Fashion company executive: The number of competing brands of

Question

Fashion company executive: The number of competing brands of clothing is increasing much more quickly than is consumer demand for new clothing. As a result, it is becoming ever more difficult for our clothing company to keep consumers focused on our products. To increase our sales, therefore, our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.

To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

(A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing

(B) To what extent consumers' attention tends to be focused on innovative, eye-catching products in other industries

(C) Why the number of competing brands of clothing is increasing more quickly than consumer demand for new clothing

(D) How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing

(E) Whether the executive's company is currently selling any innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing

Question Code  : VCR007831

pqhai · Accepted Answer

Interesting question. If you read conclusion carefully, you can knock out wrong answers quickly.

ANALYZE THE STIMULUS:

Fact: The number of competing brands of clothing is increasing much more quickly than is consumer demand for new clothing. 
Fact: it is becoming ever more difficult for our clothing company to keep consumers focused on our products. 
 Conclusion:   To increase our sales,  therefore, our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.

KEY  word:  “ To increase sales ”. It is not enough if customers only focus on new lines.  The last and most important purpose  of introducing new lines of clothing  is to make customer BUY products (increase sales) .

ANALYZE EACH ANSWER:

(A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing
 Wrong.  It may be right or wrong. If customers do not intend – OR – are more likely to BUY new lines of clothing, the more or less frequent introducing new lines does not affect their buying habits. So if you keep your eyes on KEY words “to increase sales” in the conclusion, A is eliminated quickly.

(B) To what extent consumers' attention tends to be focused on innovative, eye-catching products in other industries
 Wrong.  Same problem as A. “focusing” does not mean “buying”. You should concentrate on the idea how new lines of clothing is able to increase SALES.

(C) Why the number of competing brands of clothing is increasing more quickly than consumer demand for new clothing
 Wrong.  We do not talk about the “reason” why the number of brands is increasing than demand. Out of scope.

(D) How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing
  Correct.   D focuses exactly on the key words “to increase sales” by showing the buying likelihood of customers. It affects directly to sales. Hence, D is correct.

(E) Whether the executive's company is currently selling any innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing
 Wrong.  Same problem as in A, B. If customers do not intend – OR – are more likely to BUY new lines of clothing, the fact “is currently selling new lines or not” does not matter. E does not affect “sales”, hence E is wrong.

Hope it helps.

benguy · Answer

Fashion company executive: The number of competing brands of clothing is increasing much more quickly than is consumer demand for new clothing. As a result, it is becoming ever more difficult for our clothing company to keep consumers focused on our products. To increase our sales, therefore, our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.

To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

(A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing
 its not critical to decide if the company's new innovative, eye-catching products will increase the company's sales. Lets assume that other companies will not more frequently introduce new lines of product, that will not guarantee that the company's sales will increase

(B) To what extent consumers' attention tends to be focused on innovative, eye-catching products in other industries
 though it is relevant to know if customers in other industries pay attention to innovative, eye-catching products, we dont know if the same story will happen in the fashion industry .

(C) Why the number of competing brands of clothing is increasing more quickly than consumer demand for new clothing
 it does not help to answer if the new innovative, eye-catching products will help increasing sales

(D) How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing
 correct. It directly help to answer if the innovative, eye-catching products will help to increase sales

(E) Whether the executive's company is currently selling any innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing
 this invites further evidence to prove that this is relevant to the question

so answer is D

that's interesting question

SVaidyaraman · Answer

Premise: consumers are not focussed on our products
Fact:our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.
Conclusion: consumers will be focussed on our products sales will increase

In the "evaluate the argument" one has to show whether the choice helps in showing whether (i) the premise is true or (ii) the conclusion follows from the premise

In this question we have to show that the choice can answer whether (i) the consumers are not focussed on the products or (ii) sales will increase because of the introduction of innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently

Only choice D helps in answering one of them i.e., it answers (ii), because if you know the answer to how much more likely the consumers are to buy innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional clothing, then it will answer the question whether sales will increase if innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing are introduced more frequently. For example if consumers are twice as likely to but eye-catching clothing, by introducing it more frequently the company can incresase its sales.

One should know that the right choice focuses exactly on the argument and either attacks or supports what it says. Other choices do not do that and talk about what is extraneous to the argument.

jaituteja · Answer

Hi,

I could not get option E.

IMO: If the company is already selling innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing, then this idea is already there in the market.
Repeating the same idea, would not help the company to increase sales.
If the idea is new, then it will help the company to increase sales.

Can you help me, where am i going wrong??

Thanks,
Jai

pqhai · Answer

Hi jaituteja

The problem is the new idea does NOT guarantee that the company increase sales. This is a very common trap, namely, "appeal to novelty". You assume the new idea is always good and will attract more customer. It's not correct if customers do NOT have demand. They just see, but not buy. Hence, E is not correct.

Hope it's clear.

kinjiGC · Answer

Conclusion : our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently to Increase sales.

(A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing
 Even if the competitors are selling, the company has to do "More Frequently"

(B) To what extent consumers' attention tends to be focused on innovative, eye-catching products in other industries ->  They might be focused but are they buying?

(C) Why the number of competing brands of clothing is increasing more quickly than consumer demand for new clothing ->  OFS as we are not concerned about why the number of the competing brands are increasing.

(D) How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing.

This is actually an assumption. In the premise, we are talking about the Competing brands increasing more than consumer demands. And conclusion is increase in innovative eye catching lines of clothing.

The assumption is : Customers should like it and should prefer those lines of clothing.

Lets put variance test.
1) Yes. 
Conclusion : Stays.
2) No,
Conclusion : Falls apart.

So this is the correct option.

(E) Whether the executive's company is currently selling any innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing ->  Doesn't matter as the conclusion says "more" frequently. They are selling or not there is no bearing.

honchos · Answer

Fashion company executive : The number of competing brands of clothing is increasing much more quickly than is consumer demand for new clothing. As a result, it is becoming ever more difficult for our clothing company to keep consumers focused on our products. To increase our sales, therefore, our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.

To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following?

(A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing
(B) To what extent consumers' attention tends to be focused on innovative, eye-catching products in other industries
(C) Why the number of competing brands of clothing is increasing more quickly than consumer demand for new clothing
(D) How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing
(E) Whether the executive's company is currently selling any innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing

Sir,

This questions is from GMAT PREP software.
What I understand from evaluate the argument question is that they are the combination of Strengthener/Weakener and Assumption types.

Correction option can be a strengthener or a weakener.

If in an option a condition is true say a strengthening one then if we negate it will become a weakener. This is a VARIANCE test in Evaluate the argument questions.

In the above example I am down to A and D.

Let me apply the Variance test on Option A -

(A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing

Yes - Other Companies Introduces New Line of Clothing. This is a weakener that means There will be too many new lines of clothing. The main co. who was trying to utilize this Formula to increase sales will again be in the competitive market of so many many new lines of clothing and thus the customers will be divided.

When we negate this, it will be a strengthener.

Then how is A WRONG?

OA: D

chetan2u · Answer

Hi,
are we told anywhere that  innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing  can increase the sales...NO,
Only if we know that it will increase the sales, we can talk of A as closer to being correct...
Hope it helped..

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear honchos , I'm happy to respond. :-)

First of all, I would say that it's a bit too reductionist to say that "evaluate the argument" questions are simply a combination of strengthener or weakeners. Yes, to some extent that's true, but to some extent, the "evaluate the argument" question is a beast unto itself. Here' the prompt again: Fashion company executive : The number of competing brands of clothing is increasing much more quickly than is consumer demand for new clothing. As a result, it is becoming ever more difficult for our clothing company to keep consumers focused on our products. To increase our sales, therefore, our company plans to introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently. To evaluate whether the plan described by the executive would be likely to achieve its goal, it would be most useful to know which of the following? First of all, before preceding to the answer choices, notice the huge logical leap in the prompt. The clothing company plans to boost sales by introducing " innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing ." Do we know that people will buy this? Do we know that this what clothes shoppers want? That's certainly the question I have about this argument before I look at the answers. Now, let's look at (A) & (D) . (A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing Well, first of all, we know there are a number of new companies. If there are new companies, each must be introducing a new lines of clothes, at least when they enter market space. In a way, we know this is already happening. Something that the argument tells us is already happening is not something that will help us evaluate the argument. Further, it's not clear that we are comparing like to like. Let's say all the competing companies, both the new ones as well as the well-established ones, introduce new clothes lines very frequently. Let's assume every month, all the companies release new clothes. Well, if all the other companies are releasing relatively plain, bland, frumpy clothes, and the company of the speaker is the only company releasing innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing ," then the speaker's company would stand out amid the fray. Sheer quantity of competition is not necessarily the issue: how well does this current company stand out from this background noise? These are questions that remain, even with the new information. For a variety of reasons, (A) doesn't help us evaluate the argument. (D) How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing Aha! This is the very question with which the prompt left me! Perfect! Here's another "evaluate the argument" question to practice: https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/3150 Does this make sense? Mike :-)

honchos · Answer

Thank you so Much. The question that you you gave to practice was also awesome.

pinoygmat · Answer

Damn I fell into the trap. So company plans to INCREASE sales. I chose A. D sounds right. My line of thinking is as follows: Decline in sales is a possibility if consumers start buying innovative, eye catching lines of clothing instead of buying conventional, familiar clothing. Think about this: Company makes 100 dollars for selling conventional, familiar clothing. Then company introduces innovative clothing. Customer buy innovative clothing -- we don't know how much it is.. could be lower or could be higher. But there's possibility that customer will not buy the conventional, familiar clothing anymore, right? So this could make the total sales equal or even less. Kudos if I made sense lol

Probus · Answer

Bunuel ,

Is this incorrectly tagged to Similar Reasoning Question Type , Shouldn't it be tagged to Evaluate the argument Question Type

Probus

Bunuel · Answer

___________________
Edited. Thank you.

mSKR · Answer

Hi  VeritasKarishma

Please suggest on this question. I am taken aback with this question. 
In the company when we decide to introduce new product or new strategy, we usually analyze our competitors , understand our existing products , improvements needed, SWOT analysis. Thus how finally we make a conclusion to take the next step.
This goes without saying, ultimate purpose of doing all these methodology is to increase profits that comes indirectly by increasing sales.

In this particular question, What We need to evaluate to determine whether the sales would increase.

The key point to look for : what can have impact on our strategy of introducing clothing much MORE FREQUENTLY.

I like A because: it is important to know whether our competitors are introducing more frequently?
We can keep on hold this option because its not important whether the same strategy can bring results for competitors. Moreover it is only mentioned that brands are increasing but it is not mentioned that they are introcing thir products more frequently, so still can reject this option.

Why I like B:
We can still keep on hold B because it is better to take reference from other indusctries how "MORE FREQUENTLY" stragry works in other industries. But still can be rejected whether it would be applicable to clothing industry. Lets see other optiions if better than B

Why I MOST LIKE E:
I am looking for a strategy of INTRODUCING MORE FREQUENTLY on new/innovating clothing . Let us see HOW IS IT PERFOMING CURRENTLY? 
YES; If it is doing good enough then we can continue ahead with introducing more , 
NO: Then means its not our strengthen, our strategy may not work.
Hence E seems better than A or B

Why i REJCTED D:
 Rejecr1: conventional, familiar clothing:? I even don't know whether such clothing is with competitors or with me. No information is given about such clothing
Reject2: Only comparison is given. What if new clothing is ONLY BETTER than convention clothing . But both may still be poor performing. Even if both are high end performing, how comparison would help. Without substantial comparison evidence , it is hard to judge based on this information given in D
Hence rejected very strongly..

VeritasKarishma : Please help on my D, E , A and B.

I am still in shock with correct answer D.

KarishmaB · Answer

More competition so losing customer focus. 
Aim: Increase our sales
Plan: Introduce innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing much more frequently.

Will the plan lead to the aim? Will introducing "innovative, eye-catching clothes much more frequently" lead to "increase in sales"?

We need something that will help us evaluate this.

(A) Whether other, competing clothing companies will more frequently introduce new lines of clothing

Our plan is to introduce eye catching clothing more frequently. Whether other companies will introduce new lines more frequently doesn't matter. What may matter is whether they will introduce eye catching clothes more frequently too. So (A) is out.

(B) To what extent consumers' attention tends to be focused on innovative, eye-catching products in other industries

Other industries are irrelevant.

(C) Why the number of competing brands of clothing is increasing more quickly than consumer demand for new clothing

Why more brands are coming in won't help us evaluate whether our plan will succeed.

(D) How much more likely most consumers are to buy innovative, eye-catching lines of clothing than they are to buy conventional, familiar clothing

Correct. So we are planning on introducing eye catching clothing more frequently. Will people buy such clothes? If people buy more eye catching clothes than they buy regular clothes our sales will increase. 
So this is certainly a relevant factor.

(E) Whether the executive's company is currently selling any innovative and eye-catching lines of clothing

Doesn't matter. They are planning on introducing eye catching clothes more frequently. Even if they are currently selling some, introducing more could help.

Answer (D)

Sidharth003 · Answer

VeritasKarishma  Great analysis as always. Had a small follow up question though. My inference on reading the question stem was that "increase in sales" may stem from sales of traditional or the eye catching clothes as the aim is to "grab focus" of the consumer in order to increase sales. So the increased frequency was just to catch the attention amidst the crowd of new brands, so consumers take this brand more seriously hence D seemed a stretch as we are alluding to only sales of these new clothes . I understand that A talks about "new" clothing and not "eye catching" clothing, but somehow all options seem to have gaps.

Please help.Super confused.

KarishmaB · Answer

Sidharth003  - If the company is going to introduce eye catching line of clothing much more frequently, it better have demand for those lines. It will be pumping in a lot of money to come out with those new lines (perhaps at the expense of lines of conservative clothes). They are not planning a marketing gimmick; they are increasing/changing their product lines. Also if eye catching clothes catch consumer's attention, do the conservative ones also gain attention, we don't know. We do want the new lines to sell and that is why (D) works.

As for (A), new lines and new eye catching lines is a matter of distinction. The company wants to set itself apart. Hence (A) is not correct.

Hope this helps take care of your confusion.

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