Marketing strategist: Agency A designed an advertising campaign that

Question

Marketing strategist: Agency A designed an advertising campaign that our company is about to test with a focus group. We are wondering whether a new ad campaign will increase our name recognition among consumers. As a contingency, we have decided that we might ask Agency B to design an alternate campaign. However, if we find that A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group, we will not ask B for a campaign.

A statement that must be true if the marketing strategist's statements are true: After the focus testing is complete, if the company ___ 1 ___, then it must also be the case that the company ___ 2 ___.

Select for 1  if  and 2  then  the two different options that create a statement that must be true if the marketing strategist's statements are true. Make only two selections, one in each column.

ID: 100428

ChiranjeevSingh · Accepted Answer

We have to look for X and Y among the options such that

If X is the case, then Y must also be the case.

The passage provides one if-then statement:

if we find that A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group, we will not ask B for a campaign

There is no other if-then statement, nor is there any if-then relationship presented in any other way in the passage.

So, it is quite natural to start looking for this only relationship in the options. So, when I solved this question, I first looked for X by looking for "A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group". I could find it as the first option. Nice!

Then, I looked for Y by looking for "will not ask B for a campaign". There is no such option. Bummer!

Then, given that my current version of X doesn't have a corresponding Y, I had to change my X.

I went option by option.

Option 2:

X: believes A's campaign will decrease the company's name recognition

If this is X, what must also be the case?

I have no idea from the passage. The passage doesn't say what the company  will necessarily  do in this case. The passage just says, "we   might   ask Agency B to design an alternate campaign".

You might think, "If the company is already considering asking Agency B, why wouldn't the company ask B if it believes A's campaign will decrease the company's name recognition"

I agree that there is a good chance of the company's asking B for a campaign. However, I cannot say that this MUST BE the case. Right?

So, I will rule out this possibility for X since there is no corresponding Y.

Option 3:

X: asks B for a campaign

Many people will have difficulty imagining this option in place of X since a similar idea appears in the 'then' part in the passage. That's what makes this question difficult.

However, frankly, I didn't have a difficulty here since I know that given "if A then B" we can infer that "if not B, not A" (How can we infer this? To understand this, you'll have to understand sufficient and necessary conditions deeply. To understand these conditions deeply, you may refer to the recording of my webinar on necessary and sufficient conditions on my youtube channel)

I knew from the passage that

if the company finds that A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group, the company will not ask B for a campaign.

And now if I consider the scenario that the company asks B for a campaign, then it must be the case that the company finds that A's campaign does not elicit positive responses from the focus group.

Otherwise, the company would not ask B for a campaign. Right?

Now, I'll look for "the company finds that A's campaign does not elicit positive responses from the focus group" in the options.

I find that the fifth option fits the bill.

Thus, I have my answer.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions or doubts regarding my solution, please feel free to ask.

CKHE · Answer

It's a logical reasoning question: If A then B is true. Then the contrapositive statement - If no B then no A is true,

Marketing strategist says: "if we find that A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group (A), we will not ask B for a campaign (B)"

Then If no B then no A - If company has asked B for a campaign then A's campaign results must have elicited a negative response.

Hope this helps!

rocky620 · Answer

Scenario-1  
If the Agency A's campaign does not increase recognition, then the company might Ask Agency B for an alternate Plan.

Scenario-2  
If the Agency A's campaign gets positive response from the customers, then the company will not ask Agency B for an alternate Plan.

Inference 
If the company asks Agency B to design a campaign, then Agency A's campaign did not get a positive response from the customers.

Select for 1 if and 2 then the two different options that create a statement that must be true if the marketing strategist's statements are true. Make only two selections, one in each column.

believes A's campaign will increase the company's name recognition..... If this is the case 1 then, the company will not ask Agency B for an alternate plan. But since that is not in the options we can eliminate this.

believes A's campaign will decrease the company's name recognition..... Decrease in company's recognition is not talked about in the stimulus. The only thing mentioned is the increase in recognition and positive feedback from the focus group. We can eliminate this.

asks B for a campaign..... (1) IF  .  As per our inference this fits the if Condition. Also, the then statement is present in the options.

asks A for an alternate campaign..... Agency A is the primary choice for the campaign. The main action will be dependent on its plan. So eliminate.

believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign..... (2) THEN  .  As per inference it is the then condition.

achanak · Answer

Thanks  rocky620 . My question (hidden above) is why can't it be the other way around? 
 IF  the company believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign,  THEN  it asks B for a campaign .. ?

rocky620 · Answer

achanak 
IMO, The reverse would also be true if it was not mentioned " After the focus testing is complete ". In that case this phrase would be inserted in the one of the statements.

Blank 1  corresponds to a  possibility , but since the results are out, the company knows for sure that they are either positive or negative ( which is a certainty ).

Sajjad1994  - Can you please confirm this?

CEdward · Answer

What are the answers for these?

I wrote :
1. Asks B for a campaign; 
2. believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign

CEdward · Answer

Because flipping the statements detracts from the certainty that using the latter first would provide. If the strategist asks B for a campaign then we know FOR SURE that the company believes the focus group did not respond favourably.

Tanchat · Answer

Why believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign --> asks B for a campaign wrong?

poddarritika98 · Answer

After the focus testing is complete, if the company believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign, then it must also be the case that the company asks B for a campaign.

Why is this incorrect?

Sasleen · Answer

I am not an expert but let me chip in with my thoughts.

This question is based on the rules of logic. The conclusion under discussion is a conditional statement (P -> Q) and has a converse (Q -> P), inverse (~P -> ~Q) and contrapositive (~Q -> ~P).
Now,  a contrapositive is logically equivalent to the statement .

From the conclusion,
  P (A's campaign elicits positive response) -> Q (not ask B for a campaign) 
 
It's contrapositive
  ~Q (ask B for a campaign) -> ~P (A's campaign elicits no positive response)

The above statement is our answer.

The statement that you mentioned  ~P (A's campaign elicits no positive response) -> ~Q (ask B for a campaign)  is an inverse and is not equivalent to the original statement.

Hope this helps!

nisen20 · Answer

in my opinion, this question is just testing the understanding of different writing styles.

in this case, you need to fill the first blank the consequence and the second blank the cause.
why? it's a writing style determined by the highlighted part suggesting that "over here! this is where everything started."

if the highlighted part were removed, then most of people would get this question right. not 33% correct and 67% wrong
this is a more common writing style, cause first and followed by its consequence.
note that, before we fill the consequence in the second blank, we need to make sure there's a appropriate modal verb, such as  if the company ______, then the company   will/would   ______ , otherwise the sentence is not grammatical.

Shari234 · Answer

It`s interesting. Thanks.

sayan640 · Answer

This question tests the concept of contra positive.
Notice this part -  if we find that A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group, we will not ask B for a campaign .
Remember  if X then Y  means If NOT Y , then NOT X.
X =  A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group
Y= we will not ask B for a campaign

NOT Y = we will ask B for a campaign
NOT X = A's campaign does not elicit positive responses from the focus group  i.e the company believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign 
Hence the answer.  1) asks B for a campaign.  2) the company believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign

chetan2u · Answer

Sayan, you are correct.

sayan640 · Answer

Thank you  chetan2u  for validating.

Posted from my mobile device

Gemmie · Answer

The marketing strategist states that if Agency A's campaign elicits positive responses from the focus group, then the company will not ask Agency B for a campaign. Conversely, if the company does ask Agency B for a campaign, it implies that Agency A's campaign did not elicit positive responses.

To create a conditional statement that must be true:

1. If the company asks B for a campaign (1)
2. Then it must also be the case that the company believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign (2)

tomahtab · Answer

From the question, we know that if responses are positive, the company won't ask B for a campaign. However, we don't know for sure if the company will ask B for a campaign if the responses are not positive. Notice that the question mentions that the company "might" ask Agency B for an alternate campaign. It nowhere states that it "will" ask B for a campaign if the responses are not positive on A's campaign.

However, if the company has asked B for a campaign, then we know that A's campaign did not yield positive responses since otherwise, they wouldn't have asked B for a campaign for sure.

rushimehta · Answer

I selected
IF --> "believes the focus group did not respond positively to A’s campaign"
THEN --> "believes A’s campaign will decrease the company’s name recognition"

As I thought that = more positive responses --> increase our name recognition among consumers...

I understand why the given correct answers are correct.
But I am unable to figure out why the answers I have marked are wrong wrong? Is it because the question is a MBT question? And we need to stick to what is written in the passage, and not make any inferences from the given statements?

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

chetan2u ChiranjeevSingh GMATNinja

GGGMAT2 · Answer

I will try to answer this.

This is a ' must be true' question. The passage states that if the focus group responds positively to A's campaign, that is an indication that it will increase company's name recognition.

However, no where in the passage it is mentioned that if the focus group did not respond positively to A’s campaign, then it will decrease the company’s name recognition. May be it will decrease the company’s name recognition, or may be the company’s name recognition will remain the same as before. We have no way of knowing that.

Since, this is a 'MUST BE TRUE' question, these answer choices are incorrect.

Hope this helps!

Marketing strategist: Agency A designed an advertising campaign that

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(1) If	(2) then
		believes A's campaign will increase the company's name recognition
		believes A's campaign will decrease the company's name recognition
		asks B for a campaign
		asks A for an alternate campaign
		believes the focus group did not respond positively to A's campaign

GMAT Two-part Analysis (TPA) Questions

Marketing strategist: Agency A designed an advertising campaign that

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