There are 350 brands of cellphones in the market today. However, our

Question

There are 350 brands of cellphones in the market today. However, our store only stocks the top 10 brands. In order to increase our sales, we plan to increase the size of our inventory to the top 50 brands.

Which of the following, if true, points out the major flaw in the plan above?

A) The capabilities of the top five cellphones are almost the same, with no brand having consistent superiority in all respects

B) The top 8 brands account for almost all the cells phones sold

C) As users get more sophisticated, they want to try out the lesser know brands which might offer some other value to them

D) less popular brands provide little profit to the store because they have to be discounted to be sold

E) The leading brands are now losing sales to less popular brands that offer similar features for a lower cost

Found this question in gmat flashcards page 71
Can someone please explain the answer

nkmungila · Answer

The answer is B. If top 8 brands are account for almost sales, then introducing 50 more brand will not increase any sale

from- nkmungila

pra1785 · Answer

Why is option C wrong ? If users prefer lesser known brand, then no one will purchase the top 50 brand and therefore sales will not increase?

NarendraM · Answer

IMO D. Less popular brands will not provide profit. So increasing stock with brands from 10 - 50 will not make a difference

Sent from my Mi 4i using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

sobby · Answer

this is not about profit ..Argument is focusing on "sales" only

clee1827 · Answer

B. Answer implies that selling brands outside the top 8 will have very minor impact on sales

Sent from my LG-H910 using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

Siva2021 · Answer

Answer is B
Option D can be ruled out because what we want is increase of sales and not increase of profits.
Option A can be ruled out because it is not talking about the remaining 40 brands.
Option C does not point out a flaw in the argument. It is an advantage of stocking the store with the lesser known brands.
Option E also does not indicate a flaw in the argument.It tells us about an advantage of stocking the store with the lesser known brands.
Option B tells that the top eight brands of cellphones account for a majority of the cellphones sold.So increasing the size of the inventory will not affect the sales. Hence B is the right answer
Please give me kudos . I need them badly to increase my score.

PriyankaPalit7 · Answer

Can anyone explain why option E is incorrect?

The leading brands are now losing sales to less popular brands that offer similar features for a lower cost - If leading brands are losing sales to less popular brands then the store is not likely to see any increase in total sales as the buyers who earlier bought a phone of leading brand would buy one of a less popular but cheaper brand.
How can this increase sales?

Option B uses the word "almost". There is still scope for increasing sales by adding less popular brands to the inventory, even if it the percentage increase would not be very significant.

PriyankaPalit7 · Answer

Can anyone explain why option E is incorrect?

The leading brands are now losing sales to less popular brands that offer similar features for a lower cost - If leading brands are losing sales to less popular brands then the store is not likely to see any increase in total sales as the buyers who earlier bought a phone of leading brand would buy one of a less popular but cheaper brand.
How can this increase sales?

Option B uses the word "almost". There is still scope for increasing sales by adding less popular brands to the inventory, even if it the percentage increase would not be very significant

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot: 

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

 This post was generated automatically.

There are 350 brands of cellphones in the market today. However, our

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

There are 350 brands of cellphones in the market today. However, our

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards