Sales of a new chocolate bar were considerably boosted

Question

Sales of a new chocolate bar were considerably boosted recently by an advertisement that featured a classic rock song. The candy manufacturer's decision to also use classic rock songs in commercials for its older and more popular products, in the hopes of boosting profits, is NOT based on the assumption that ___________________.

A. thanks to the new advertising strategy, all of the company's older products will sell at least as well as the new chocolate bar. 
B. sales of a particular product can be increased by a memorable or catchy advertisement campaign. 
C. use of classic rock songs will be more commercially effective than the advertising techniques currently used by the company for its older products 
D. the majority of customers who buy one kind of candy bar from the company will not stop buying other candy bars made by the same company. 
E. the licensing costs associated with using classic rock songs in commercials will be substantially offset by the increased profits resulting from those commercials.

souvik101990 · Answer

A, IMHO
A seems to say that the company wants atleast same sales for the old bars with the new music. the company just wants sales. It nowwhere mentions the amount of sales it needs. so A is unnecessary.
D, on the contrary, is a useful assumption which says that with older products being sold, the new product sales will decrease which works against what the manufacturer wants.

Jp27 · Answer

hi souvik101990 - even the "all" in option A is glaring but for what reasons did you kill E?

souvik101990 · Answer

E. the licensing costs associated with using classic rock songs in commercials will be substantially offset by the increased profits resulting from those commercials.

If this is not assumed then the company won't be able to make new profits!
The premise clearly mentions that the company wants to boost profits.

shazhoda · Answer

The argument is:
 Advertisement  featuring old classic song =  boost in sales of  new  chocolate bar .
Hence,  classic rock songs in commercials for older and more popular products  =  boost in profits

(An important point worth noting is that it says commercials for old products will boost profits, not necessarily sales or profits of the product for which the advertisement is rolled out. The answer choices doesn't play with this - But it's useful to note down such technicalities in advance. You may ignore this for the answer purpose)

Now the question is:
The decision to boost profit by using classic rock songs in commercials for older and more popular products is  NOT  based on the assumption that

Don't approach it as a "Which one of the following logically completes........" question.

We have to find the  answer choice  that is either an  irrelevant assumption or undermines  the argument.

A) Correct -   thanks to  the new advertising strategy , all of the company's older products will sell at least as well as the new chocolate bar. 
This states that   because of   the new advertising strategy the old products will sell atleast as well as the new choc bar. Why would a new campaign be required, if the current one has already done so much? This clearly can't be the reason/assumption behind the campaign.

B) Incorrect - Sales of a particular product can be increased by a memorable or catchy advertisement campaign. This can be an assumption. This assumption certifies that increase in sales of new CB was not a coincidence and can be replicated across products.

C) Incorrect - Use of classic rock songs will be more commercially effective than the advertising techniques currently used by the company for its older products. This assumption states that the new strategy will be more effective than the existing one.

D) Incorrect - The majority of customers who buy one kind of candy bar from the company will not stop buying other candy bars made by the same company. This assumption states that a new campaign will create fresh sales and not just cannabalise sales from an existing product.

E) Incorrect - The licensing costs associated with using classic rock songs in commercials will be substantially offset by the increased profits resulting from those commercials. This assumption doesn't need any elaboration, it clearly strengthens the argument!  Revenue  due to increased sales > Cost  of campaign  =>  Net Positive  Profit .

What's the source of OA, are you sure it's correct?

Temurkhon · Answer

Sales of a new chocolate bar were considerably boosted recently by an advertisement that featured a classic rock song. The candy manufacturer's decision to also use classic rock songs in commercials for its older and more popular products, in the hopes of boosting profits, is NOT based on the assumption that ___________________.

It is the same as the EXCEPT question. We need to find statement that cannot be an assumption of argument, so we should evaluate every statement if it can be assumption

Conclusion: New strategy will increase the profit

good option to make prethinking by considering possible assumptions: causal assumptions (eliminating alternate causes, reverse relations or data error) and supporting ones

A. thanks to the new advertising strategy, all of the company's older products will sell at least as well as the new chocolate bar (company wants to boost profit and it looks too humble assumption fot this goal) 
B. sales of a particular product can be increased by a memorable or catchy advertisement campaign (that is the idea, so assumed) 
C. use of classic rock songs will be more commercially effective than the advertising techniques currently used by the company for its older products (that is why Co. uses it, assumed) 
D. the majority of customers who buy one kind of candy bar from the company will not stop buying other candy bars made by the same company (if they stop, the profit will not increase, so assumed). 
E. the licensing costs associated with using classic rock songs in commercials will be substantially offset by the increased profits resulting from those commercials (cost will not increase, so profit will increase, assumed)

It is A

Mahmud6 · Answer

Older products already sold more than the new products are. So, manufacturer will not assume that older product will be sold at least as well as the new chocolate bar. If so, profit may decrease. They may rather assume that older product will be sold more than the new product are sold.

Therefore, it is A.

PRamesh2008 · Answer

Sales of a new chocolate bar were considerably boosted recently by an advertisement that featured a classic rock song. The candy manufacturer's decision to also use classic rock songs in commercials for its older and more popular products, in the hopes of boosting profits, is NOT based on the assumption that ___________________.

A. thanks to the new advertising strategy, all of the company's older products will sell at least as well as the new chocolate bar.
  Let's negate the assumption, and see the effect...It may happen that 'equal' sales of older products in comparison to new chocolate bar will be higher or comparable or even lower than sales as recorded previousy in respect of older products. In such a case, the conclusion does not hold in 'all' cases. Hence, does NOT qualify as a strong assumption.

B. sales of a particular product can be increased by a memorable or catchy advertisement campaign.
  (sales' increase --> profits boosted...a valid assumption)

C. use of classic rock songs will be more commercially effective than the advertising techniques currently used by the company for its older products
  (increased commercial effectiveness of classic rock songs vis-a-vis earlier advertising techniques --> valid assumption for boosting profits)

D. the majority of customers who buy one kind of candy bar from the company will not stop buying other candy bars made by the same company.
  (since negating the assumption means that the customers wean away from one kind of candy bars (new) to other kind of candy bars (old), the profits may remain flat or even decrease..Conclusion does not hold in this case..stimuls needs to be true always, hence a valid assumption)

E. the licensing costs associated with using classic rock songs in commercials will be substantially offset by the increased profits resulting from those commercials.
  (if the licensing costs catered are much lower than the quantum of increase in profits, then the overall profits will necessarily be boosted..hence, a valid assumption)

A is the answer..  
Hope it helps !!

Mavisdu1017 · Answer

My two cents: 
In A, older products does not necessarily need to sell as well as the new chocolate bar. As the conclusion is to boost profits, but the goal can be met as long as older products sell better than themselves previously sold.

While I think there is a flaw in E too. E says the costs of using songs can be “substantially” offset, this means the extra costs are not “totally” offset by the extra profit. Aslo means the profit will be less than previous , so how come to boost profit?

buitri84 · Answer

Start with the argument: basically it is saying that, because using a classic rock song boosted sales of a new choc bar, the manufacturer decides to replicate (the use of classic rock song as commercial) for its older products in order to boost profits.

A: the old products only needs to sell better than they did before in order for the hope to increase profit to be true. Thus, requiring all of the older products to sell at least as well as the new ones is not necessary. 
B: this has to be an assumption for the hope of increasing profit to be realized
C: sure, this has to be assumed if using classic rock song is to be more effective than whatever the current method is
D: negate this statement and you can see it's definitely an assumption. If the majority of customers who buy 1 kind of candy from the company (say they buy the new choc bar) will stop buying other candy bars from the same company, the use of classic rock song will not have the intended effect. Thus, this has to be an assumption (that customers will not stop buying)
E: if the licensing cost will NOT be substantially offset, then the hope of increasing profit is diminished. This is also an assumption.

Therefore, only A is NOT an assumption.

Kudos if helpful pls, thank you.

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Sales of a new chocolate bar were considerably boosted

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Sales of a new chocolate bar were considerably boosted

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