As part of a marketing strategy, a publisher intends to donate 50% of

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As part of a marketing strategy, a publisher intends to donate 50% of the revenue from sales of a special edition of a new book to a charity that addresses a cause mentioned in the book. The publisher believes that this will result in a great deal of positive publicity for the book. However, most experts have pointed out that the marketing strategy will be self-defeating because even with the higher selling price of the special edition, the publisher will lose money every time someone purchases a special edition of the book.

Which of the following would, if true, contribute most to weakening the experts’ point regarding the publisher’s marketing strategy?

(A) The amount of publicity derived from the special edition of the book will substantially boost sales of the regular edition of the book.

(B) The cost of the special edition of the book is 20% more than the cost of the regular edition.

(C) The book will be heavily marketed in parts of the world that are greatly affected by the cause that the charity addresses.

(D) The experts that have said that the marketing strategy is self-defeating have not yet read the book or talked to anyone who has.

(E) The special edition of the book contains material not found in the regular edition.

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sonalgmat123 · Answer

(A) The amount of publicity derived from the special edition of the book will substantially boost sales of the regular edition of the book. .. Correct .. This will definitely increase the sale of the regular edition and will boost the revenue

(B) The cost of the special edition of the book is 20% more than the cost of the regular edition. Incorrect . Already mentioned in the passage

(C) The book will be heavily marketed in parts of the world that are greatly affected by the cause that the charity addresses.... Irrevelant .

(D) The experts that have said that the marketing strategy is self-defeating have not yet read the book or talked to anyone who has. Irrevelant .

(E) The special edition of the book contains material not found in the regular edition. Irrevelant .

Hoozan · Answer

Argument:  
(1) A publisher wishes to increase the publicity of his book.
(2) To do so, he intends to donate 50% of his revenue from sales of his special edition book to a cause that is mentioned in the book
(3) Experts advise him to avoid this strategy.
(4) Experts believe that this will have a greater negative that positive effect - the publisher will lose money on every sale of special edition

Question stem:  Weaken - we need to weaken the Experts' opinion.

In other words , we need to prove that the publisher's strategy has a good chance of working.

(A) The amount of publicity derived from the special edition of the book will substantially  boost sales of the regular edition  of the book -  Correct.  The publisher wants to increase the publicity of his book. While the experts say that the publisher will lose money on the  special edition  book. But what if the sale of the special addition will boost sales of the regular edition, thus benefiting the publisher? Indeed if (A) is true the publishers strategy is a good publicity idea.

(B) The  cost  of the special edition of the book is 20% more than the cost of the regular edition.  Incorrect.   The cost has nothing to do with the publicity. This choice doesn't help us believe that the publishers plan will work out. Rather it makes us believe that the cost of special edition being high may cause more harm than good to the publisher, thus supporting the experts.

(C) The book will be heavily  marketed in parts of the world that are greatly affected by the cause  that the charity addresses.  Incorrect.  This  may  be good for the publisher but it has little to no impact. The goal is to boost the publicity of the book. By heavily marketing the book in such areas does not  (based on the information given)  help us believe that the plan  will  work out for the publisher.

(D) The experts that have said that the marketing strategy is self-defeating have  not yet read the book or talked to anyone who has .  Incorrect.  So? The experts don't have to read the book to predict if the publicity plan is going to work out. Even if the book is great, it is not going to decide the success of the publicity strategy of the publisher.

(E) The special edition of the book contains  material not found in the regular edition.   Incorrect.  Probably this is what makes this special edition "special"? In order for this option to be a weakener we would need to assume that 
(1) There is a great number of sales of the regular book AND
(2) A great majority love the book AND
(3) This great majority wish to know more about the information in the book AND
(4) This great majority do not mind spending more to get more information

As you see, we need to assume to much for this option to  probably  weaken the argument

Correct choice:  (A)

EMPOWERgmatVerbal · Answer

Official Explanation:

As part of a marketing strategy, a publisher intends to donate 50% of the revenue from sales of a special edition of a new book to a charity that addresses a cause mentioned in the book. The publisher believes that this will result in a great deal of positive publicity for the book. However, most experts have pointed out that the marketing strategy will be self-defeating because even with the higher selling price of the special edition, the publisher will lose money every time someone purchases a special edition of the book.
 
 Which of the following would, if true, contribute most to weakening the experts’ point regarding the publisher’s marketing strategy? 
 
(A) The amount of publicity derived from the special edition of the book will substantially boost sales of the regular edition of the book.
 
(B) The cost of the special edition of the book is 20% more than the cost of the regular edition.
 
(C) The book will be heavily marketed in parts of the world that are greatly affected by the cause that the charity addresses.
 
(D) The experts that have said that the marketing strategy is self-defeating have not yet read the book or talked to anyone who has.
 
(E) The special edition of the book contains material not found in the regular edition.

Question Type:   Weaken
  Boil It Down:   Publisher wants to donate 50% of revenue from a new book to charity. Publisher thinks = will lead to great publicity / Experts think = will lose money
  Goal:    Find an assumption that would weaken the experts’ argument.

Analysis:  
This question asks you to  weaken  the experts’ argument. Here’s that argument:
 
  Premise:   The publisher will lose money whenever they sell a special edition of the book because 50% of the revenue will be given to the charity.
 
  Conclusion:   The marketing strategy is a poor one.
 
We can weaken this argument by refuting an unstated premise, that is, an assumption. The experts assume that losing money on the special edition will be enough to doom the strategy. Maybe. However, if the publicity more than compensates for the loss by helping sell the regular edition, the marketing strategy would be a success. This is what (A) says.
 
 (A) The amount of publicity derived from the special edition of the book will substantially boost sales of the regular edition of the book. 
This choice is correct.
 
 (B) The cost of the special edition of the book is 20% more than the cost of the regular edition. 
This comparison is irrelevant. We are already told it costs more; exactly how much more does not matter unless we had information that would allow us to determine that the increase in the price of the book would be enough to offset the money “lost” to charity.
 
 (C) The book will be heavily marketed in parts of the world that are greatly affected by the cause that the charity addresses. 
This does not weaken the argument. Perhaps it does mean that the book will sell well in those places, but this does not affect the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.
 
 (D) The experts that have said that the marketing strategy is self-defeating have not yet read the book or talked to anyone who has. 
This has no known effect on the argument.
 
 (E) The special edition of the book contains material not found in the regular edition. 
This might help with sales of the special edition, but doesn’t tell us whether the strategy will pay off. If people ONLY bought the special edition, that would mean the strategy didn’t pay off, because they’re losing so much revenue with every purchase, but we don’t know this.

Don’t study for the GMAT. Train for it.

VerbalBot · Answer

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As part of a marketing strategy, a publisher intends to donate 50% of

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