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805+ (Hard)|   Weaken|         
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Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.

A: Correct - The conclusion draws a causation that online discount coupons increases profits as it indicates that there is a strong correlation between increase in downloads and increase in revenue. But it fails to consider that a third factor could be causing this.

B: Incorrect - Not really. Consumers might have purchased the goods at full price. The passage doesn't suggest this.

C: Incorrect - Infact it does conclude this. So eliminate C.

D: Incorrect - The passage doesn't indicate this anywhere.

E: Incorrect - We are comparing businesses which offer coupons. Hence, this is out of scope.

Option A
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The whole argument's premise and support is saying that online coupons leads to higher revenue. But the conclusion at the end says online coupons lead to increased profit. It is wrongly assumed that higher revenue means higher profits.
Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.
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If we see here, the author goes from talking about increasing revenues in the premise to an increase in profits in the conclusion.
So, C is our answer.

A. We are not worried about whether the number of coupons downloaded is causally related to an increase in revenues or not. It would matter if the conclusion said coupon downloads cause the revenue increase.
B. Even if it assumes, it doesn't affect the argument.
D. It is not making any such assumption. Even if it did, we aren't again focused on causation here.
E. This is completely irrelevant.
Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.
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conclusion= offering coupons leads to increase profits.

reason= in the past offering coupons leads to increase revenue substantially.

so assuming that increasing revenue means increasing profit.

option C tells the same thing,
Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.
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C
Revenue generation doesn't neccesitates profit increment
sales increase can increase revenue but profit not necessarily
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this is a weakening argument question type. In fact, if the paragraph is read carefully, the answer practically throws itself at you as you complete reading.
All throughout the para, the analyst talks about the relationship between coupons and company revenue, and from the contradictor he/she goes on about how using more and more coupons leads to increased "revenues", not profits. At the end, however, the analyst conveniently draws the conclusion between coupon use and profits.

Syllogism and logical thinking would naturally indicate that increased coupon use leads to increased revenus- okay; but increased revenue doesnt necessarily lead to increased profits. hence, C.
Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.
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"Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downlaods and increases in company's monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them"

The analyst concludes that offering coupons clearly increases "profits". The strong correlation being talked about is only about "revenue". As we know, Profit is a function of revenue - cost. The discount coupons can increase revenue and costs at the same time. Which means, the profits can increase, decrease, or even remain the same.

Going through the options, it is C that talks exactly about this, and thus is most vulnerable to criticism.
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From the question stem, one thing that strikes out when arriving from the premises to the conclusion is that while the premises talks about online coupons increasing revenue, the conclusion talks about increasing profits, which is not supported by the premises, since we do not know anything about cost of operations.


From the answer choices, the option that conveys the above error is Option C
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Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.

There is a complain from several small businesses that offering discounts will lead to reduced revenue. The reasoning provided behind the view of reduced revenue is as coupons are given on discounted price - that is at a price lesser than the marked price ( M.R.P). So, to maximise revenue we need to sell more number of products to reap the same revenue.

The next line, brings in the term HOWEVER - which is going to introduce an opinion which will take a shift from the earlier proposed view. The same companies which has opposed the online coupons, have issued such coupons in the past year and have seen a substantial increase in overall sales. The marketing analyst has bought revenue and sales on the same page.

To add a point, the marketing analyst mentions a strong correlation between increases in coupon sales ( online downloads) vs the increase in monthly revenue. The initial view of the author is about revenue and now the shift is moving towards sales, the common point linking these two distinct terms in the discounted coupon sales.

The Marketing Analyst concludes that , increased number of discounted sales coupons will increase the profits only, and does not reduce it. Now, the author has bought all distinct terminologies - like Sales, Revenue and Profits on the same page.

The analyst reasoning is vulnerable to criticism is :

Since three different terminologies are interlinked to a common concept, the increase of one figure, doesn’t necessarily mean the other two terms are likely to increase. May be, they are inversely proportional.

Option C is the correct answer. As increased revenue doesn’t necessarily mean increased profits. May be the cost incurred might have been high, thereby decreasing the profits.

Option C
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The analyst argues that offering coupons have increased revenue and assumes that increased revenue translates to increased profits. Hence any argument which mentions this will make the analysts reasoning vulnerable.

C does exactly that. Hence C is the answer

Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.
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A. Co-relation does not mean causation. There could be other factors involved that would have resulted in growth of revenue.

Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.
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I think choice C is best.

The evidence provided for the claim (more coupons lead to more profits) specifically related to sales and revenue, which does not necessarily relate to profit, which is calculated as Revenue - Cost. The company must still cover the costs associated with the products for which coupons are being redeemed. Theoretically this would decrease profits if the margin was low enough.
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Close question, but I'd go with C and not A.........

What the Analyst is saying?
Issue coupon precedes Sales growth
Coupon download number increase correlated with revenue...
Because this coupon thing happens profits increase....
I was tempted to A....but why its not A....

Because Analyst is showing coupon offer correlates to sales growth, and coupon download correlates to Revenue increase... but AUTHOR IS NOT CORRELATING Offering discount to increase profit....Analyst is first showing correlation and then saying that because increase sales growth and increase revenue increase will lead to profit increase........Thats what Analyst is presuming....Hope I am correct..I first marked A..then while writing the answer I understood it would be C and not A.




Bunuel
Marketing analyst: Several small businesses complain that offering online discount coupons reduces their revenue, since customers who use the coupons pay less. However, companies that have issued such coupons in the past year have seen substantial growth in overall sales. Moreover, there is a strong correlation between increases in the number of coupon downloads and increases in a company’s monthly revenue. Therefore, offering online discount coupons clearly increases profits rather than reduces them.

The analyst’s reasoning is most vulnerable to criticism on which of the following grounds?

A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other.
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits.
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced.
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.
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Option C, as the high revenue doesnt always correlate to high profit.

Lets assume below example:
Cost price of product: 100
Marked price of product: 200
Quantity sold: 10
this means:
revenue=2000
profit=1000

Now, a coupon allows 50% discount owing to which the sales shoots up
Cost and Marked price will remain same
Quantity sold: 25
this would mean:
revenue= .5x200x25=2500
profit=2500 - (100x25)=0
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A. It overlooks the possibility that two correlated trends may result from an independent factor rather than one causing the other. Wrong; No Alternate Factor
B. It assumes, without justification, that customers who use coupons would not have purchased goods at full price.Wrong; sale went up, irrespective of discount
C. It fails to consider that increased revenue does not necessarily imply increased profits. Correct. The cost associated with coupon may be rising. Cost is not accounted here
D. It presumes that the growth in overall sales occurred only after coupons were introduced. Wrong.. Reason of sales is irrelevant to profit here
E. It ignores the possibility that businesses offering coupons differ in important ways from those that do not.Wrong. Sales increased with the coupons, so irrelevant

Ans C
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There is clear jump from premise: "increase in revenue" to conclusion: "increase in profit".

Hence, answer is C.
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the whole arguement core says that increase in the downloads of discount coupons leads to increase in revenue. And then the conclusion is drawn for the profits. Revenue doesnt automatically equate to profits. Hence C
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