Brand X, which currently markets luxury watches via billboards and advertisements in popular magazines, is considering saving money by advertising its newest line of luxury watches only in niche publications read by the wealthy. A recent study shows that most purchasers of Brand X’s luxury watches have only recently become wealthy, and purchase the watches because Brand X is highly coveted by those aspiring to wealth, who learn about Brand X watches via advertising. Therefore, Brand X should not implement its new advertising strategy because __________.
Which of the following best completes the passage below?The argument says Brand X should not advertise only to the already wealthy, because many actual buyers are newly rich, and those buyers want the brand partly because
people who aspire to wealth already admire it. So the missing idea is that Brand X needs advertising that reaches not-yet-wealthy aspirants too, since that wider admiration helps drive purchases by the newly rich.
(A) most purchasers of Brand X’s luxury watches do not read magazines regularly
This is unsupported. The argument says nothing about whether the buyers read magazines regularly.
(B) newly rich consumers will not buy the watches if the watches are not advertised to people who are not yet wealthy who will then hold the watches in high regard
This is correct.
It matches the logic exactly. If the brand stops advertising to aspirants, then fewer non-wealthy people will come to covet the watches, and that weakens the very status appeal that motivates the newly rich to buy them.
(C) the money saved by implementing the strategy will be outweighed by the reduction in revenue from the less expensive line of watches
This is irrelevant. The argument is about the newest luxury line, not a less expensive line.
(D) consumers who have only recently become wealthy purchase luxury watches in order to impress those who have been wealthy for some time
This misses the point. The passage says they buy Brand X because it is coveted by aspirants to wealth, not because they want to impress old-money consumers.
(E) consumers who are newly wealthy prefer to purchase products that are purchased regularly by the non-wealthy
This goes against the passage. The appeal is that the brand is coveted by aspirants, not that it is regularly purchased by non-wealthy people.
Answer: (B)