einstein801
Hi
MartyMurray, I'm not getting the english here - "Assume that total sales were constant" - if they were constant how does it translate to an increase in sales of product X? I'd imagine the only reason for market share increasing with constant sales is if the total market size decreased.
Let's look at what the passage says.
As a result of a new promotion, a company increased its market share of sales of Product X from 6.6% to 8.8%. Assume that the total sales of Product X by all companies were constant. - The company increased its market share (percentage of total sales by all companies) from 6.6% to 8.8%.
- Total sales by all companies were constant.
The wording "total sales of Product X by all companies were constant" is not 100% clear, but the only way to read it that makes sense is as meaning that the total OF the sales of all companies remained constant. In other words, industry-wide sales of Product X did not increase or decrease.
After all, "total sales by all companies were constant" must mean "industry-wide total sales remained constant." It could not mean that the total sales of each of all the companies were constant because we already know that the market share of at least one company changed, a change that would not occur if the sales of every individual company in the industry remained constant.
Thus, the meaning is that sales of one particular company went from 6.6% to 8.8% of the same overall total, meaning that sales by other companies must have decreased to have kept total sales the same.