant here. The argument focuses on replicating dish only.

I didnt choose E because I thought that the selective strategy that works for 'fast food restaurant chains' need not necessarily work for all restaurants (or even standalone fast food restaurant).

Pls correct me if my approach/thought is incorrect.

I eliminated E over A because it talks about "Fast Food" Resturants - which is not necessarily stated in our question.

Yes that seems to be a valid reason to eliminate option E .. I also eliminated E because of this reason..

Ⓒ to maximize profit ← restaurant needs to advertise selectively ⟷ otherwise competitors will replicate the new dish → restaurant will loose customers → can't maximize profit

Ⓐ find link btw selective advertising & profit max.
If restaurant finds its target group successfully → can maximize its profit
If there is a statistical data proofing that selective advertising leads to profit max → supports the Ⓒ

A) The patrons of a restaurant are the ones who are most likely to try a new dish at the restaurant. - sounds like a narrow target group → if the restaurant finds the target of its selective marketing → can maximize profit
B) The word of mouth publicity generated by the customers of the restaurant is a good enough reason for the competitors to replicate the dish. - aggressive marketing → competitors replicate dish → loosing customers → statement doest support any way that selective marketing will help improve profit
C) The recipes for the innovative dishes are usually kept under close guard by the restaurants that develop the dishes. - passage doesn't state that competitors need the recipes to replicate the dish
D) Aggressive marketing usually generates far more profits than does selective marketing. - generalization and do not support selective marketing→ profit max
E) Selective marketing has been proven to be an effective strategy for fast food restaurant chains. - selective marketing=efficient in fast food restaurants → restaurant of the passage can maximize its profit as well by using selective marketing? sounds good, but we don't know if the restaurant is a fast food restaurant. The given criteria is too narrow

GMATNinja Could you please explain this? I dont understand what Selective marketing has to do with Patrons of the restaurants.

Although I chose B, A is the correct answer.

The reason is that rgeardless of the the advertising the regular customers(patrons) of the restaurant will try the new dish. Hence, the restaurant can still make profits.

Hi Tejaswy

Let me try to answer your question.

In the context of restaurant customers, a "patron" is a customer who is a regular at a restaurant or visits it frequently. Answer option (A) states:

The patrons of a restaurant are the ones who are most likely to try a new dish at the restaurant.

ie; the regular customers of a restaurant are the ones who are most likely to try a new dish at a restaurant. If this were true, advertising could be targeted at such customers to further increase the offtake of the new dish. Since these are already patrons of the restaurant in question, there would be less fear of losing customers for other restaurants, leading to less replication of the dish and hence maximum profits from the dish for the restaurant.

Alternatively, we could also thing of selectively marketing the dish to non-regulars, since regulars are anyway likely to try it. This would bring in increased footfalls from non-regulars, thereby maximizing profit before other restaurants replicate the dish (since, without such targeted advertising, regulars were the ones most likely to try the new dish).

While I am not a marketeer (!!), whichever way I look at this, (A) seems to suggest maximum profits from the new dish.

Hope this helps.

A) The patrons of a restaurant are the ones who are most likely to try a new dish at the restaurant.
Yes if only the patrons are going to be the new testers of the dishes then selectively advertising to them helps


B) The word of mouth publicity generated by the customers of the restaurant is a good enough reason for the competitors to replicate the dish.
Yes this also highly feasivle however if the competitors get even the slightest wind even selective advertisement will not help

C) The recipes for the innovative dishes are usually kept under close guard by the restaurants that develop the dishes.
It doesn't even a bit the competitors will indegenously develop wothout the reciepe


D) Aggressive marketing usually generates far more profits than does selective marketing.
it rather weakens than strengthening


E) Selective marketing has been proven to be an effective strategy for fast food restaurant chains
We have no clue as of whether we are searching a fast food or ordinary

Hence IMO A

Goal- Why SELECTIVE ADVERTISING is the best way!

B- We are not talking about WORD of mouth or any other reason. All we want is a reason why Selective Advertising works.
C. Again, we are not talking about keeping recipes secret.
D. Again it's not about high profits, it's about consistent Advantage of the strategy.
High profits for a week <<<<<<< Fair profits over years
E. This is a clear nonsense trap. We know it's useful, the argument says so too, but WHYYYYY?

A says Those new dishes are most likely chosen by Patrons so we should SELECTIVELY ADVERTISE them.
If Patrons are the ones who are most likely to choose the new dishes then we should stick to advertise to them to TAKE ADVANTAGE of novelty for a considerably longer duration of time than in the case of Aggressive Advertising.

Thanks.

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