Zeta Manufacturing, a producer of low-cost chairs and tables, plans to

Question

Zeta Manufacturing, a producer of low-cost chairs and tables, plans to start production on a more expensive line of furniture. The company’s research shows that consumers are currently reluctant to purchase products made by Zeta Manufacturing because of concerns about the products’ quality. The company is certain that selling a more expensive line will alleviate these concerns.

Which of the following is an assumption that lies behind Zeta Manufacturing’s decision to produce a more expensive line of furniture?

A. Consumers believe that items that are equal in quality are equal in cost.

B. Consumers make a connection between the cost of a product and its quality.

C. Consumers are less attracted to low cost than they are to high quality.

D. Companies increase their profitability when they sell more expensive products.

E. People expect to purchase furniture infrequently because furniture is durable

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proddnav · Answer

This question asks us to identify the assumption behind the company's decision to manufacture expensive furniture.

Option A: This compares quality of same products manufactured by different companies and mentions that if they are of same quality that means they are equal in price. However, this is not the assumption that Zeta makes since it doesn't mention anything about a competitor's products

Option B: This is the right answer. Zeta assumes that customers think that Lower price=Lower Quality and Higher Price=Higher Quality for the customer. This is highlighted in the premise "The company’s research shows that consumers..............because of concerns about the products’ quality" and hence conclusion: "manufacture expensive furniture to make consumers believe it is a high quality product"

Option C: The statement doesn't mention about consumer's attractiveness. It mentions about consumer's thinking

Option D: Irrelevant

Option E: Irrelevant. Doesn't logically lead to the conclusion of zeta

Cheenu123 · Answer

As per Argument, the conclusion is - The production of expensive items will lead to consumers belief that furniture is good in quality. This can only happen when there is some connection between price of goods and quality of goods.

So, the Answer is Option B

So, the Answer is Option B

TheBipedalHorse · Answer

Bunuel

While the I think the correct choice here is B, how may one resist the temptation from choosing A as the answer?

A. Consumers believe that items that are equal in quality are equal in cost.

Reason I rejected A - simply because it is an extreme version of assumption. We don't know the existing price of the furniture sold at Z's store. It may be the case that the price of furniture sold there are already in line with this argument and still consumers don't want to buy it because of its quality. I was wondering what your opinion would be on the question here?

chanhthang1802 · Answer

The answer is  (B) .
(A) Irrelevant
 (B)  Correct.
Negation: If consumers don't make a connection between the cost of a product and its quality, selling a more expensive line doesn't make consumers believe that they are of better quality. This weakens the argument, hence (B) is the correct answer.
(C) Negation: Even if consumers aren't less attracted to low cost than they are to high quality, selling a more expensive line still makes customers believe the products are of better quality. After negation, the answer choice doesn't weaken the argument, thus (C) is eliminated.
(D) Profitability of Zeta when selling more expensive products is irrelevant here because the argument is only about whether selling more expensive products will make customers purchase more.
(E) This answer choice can be generally applied to both low-cost products and the more expensive ones that Zeta is planning to produce. It doesn't say specifically whether purchase is more infrequent for the cheap products or for the expensive products. Therefore, this answer isn't an assumption.

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL SOLUTION:

Correct Choice: (B)

The conclusion is set off by the words “The company is certain that . . “. The rest of the paragraph is the evidence. The assumption that links evidence to conclusion is that the greater cost of the new furniture will make consumers think that it is of greater quality. At no point does the paragraph state that the new product line will actually be of greater quality. (B) sums up this assumption.

Choice (A) is too extreme. Although the argument assumes that consumers think that more-expensive furniture has more quality, there’s no reason to think that consumers believe that there is an exact one-to-one correspondence as rigid as (A) claims.

Choice (C) says consumers favor one characteristic (high quality) over another (low cost), but we are given no reason to believe this. The company is having problems because consumers don’t feel that its low-cost line has a lot of quality, from which it can be inferred that consumers want lost-cost chairs and tables to have at least some quality—but there’s nothing in the paragraph about one being more important than the other.

Choice (D) may or may not be true, but it’s not an assumption in this argument. The company is going to charge more in order to give an impression of quality, not simply to have a greater profit per item.

Choice (E) may be tempting, because it appears to connect with concerns about quality, but there’s nothing in the text to support that idea that consumers care about quality because they want their furniture to last for a long time.

Zeta Manufacturing, a producer of low-cost chairs and tables, plans to

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Zeta Manufacturing, a producer of low-cost chairs and tables, plans to

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