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Advertisement: Today's customers expect high quality. Every advance in

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CaptainX

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08 Feb 2020, 07:31

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As per the para 1. Advancement in quality will raise customer expectations and 2. Meeting or exceeding customer expectations is the goal of MegaCorp.

So if quality remains constant, customer expectations may remain constant thus MegaCorp may continue to meet customer expectations and hence its goal, thereby negating ONLY IF condition given in option c.

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Hello, CaptainX. Your singling out of the information below is spot on, in terms of arriving at the correct conclusion (answer).

CaptainX

As per the para 1. Advancement in quality will raise customer expectations and 2. Meeting or exceeding customer expectations is the goal of MegaCorp.

The next part, however, is more conjecture than a conclusion you could draw from the passage.

CaptainX

So if quality remains constant, customer expectations may remain constant thus MegaCorp may continue to meet customer expectations and hence its goal, thereby negating ONLY IF condition given in option c.

The idea is that if 1. is true above, then MegaCorp will need to keep advancing its product quality to meet or exceed customer expectations. We cannot assume that MegaCorp will ever need to meet diminished customer expectations, especially because such a condition would indicate that customer expectations had not been met in the first place (meaning that MegaCorp would have failed in its mission).

If you have further questions, please let me know. I would suggest you read the above responses and see if they inform your reasoning a bit more. There are some good analyses in these earlier posts.

Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

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09 Feb 2020, 11:00

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(B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of their products.

B is wrong b/c it reverses the order from the passage

Passage states: The company is satisfy w/its quality, it will not seek for product advancement --> customer dissatisfy about the company's product

B states: Company does not anticipate customers expectation--> The company will fail to advance product quality. (This may not be true)

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27 Jul 2020, 13:10

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Can someone please explain the logic behind C? Still couldn't understand why is C the answer.

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davidbeckham

Can someone please explain the logic behind C? Still couldn't understand why is C the answer.

Hi

Let me try to address your query.

From the stimulus, we know the following to be true:

i) At MegaCorp, meeting or exceeding customer expectations is the goal.
ii) Every advance in the quality of manufactured products raises customer expectations.
iii) The company that is satisfied with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not (presumably because some other company has come out with a product of better quality).

Therefore, we can clearly see that MegaCorp's goal will result in ever improving product quality, since customer expectations (which they want to always meet) will keep on increasing. Option (C) brings this out well and hence is the correct answer.

Hope this clarifies.

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22 Nov 2020, 07:56

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Hi experts,
Please help to explain why each choice is right or wrong. Thanks.

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GMATNinja

tinbq

Hi experts,
Please help to explain why each choice is right or wrong. Thanks.

To answer this question, let's first break the passage down into separate statements:

Today's customers expect high quality
Each time a company improves the quality of its products, its customers' expectations will increase
Any company that is not working on improving the quality of its products will soon find that it no longer meets its customers' expectations
MegaCorp aims to meet or exceed its customers' expectations

Based on these statements, we're asked which of the answer choices MUST be true. So, if we can find any reason why an answer choice might not be true, that's justification to drop it from consideration.

Quote:

(A) MegaCorp's competitors will succeed in attracting customers only if those competitors adopt MegaCorp's goal as their own.

The passage discusses "meeting or exceeding customer expectations," not "attracting customers." It is possible that companies CAN attract customers without meeting or exceeding customer expectations -- maybe their products are the only option on the market, or maybe the product quality sucks but the price is great. Because companies can attract customers without adopting MegaCorp's goal, we can't say that MegaCorp's goal is the ONLY path to success.

We can't say that (A) must be true, so we can rule (A) out.

Quote:

(B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of their products.

The passage tells us that any company not advancing the quality of its products is certain to fail to meet its customers' expectations in the long run. (B) flips this around and reverses the chain of reasoning.

This reversed chain of reasoning isn't supported by the passage. Maybe a company doesn't anticipate the expectations of its customers, but continues to advance the quality of its products (for instance, did customers expect the invention of the smartphone? Or did companies just come up with the improved product, and thus keep their customers happy with tech improvements without "correctly anticipating customer expectations"). The passage allows for this chain of events, which means that (B) doesn't have to be true.

Eliminate (B).

Quote:

The passage tells us that MegaCorp's goal is to meet or exceed its customers' expectations. We're told that customer expectations about product quality will rise as the quality of the products improves. For MegaCorp to meet its goal, it must continue to improve the quality of its products.

However, if it is not possible to improve the quality of its products, MegaCorp cannot meet its goal. Its customers' expectations will continue to rise and MegaCorp will not be able to continue to improve its products to meet or exceed those expectations.

MegaCorp can only meet its goal if it can continue to advance the quality of its products. (C) is looking good, let's keep it for now while we look at the remaining answer choices.

Quote:

(D) If a company becomes satisfied with the quality of its products, then the quality of its products will decline.

There is nothing in the passage to suggest a company that is satisfied with its products' quality will see the quality of its products decline.

The passage tells us that any company that allows the quality of their product to plateau will fall behind their customers' expectations. This does not mean the quality of their products will decline.

Since we can't say that (D) must be true, (D) can't be our answer.

Quote:

(E) MegaCorp's customers are currently satisfied with the quality of its products.

We are not given any information about how MegaCorp's customers feel about the quality of its products. We don't know whether MegaCorp is currently meeting its goal or not.

Since we can't know this from the information in the passage, we can't say that (E) must be true. So we can cross (E) out.

That leaves us with (C).

Isn't "only" too extreme in (C)? Passage doesn't say its the only goal of the company.

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lakshya14

Isn't "only" too extreme in (C)? Passage doesn't say its the only goal of the company.

(C) doesn't say that meeting/exceeding customer expectations is MegaCorp's only goal -- instead, it says that MegaCorp's goal (of meeting/exceeding customer expectations) is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality is possible.

This is a pretty significant difference in meaning. Sure, maybe MegaCorp has other goals (e.g., becoming eco-friendly or something). That doesn't change the fact that the ONLY way to meet the particular goal mentioned in the passage is to advance the quality of its products. Therefore, the ONLY way that the goal can be met is if the quality of products can actually be advanced.

So even if the "only" is pretty extreme, (C) must be true based on the information in the passage.

I hope that helps!

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20 Apr 2021, 02:33

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Quote:

Kritisood

ShashankDave

I'll go with C. Here's my explanation:
Point 1: every advancement in manufacturing of product raises customer expectations. Thus, customers will always want something a step ahead.
Point 2: The goal of the company is to meet the ever rising expectations.

SO, if going a step ahead is not possible after a certain stage, the raised up expectation of the customer will not be satisfied.

Show some love! Kudos if this helped.

But customers raise their expectations because of the continuing advances in manufacturing of the products. if that doesnt happen, then customers expectations also would not rise and megacorp would continue meeting the standardss. I dont understand How C is correct hence. any help? nightblade354

I am not an expert, but I will try to answer the question-
The third statement is given as "The company that is satisified with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not".
This address your query. Let us consider that there are no advances in manufacturing. This statement is equivalent to "company that is satisfied with the current quality of its products".
But the rest of sentence says "the company will soon find its customers are not". This means that the customers will expect something new in the quality of products or in other words the customer has raised its expectations. Thus a customer is never satisfied and keeps raising its expectations!

I hope the explanation helps!

aniket16c
If company is satisfied-> Quality will not increase ->Expectations will not increase -> Customer is not satisfied (Given in argument ).
We are not given that expectations will keep on increasing .

Still, the goal of company is to meet the expectations, we might not need to satisfy them.

AndrewN . Can you weigh in on this question ?

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penco

Hello, penco. I have touched on this question before, in this post. But I will provide a fuller treatment of each answer choice to help with your query.

Quote:

Which of the following must be true on the basis of the statements in the advertisement above?

The question leaves us with no wiggle room here. We have to find a statement below that must be true, so this is not the time to give in to associative reasoning.

The passage, for reference (quite possibly one of the only ones I have seen with an exclamation mark in it):

Quote:

From the passage we understand that modern customers expect high quality, and that as products meet such expectations, the expectations rise, leading to a cycle. Thus, a company that sticks with its current [product] quality will end up with dissatisfied customers. Enter MegaCorp and its stated goal: meeting or exceeding customer expectations. Now that we understand the passage, how about we take a look at the answer choices?

Quote:

(A) MegaCorp's competitors will succeed in attracting customers only if those competitors adopt MegaCorp's goal as their own.

I say this all the time, but watch out for extreme language. Sure, perhaps if competitors decide to meet or exceed customer expectations, they will succeed in satisfying customers and maybe even attracting new ones. But there is no guarantee that they will succeed, even if they copy the strategy of MegaCorp down to the T.

Quote:

(B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of their products.

What if a company serendipitously hits upon the next big thing, but the expectations it had designed its product around proved not to be accurate to what played out in real life? The passage does not talk about companies accurately anticipating expectations, only about raising the quality of their products to meet then-current customer expectations. It goes without saying that the certainty expressed in the second part I highlighted is overreaching—even dissatisfied customers (at some point) may still be customers.

Quote:

Yes, we do have to come to terms with the definitive only if, but notice that both sides of the conditional hinge on a possibility. If it is impossible for MegaCorp to advance its product quality, then it will fail to keep customers satisfied, per the second line of the passage. This is a safe bet, perfectly in keeping with the goal outlined at the end of the passage. At least it is far better than what we have seen up to this point (if you were unsure).

Quote:

(D) If a company becomes satisifed with the quality of its products, then the quality of its products will decline.

Again, notice the definitive outcome, this one tying into diminished product quality. The passage discusses the current quality of products instead. Expectations can rise, but they cannot physically alter the quality of a product.

Quote:

(E) MegaCorp's customers are currently satisfied with the quality of its products.

For all we know, MegaCorp is the new kid on the block, just launching, placing an ad in a newspaper to garner interest. The passage provides no information to suggest that the goal is a reflection of the current situation. We cannot get behind this as a must-be-true answer.

In the end, then, only (C) holds up to scrutiny. I hope the above analysis helps you. Thank you for thinking to ask.

- Andrew

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05 Jun 2021, 05:53

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GMATIntensive:

Could you please explain further what did you mean by the highlighted part (colored + red font) in option C solution (below):

(C) MegaCorp's goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality is possible.
Correct. With every increase in product quality, customer expectations rise further. Since the company’s goal is to meet/ exceed expectations, their goal is indeed possible to meet only if continuing advances are possible.
The option does not just say ‘continuing advances in product quality are possible’. That could not be inferred. It says that the goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances are possible. That makes sense. If continuing advances in quality are not possible, eventually customer expectations will go beyond product quality and thus the company will stop meeting its goal.

GMATIntensive

The Story

Advertisement: Today’s customers expect high quality. - Sure

Every advance in the quality of manufactured products raises customer expectations. - As the quality of products advances so do customer expectations, and that too for every advance in quality.

The company that is satisfied with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not. - Customers stop being satisfied with the quality of products of companies that are satisfied with the quality.

At MegaCorp, meeting or exceeding customer expectations is our goal. - The company’s goal is to continually meet or exceed customer expectations.

Gist: Customers’ definition of high-quality becomes more stringent with every advance in quality. A company that is satisfied with the current quality will soon see its customers stop being satisfied. And, the company’s goal is to meet or exceed customer expectations.

The Goal

We’re looking for something that can be inferred on the basis of the passage. Customer expectations rise with an improvement in quality, and the company’s goal is to meet or exceed them. So, we can infer that in order to meet its goal, the company will continually try to work toward advancing quality. Of course, there could be other inferences as well.

The Evaluation

(A) MegaCorp's competitors will succeed in attracting customers only if those competitors adopt MegaCorp's goal as their own.
Incorrect. We do not know what all factors ‘attract customers’. For example, while customers might expect high quality, they might be okay to compromise on quality for a low price. There is nothing given in the passage to infer that customers get attracted on the basis of quality alone. Besides, even if we are told that customers are attracted on the basis of quality alone, still we cannot infer this option since a company that does not have Mega Corp’s goal may still produce far better products than Mega Corp does.

(B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of their products.
Incorrect. The passage nowhere talks about either correctly anticipating the expectations of the customers or the consequences of it. Even from a common-sense perspective, a company may advance the quality of its products without correctly anticipating the expectations of its customers. The only way to advance the quality of products is not through correctly anticipating the expectations of customers. E.g. a company may improve the quality of products simply on the basis of a gut-feel.

A test-taker may not anticipate what kind of questions the teacher will ask. He may still study thoroughly, succeeding on the test. Advancing the quality of products is not necessarily based solely on correctly anticipating the expectations of customers.

(C) MegaCorp's goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality is possible.
Correct. With every increase in product quality, customer expectations rise further. Since the company’s goal is to meet/ exceed expectations, their goal is indeed possible to meet only if continuing advances are possible.
The option does not just say ‘continuing advances in product quality are possible’. That could not be inferred. It says that the goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances are possible. That makes sense. If continuing advances in quality are not possible, eventually customer expectations will go beyond product quality and thus the company will stop meeting its goal.

(D) If a company becomes satisifed with the quality of its products, then the quality of its products will decline.
Incorrect. Say a company becomes satisfied with the quality and thus stops working on improving quality. All that tells us is that the quality of products will not further improve. We cannot infer that the quality ‘is sure to decline’. The quality may very well remain at the current level.

(E) MegaCorp's customers are currently satisfied with the quality of its products.
Incorrect. The advertisement never gets into what the current satisfaction level of the customers is. Moreover, all we know is that meeting or exceeding customer expectations is the company’s goal. There is nothing given to suggest whether the goal is currently being met.

If you have any doubts regarding any part of this solution, please feel free to ask.

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Updated on: 21 Nov 2021, 09:36

Originally posted by jabhatta2 on 21 Nov 2021, 09:29.
Last edited by jabhatta2 on 21 Nov 2021, 09:36, edited 3 times in total.

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Two quick questions on B

Do you read option B as the following ?
-- if a company does not anticipate expectations --> the company must not be advancing product quality

Thus, do you re-phrase (i think its a contrapositive ?) as

-- if you are advancing product quality --> then only you can "ANTICIPATE" expectations

Thanks

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ii) if option B variant said instead :

Option B variant
-- if a company does not ~~anticipate~~ meet expectations --> the company must not be advancing product quality

Above is contrapositive, so it can be re-phrased

Re-phrase :
-- if you are advancing product quality --> then only you must be meeting expectations

I think in that case, this variant of option B would be accurate

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Option elimination -

(A) MegaCorp's competitors will succeed in attracting customers only if those competitors adopt MegaCorp's goal as their own. - One attracting customers is not mentioned, and the second saying "only" is a bit hyperbolic. Maybe they slash prices and attract even more customers. Just on a lighter note - comment on today's mortgage interest rate situation in the US - if some builder/lender says I can provide a loan at 2%, see the magic (even if the builder's quality is not that great).

Finance guys, don't beat me on this. Just trying to say there can be many ways to attract customers "only" is hyperbolic.

(B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of their products. - No. The argument talks about "The company that is satisfied with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not." It doesn't talk about "the expectations of its customers." Distortion.

(C) MegaCorp's goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality are possible. - Yes.

(D) If a company becomes satisfied with the quality of its products, then the quality of its products will decline. - The argument says, "The company that is satisfied with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not. " It doesn't say that if they become satisfied, the quality will decline. Maybe it stays the same. At best, what can happen is that customers may not be satisfied, not because the quality has fallen but because the best quality of yesterday has become today's table stakes. Distortion.

(E) MegaCorp's customers are currently satisfied with the quality of its products. - We don't know. Their satisfaction is not mentioned. Out of scope.

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Caas

Advertisement: Today's customers expect high quality. Every advance in the quality of manufactured products raises customer expectations. The company that is satisified with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not. At MegaCorp, meeting or exceeding customer expectations is our goal!

Which of the following must be true on the basis of the statements in the advertisement above?

(A) MegaCorp's competitors will succeed in attracting customers only if those competitors adopt MegaCorp's goal as their own.

(B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of their products.

(C) MegaCorp's goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality are possible.

(D) If a company becomes satisifed with the quality of its products, then the quality of its products will decline.

(E) MegaCorp's customers are currently satisfied with the quality of its products.

CR33661.01

Premises:
Every advance in the quality of manufactured products raises customer expectations.
(Whenever quality of a product improves, customer expectation increases yet again)

The company that is satisified with the current quality of its products will soon find that its customers are not.
(If a company stops improving its products, the customers will get dissatisfied because their expectations would have increased again)

At MegaCorp, meeting or exceeding customer expectations is our goal!
(Our goal is to meet or exceed expectations. When improvements happen, customer expectations increase again, we again make improvements happen to meet or exceed expectations, then again customer expectations increase, we again improve and so on...)

We need an inference, something that must be true based on the premises above.

(A) MegaCorp's competitors will succeed in attracting customers only if those competitors adopt MegaCorp's goal as their own.

There could be many different ways of attracting customers - a huge improvement, a new product etc. We are discussing how to retain customers long term.
Not correct.

(B) A company that does not correctly anticipate the expectations of its customers is certain to fail in advancing the quality of their products.

This needn't be true. A company may not anticipate what the customers expect but it may still advance its product quality. It may make its product better even if it doesn't know that its customers expect it. Say a phone company may improve the quality of its phone camera without knowing whether people expect a better camera or not.

(C) MegaCorp's goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality are possible.

Correct. We are given that every time improvement happens, people's expectations increase further. Hence it stands to reason that people's expectations are always beyond what has been achieved currently. So if MC's goal is to meet or exceed expectations, it will need to make advances again and again. But what if it reaches a level where the product is the best that it can be? Say they have come out with version Z of the phone. People have now started expecting even more than what Z offers. But what if no more advances are possible? Can MC meet people's expectations? No.
Then MC's goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality are possible. If you reach the highest point in quality and nothing else is possible, then MC will not meet its goal.

(D) If a company becomes satisifed with the quality of its products, then the quality of its products will decline.

No, there is no reason to believe that the quality will decline. With time, it may become inferior compared with the quality of others in future, but there is no reason for it to deteriorate compared with its own previous quality.

(E) MegaCorp's customers are currently satisfied with the quality of its products.

Unknown. In fact, it is likely that they are not because as per the given premises, every improvement leads to higher and higher expectations and the company had to continuously strive to meet it. Once it does, the expectations will rise once again.
In any case, MC's goal is to meet customer expectations. Are they able to achieve their goals, we don't know.

Answer (C)

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Understanding the Core Logic

Let me walk you through the key relationships here:

The argument establishes a continuous cycle that you need to see clearly:
- Customer expectations for quality exist at a certain level today
- Every quality advance anywhere in the industry raises these expectations
- Companies that stay satisfied with their current quality will find customers dissatisfied

Think about it like this - if you're happy with your current smartphone that has a 12-hour battery, but competitors release phones with 16-hour batteries, what happens? Your expectations shift upward, and suddenly that 12-hour battery seems inadequate, even though nothing about your phone actually changed.

Connecting to MegaCorp's Goal

Now here's where it gets interesting. MegaCorp says their goal is to "meet or exceed customer expectations." But notice what we just established - expectations keep rising with every industry advance. So what does MegaCorp need to achieve their goal?

Let's work through the answer choices:

Why C Must Be True

Choice C states: "MegaCorp's goal is possible to meet only if continuing advances in product quality are possible."

Here's why this must be true: If quality advances become impossible for MegaCorp, but other companies in the industry can still improve, then customer expectations will continue rising (remember - every advance raises expectations). MegaCorp would be stuck at their current quality level while expectations climb higher and higher. They literally couldn't meet their stated goal.

It's a necessary condition - without the ability to continuously improve, MegaCorp's goal becomes impossible.

Quick Check of Other Options:
- A makes claims about competitors that aren't supported
- B creates a causal link that doesn't exist in the argument
- D confuses relative decline (appearing worse) with absolute decline (actually getting worse)
- E assumes current satisfaction, which isn't stated anywhere

The answer is C.

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arnab24

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15 Nov 2025, 20:51

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spot on , did same reasoning to eliminate B. I was also confused between B & C but finally picked C. In Option B , anticipating correct expectations doesn't mean negative side of it. Our brain intuitively makes it negative , however here we need to be cautious. What if I anticipate expectations incorrectly and exceeded customers expectations. In that sense , my product quality has been increased. Though mine anticipated expectations were not same as customer but still managed to increase product quality.

anilisanil

The question stem states that "Today's customers expect high quality. Every advance in the quality of manufactured products raises customer expectations."

But the negation, not correctly anticipating the customer expectations leads to fall in quality is wrong. What if I "wrongly anticipated" the customer expectations on the positive side of the quality? I will achieve better quality right? Hence B is wrong!

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