Sale Analyst: When polled, all consumers consistently say that, for ho

Consumers say that they will buy the lowest cost item . Cost of an item should be of highest priority in deciding the item to be purchased .However , as per sales analyst many consumers buy brands of household staples that are not the cheapest.
Therefore , they are not aware of their actual purchasing patterns.

(A) Many people on restricted incomes are not able to afford any brands of household staples more expensive than the lowest cost items.
Out of scope as many people of restricted incomes is a small segment of the entire consumer base .

(B) Consumers do not always have the motivation to be truthful about their real motivations when responding to a stranger giving a poll.
Incorrect .On applying the negation test the conclusion still holds true . On the contrary , this option seems like a strengthener that consumers are unaware of their purchasing patterns.

(C) Often, higher priced brands of household staples, especially organic versions, are more nutritious and are rated better-tasting in double-blind tests.
Incorrect . Out of scope

(D) People often give unreliable and self-contradictory explanations after the impulse purchase of a snack or dessert.
Incorrect .

(E) For many household staples, famous name brands with recognizable ads consistently outsell less expensive brands of the same products.
Correct . If many famous name brands with recognizable ads consistently outsell less expensive brands of the same products , then
a large number of consumers are buying them . This gives a justification for the given consumer behaviour .

Answer E

I got to E...
if people tell that they buy only the cheapest ones, while buying more expensive ones...then clearly the conclusion is correct...E is the answer!

mike

Do not agree with the question choices. E is definitely a strengthener, but, its not an assumption. The statement simply provides a fact that supports sales analyst conclusion but does not bridge logic gap between premise and conclusion.

A possible assumption - Sales analyst assumes that consumers always do what they say in a poll or Sales analyst assumes that consumers do not intentionally hide their interest or actual motivations that drive their buying decisions.

HI
From where you got this statement "However , as per sales analyst many consumers buy brands of household staples that are not the cheapest"

its no where mentioned in argument.

Hi I still don't get why E is the answer to this Question
By our premises we know that people actually prefer cheaper staples and Our conclusion says that very less aware of the actual priorities
E is contrary to the conclusion...

Dear Spovil & mbaprep2016 & suramya26,

I'm happy to respond.

Here's the prompt again:
Sale Analyst: When polled, all consumers consistently say that, for household staples, they would buy the lowest cost items. Even when other factors, such as inherent product quality, are introduced, all consumers still argue that low cost should be the highest priority in buying household staples. Therefore, these responses demonstrate how little most people are aware of the actual priorities that drive their purchasing decisions.

This is an interesting prompt. The sales analyst talks about what consumers say, and suddenly jumps to the conclusion that what they say doesn't match how they spend their money. If there's a mismatch, and they say that they buy the cheapest items, then it must be true that when they actually make a purchase, they buy something that is not the cheapest. That is the missing end of the mismatch implied in the conclusion.

Here's a simplified version of the prompt. "Consumers say they buy the cheapest household staples. What they say is different from how they spend their money." The only way their purchases could be different from what they say is if they bought household staples that were not the cheapest.

Thus, the sales analyst implies quite clearly that "many consumers buy brands of household staples that are not the cheapest" (the words of Skywalker18) That is not explicitly stated, but is a direct and undeniable implication of the prompt. That is my response to mbaprep2016's objection.

To Spovil, I think you may be drawing too sharp a distinction between what a strengthener is and what an assumption is. Many times, these are interchangeable. In its simplest form, an assumption is any statement not stated in the argument that makes the argument work. Is (E) is the only possible assumption? Absolutely not! Of course, there would be other ways to state the assumption, but (E) is definitely something not stated explicitly that makes the argument function as a whole. The assumptions you suggest don't work. The sale analyst clearly has access to what the consumers says and he also has access to the data on their buying decisions. He is not simply assuming something in the abstract about the truth content of their statements; instead, he is in a position to compare their statements about buying to data about their actual buying patterns.

Finally, suramya26, do you understand all this? Please let me know if there are any more questions.

Mike

Sale Analyst: When polled, all consumers consistently say that, for household staples, they would buy the lowest cost items. Even when other factors, such as inherent product quality, are introduce, all consumers still argue that low cost should be the highest priority in buying household staples. Therefore, these responses demonstrate how little most people are aware of the actual priorities that drive their purchasing decisions.

The conclusion above is properly drawn if which of the following is assumed?

(A) Many people on restricted incomes are not able to afford any brands of household staples more expensive than the lowest cost items.

(B) Consumers do not always have the motivation to be truthful about their real motivations when responding to a stranger giving a poll.

(C) Often, higher priced brands of household staples, especially organic versions, are more nutritious and are rated better-tasting in double-blind tests.

(D) People often give unreliable and self-contradictory explanations after the impulse purchase of a snack or dessert.

(E) For many household staples, famous name brands with recognizable ads consistently outsell less expensive brands of the same products.

The prompt is basically saying that people say that low prices is what drives them to purchase certain items, but that isn't true. So we have to find an answer that supports this.

(A) Many people on restricted incomes are not able to afford any brands of household staples more expensive than the lowest cost items.--this would weaken the conclusion. This supports that price is the only factor involved in buying products.


(B) Consumers do not always have the motivation to be truthful about their real motivations when responding to a stranger giving a poll.- this may be true but it doesn't give us another reason as to what people look for when purchasing items.
(C) Often, higher priced brands of household staples, especially organic versions, are more nutritious and are rated better-tasting in double-blind tests.-This one is close, but just because consumers may rate something more expensive, doesn't mean they'll buy it.
(D) People often give unreliable and self-contradictory explanations after the impulse purchase of a snack or dessert.-out of scope
(E) For many household staples, famous name brands with recognizable ads consistently outsell less expensive brands of the same products.-yes. If we are to believe that consumers only buy products that are the lowest price this would not be true. This if famous brand names consistently sell out there has to be another factor other than price that drives purchasing habits.

This is an interesting prompt. The sales analyst talks about what consumers say, and suddenly jumps to the conclusion that what they say doesn't match how they spend their money. If there's a mismatch, and they say that they buy the cheapest items, then it must be true that when they actually make a purchase, they buy something that is not the cheapest.

Mike,
How can you infer that the consumers are not acting the way they say i.e. they don't buy the cheapest household staples.
Which line signifies the mismatch..I know its a follish question..But I still dont get the mismatch..that is how can you infer they dont spend as they say ??

Dear suramya26,

I'm happy to respond.

My friend, the whole mismatch, the crux of this prompt argument, takes place in the final sentence. The first two sentences simply recount what people say:
Sale Analyst: When polled, all consumers consistently say that, for household staples, they would buy the lowest cost items. Even when other factors, such as inherent product quality, are introduce, all consumers still argue that low cost should be the highest priority in buying household staples.
All of that is simply what people say, their statements about how they behave--or how they think they behave.

As we all know, sometimes people's behaviors match their words, and sometimes they don't. One has only to listen to politicians to realize there there are times that people's words don't match their actions! Furthermore, guaranteed way to lose money in the business world is to believe unquestioningly that every single person is going to do exactly what they say they are going to do! The GMAT CR ruthlessly punishes gullibility, precisely because the real business world punishes it even more harshly. In this CR argument, in the first two sentences, all we have at this point are people's words. We have no reason either to believe them or doubt them so far.

Then, the heart of the argument is this last sentence:
Therefore, these responses demonstrate how little most people are aware of the actual priorities that drive their purchasing decisions.
If I were to say to Person X: "what you say demonstrates how little you know!" I would be saying to Person X that I think he is wrong and that his words indicate an error in thinking. It's an extremely powerful statement to tell someone that their words demonstrate how much they don't know, that their words prove an error in their understanding. That is the potent kind of statement the sales analyst is making in this last sentence.

I'm be more specific. Let's say that I said to Person X, "what you say proves how much you don't know about math." What I am saying is that something in Person X's words demonstrated quite clearly some definite mathematical mistakes. If I say that to person X, a clear inference would be that I thought that I have found mathematical mistakes in what person X said. If other people hearing this trusted my own understanding of math, they would conclude that Person X didn't understand math that well.--I hasten to add that saying it this way is quite blunt and therefore harsh and insensitive: I would never address a real student on GC this way, because it would sound like a bald insult. This is an uncompromisingly direct way of stating the fact, which is precisely what makes it so powerful as a point of argument. In the rhetoric of argument, we will say powerful things in the abstract to make a point, but we would not say such powerful things to real people in way that would hurt their feelings.

Now, think about this final sentence. What does the sales analyst say that people don't understand? "the actual priorities that drive their purchasing decisions." In other words, people are wrong about what makes them buy some things and not others. We just found out, in the previous sentences how the people were thinking, what they said about their priorities, and then, in the final sentence, we get this powerful statement: what they say about their buying priorities is wrong. In other words, there's a mismatch between the priorities that they verbally espouse and the priorities that drive their actual buying choices. What they say and what they really do don't match.

Well, if people say their priority is always to buy the cheapest household staples, and what they say about their priorities is wrong and doesn't match what they do, then it's an inescapable conclusion that sometimes people buy household staples that are not the cheapest. We cannot avoid drawing this conclusion from the last sentence, once we fully appreciate what it says.

Does all this make sense, my friend?
Mike

The conclusion above is properly drawn if which of the following is assumed?

(A) Many people on restricted incomes are not able to afford any brands of household staples more expensive than the lowest cost items.
[color=#000000][color=#000000]Incomes are not discussed. So out of scope[/color]

(B) Consumers do not always have the motivation to be truthful about their real motivations when responding to a stranger giving a poll.
The word stranger drives this one out. Also, we're not looking for the motivation behind their purchase practices.

(C) Often, higher priced brands of household staples, especially organic versions, are more nutritious and are rated better-tasting in double-blind tests.
nutrition has nothing to do with the survey results so again, out of scope

(D) People often give unreliable and self-contradictory explanations after the impulse purchase of a snack or dessert.
Hmm.... okay that is fine but we don't care WHY they buy something, we just want to prove that the do buy costlier items.

(E) For many household staples, famous name brands with recognizable ads consistently outsell less expensive brands of the same products.
TAYLOR made! This is what we wanted![/color]

EASY PICK

this is an assumption question, not a inference question.
Also, why gmat does not have other color than black?

I agree with Spovil: choice E is not an assumption.

Premises say that consumers say and argue that lowcost is the highest priority.
Conclusion: how little most people are aware of the actual priorities that drive their purchasing decisions.

Choice E, ”famous ... outsell less expensive brands of the same products,” shows that customers say one thing and do the other; the statement does not refer to the awareness of their decisions.

Their actions are not consistent with their claims, but is customer awareness the reason for this discrepancy? They may be or may not be aware. They may have lied on purpose, they may not have checked prices, or there may be other reasons for the discrepancy.

Let’s try the negation test.

famous name brands with recognizable ads do not consistently outsell less expensive brands of the same products.

Do we know if customers are aware of their purchasing decisions? Still, they may be or may not be aware of their decisions .

Verbal experts,

I was just going through this question on Magoosh's website and got stumped by it.
Here it goes :

Sale Analyst: When polled, all consumers consistently say that, for household staples, they would buy the lowest cost items. Even when other factors, such as inherent product quality, are introduce, all consumers still argue that low cost should be the highest priority in buying household staples. Therefore, these responses demonstrate how little most people are aware of the actual priorities that drive their purchasing decisions.

The conclusion above is properly drawn if which of the following is assumed?

(A) Many people on restricted incomes are not able to afford any brands of household staples more expensive than the lowest cost items.

(B) Consumers do not always have the motivation to be truthful about their real motivations when responding to a stranger giving a poll.

(C) Often, higher priced brands of household staples, especially organic versions, are more nutritious and are rated better-tasting in double-blind tests.

(D) People often give unreliable and self-contradictory explanations after the impulse purchase of a snack or dessert.

(E) For many household staples, famous name brands with recognizable ads consistently outsell less expensive brands of the same products.

The official answer to this question is E, which to me seems more like a strengthener than an assumption. Can you please apply the negation technique and help with this question.

Please refer to discussion above

Gone through this discussion, but I still don't get how 'É' is an assumption and not a strengthener.
mikemcgarry - can you please look into my query ?

Dear pkshankar,

I'm happy to respond. _

My friend, the short answer is that there really isn't that much difference between an assumption and a strengthener. One of the best ways to strengthen an argument is to give explicit support to the argument's assumption. In this sense, every assumption is potentially a strengthener as well. Admittedly, there are other ways to strength an argument, so not every strengthener would be an assumption. Nevertheless, if you believe assumptions and strengtheners are two completely different things, then you are missing something important about GMAT CR questions.

See:
Arguments and Assumptions on the GMAT

Does this make sense?
Mike

pkshankar

Option E is indeed an assumption.

The argument says when polled consumer say they buy the lowest price staples and even if other factors are introduced they still say the same.

Then, the argument takes a jump and says that consumer are little aware of the actual priorities that drive their purchasing decisions.

To bridge the above gap we need to add an assumption, which says consumers are not buying the lowest staples.
Statement E says that exactly.