Many buyers of fashion clothing are inclined

[kre]

Many buyers of fashion clothing are inclined to contribute to charitable organizations, and are more likely to purchase clothing from companies that donate a portion of their profits to charity. Next weekend, a variety of fashion clothing retailers will hold sample sales at a downtown event; the event’s organizers plan to hand out flyers listing which of the retailers donate to charity from their profits, in the hope of increasing those companies’ sales at the event.

Which of the following, if true, most calls into question the appropriateness of the organizers’ plan?


A The cost to the organizers of designing and printing the flyers is equivalent to half an average day’s worth of sample-sale profits for one of the retailers at the event.


B Many of the retailers who donate profits to charity do so in order to garner tax breaks, rather than for purely altruistic reasons.


C Among the retailers who will hold sample sales at next week’s event, those that donate a portion of their profits to charity far outnumber those that do not.


D Of the retailers at the event that donate a portion of their profits to charity, most have publicized those donations extensively in their advertising.


E Many of the retailers who donate a portion of their profits to charity vary that portion from season to season, allocating a greater portion of their profits to charity during peak sales seasons.


- - - - - -

Correct answer was D, but I was wondering whether this was a question from a real past GMAT. The way I interpreted "appropriate" was different than the explanation; I thought that answer E would have led to false advertising, because flyer indicating profit would go to charity might not be true since donations are not consistent through the year, and therefore be inappropriate. I didn't think the point of the flyers was to increase any one retailer's sales, but bring people to the event overall.

Did I assume too much information outside the scope of the question, because it doesn't explicitly say sample sales are not during peak sales seasons?

[jnelson0612]

Sure! The best way to handle such questions is to first identify the question type then break down the argument. The question asks us to "call into question the appropriateness of the plan". In other words, we need to weaken the conclusion. The typical way the GMAT does this is by attacking an assumption. Let's try to identify the conclusion and the premises so we can find the assumption.

Conclusion: To increase sales at the event, inform people as to which retailers donate a portion of their profits to charity.
WHY? Because:
Premises: Buyers of fashion clothing are more likely to buy clothing from companies that donate a portion of their profits to charity.

Okay, what was assumed to get from the premise to the conclusion? Let's review again:
Premise: buyers more likely to buy from charitably inclined companies
THEREFORE
Conclusion: increase sales by informing buyers which companies donate to charity

Hmm! What is new in the conclusion? It's the aspect of "informing" buyers of the charitable companies. What if these buyers already know which companies donate to charity? Passing out the flyers will be a complete waste of time and paper.

Thus, the assumption linking the premises to the conclusion is that buyers do not already know which companies donate to charity. If buyers knew they would be more likely to buy clothes from these companies, increasing sales.

Notice how D attacks this assumption and in fact exploits the possibility just discussed.

Your answer, E, is not as good because we really want to attack the conclusion as stated in the passage. It's not really about getting people to the event . . . the goal in the conclusion is increasing sales. Even if the companies don't actually donate to charity and the flyer becomes false advertising, that is irrelevant, because again, all we want to accomplish by handing out the flyers is increasing sales. We want to choose something that casts doubt on this plan to increase sales.

This is not an actual GMAT question; it is written by our curriculum staff but it is designed to mimic real GMAT questions.

Please let us know if we can help further! :-)

[kre]

got it - thanks!

[jnelson0612]

got it - thanks!

Great! :-)

[krishnan.anju1987]

Many buyers of fashion clothing are inclined to contribute to charitable organizations, and are more likely to purchase clothing from companies that donate a portion of their profits to charity. Next weekend, a variety of fashion clothing retailers will hold sample sales at a downtown event; the event’s organizers plan to hand out flyers listing which of the retailers donate to charity from their profits, in the hope of increasing those companies’ sales at the event.

Which of the following, if true, most calls into question the appropriateness of the organizers’ plan?


A The cost to the organizers of designing and printing the flyers is equivalent to half an average day’s worth of sample-sale profits for one of the retailers at the event.


B Many of the retailers who donate profits to charity do so in order to garner tax breaks, rather than for purely altruistic reasons.


C Among the retailers who will hold sample sales at next week’s event, those that donate a portion of their profits to charity far outnumber those that do not.


D Of the retailers at the event that donate a portion of their profits to charity, most have publicized those donations extensively in their advertising.


E Many of the retailers who donate a portion of their profits to charity vary that portion from season to season, allocating a greater portion of their profits to charity during peak sales seasons.


- - - - - -

Now that I see the answer I understand D makes sense. However, I originally selected E based on the following reasoning.

Conclusion- The event's organizers plan to hand out flyers that will provide info on which of the retailers donate to charity from their profit in hopes of increasing these retailers' sales.

Premise- Observation that the buyers of fashionable cloth tend to buy it from retailers who donate to charity.

Assumption- Here two types of assumptions are possible
1) The events' organizers are handing out info that will influence the people anew i.e this info is not already available to the public.

2) This plan will increase the profits of the retailers who make some donations to charity.

Since the question asks for the appropriateness of the plan, I thought the this appropriateness would be measured based on the result of this plan i.e the increase in the sales of the retailers.

D tends to weaken the 1st assumption but I feel E weakens the 2nd assumption. It would be helpful if someone could shed some light on the defect in my assumption 2)

[jnelson0612]

Now that I see the answer I understand D makes sense. However, I originally selected E based on the following reasoning.

Conclusion- The event's organizers plan to hand out flyers that will provide info on which of the retailers donate to charity from their profit in hopes of increasing these retailers' sales.

Premise- Observation that the buyers of fashionable cloth tend to buy it from retailers who donate to charity.

Assumption- Here two types of assumptions are possible
1) The events' organizers are handing out info that will influence the people anew i.e this info is not already available to the public.

2) This plan will increase the profits of the retailers who make some donations to charity.

Since the question asks for the appropriateness of the plan, I thought the this appropriateness would be measured based on the result of this plan i.e the increase in the sales of the retailers.

D tends to weaken the 1st assumption but I feel E weakens the 2nd assumption. It would be helpful if someone could shed some light on the defect in my assumption 2)

Krishnan, you need to stick closely to the wording of the argument to avoid such mistakes. The conclusion has to do with SALES, not profits. All we are interested in here is increasing sales. You are weakening a slightly different conclusion about profits but that conclusion is not part of this argument. :-)

[krishnan.anju1987]

Thanks.. That does clear it up.

[jnelson0612]

Thanks.. That does clear it up.

Good to hear! :-)

[jp.jprasanna]

I got this question in my CAT 5.....

Although I understand D is best here, Aren't we assuming that those "publicized donations" advertisements have already reached public?

Quoting from what you have written ....

"Hmm! What is new in the conclusion? It's the aspect of "informing" buyers of the charitable companies. What if these buyers already know which companies donate to charity? Passing out the flyers will be a complete waste of time and paper."

What if these buyers DIDN'T already know which companies donate to charity?

Then this would neither strengthen or weaken...
Can you please correct me?

[jnelson0612]

I got this question in my CAT 5.....

Although I understand D is best here, Aren't we assuming that those "publicized donations" advertisements have already reached public?

Quoting from what you have written ....

"Hmm! What is new in the conclusion? It's the aspect of "informing" buyers of the charitable companies. What if these buyers already know which companies donate to charity? Passing out the flyers will be a complete waste of time and paper."

What if these buyers DIDN'T already know which companies donate to charity?

Then this would neither strengthen or weaken...
Can you please correct me?

If the people buying the clothes don't already know who donates to charity, then the plan is a good one. We are trying to weaken the idea that passing out the flyers is a good plan. The organizers are assuming that people *don't* know which designers donate to charity. A way to weaken that is to say that people in fact already do know who donates to charity. Remember, in a weaken question you can bring in new information in the correct answer.

[harithachillarige]

Hi,
Could you please clarify why Option C is incorrect:

"Among the retailers who will hold sample sales at next week’s event, those that donate a portion of their profits to charity far outnumber those that do not."

If the number of retailers who contribute a portion of their profits to charity, FAR OUTNUMBER the number of those who don't then, probably the organizers efforts for increasing the sales for a majority of the retailers would be undermined.

Assume, a total of 100 retailers participate in the event and 99 of them contribute a portion of their profits to charity. Would this scenario justify the efforts of the organizers ?

[jlucero]

Hi,
Could you please clarify why Option C is incorrect:

"Among the retailers who will hold sample sales at next week’s event, those that donate a portion of their profits to charity far outnumber those that do not."

If the number of retailers who contribute a portion of their profits to charity, FAR OUTNUMBER the number of those who don't then, probably the organizers efforts for increasing the sales for a majority of the retailers would be undermined.

Assume, a total of 100 retailers participate in the event and 99 of them contribute a portion of their profits to charity. Would this scenario justify the efforts of the organizers ?

Even in your scenario, the organizers' "hope of increasing those companies’ sales at the event" could still happen if ppl buy from the 99 instead of the 1. If even a single person decided to not purchase from the 1, or a single person who would not have otherwise purchased decided to buy something, the organizers' efforts worked. On a smaller scale, if 8 designers were advertised and 3 were not, those that were advertised might get a boost in sales. D gives a reason why that advertising would be in vain.

[harithachillarige]

Hi,
Could you please clarify why Option C is incorrect:

"Among the retailers who will hold sample sales at next week’s event, those that donate a portion of their profits to charity far outnumber those that do not."

If the number of retailers who contribute a portion of their profits to charity, FAR OUTNUMBER the number of those who don't then, probably the organizers efforts for increasing the sales for a majority of the retailers would be undermined.

Assume, a total of 100 retailers participate in the event and 99 of them contribute a portion of their profits to charity. Would this scenario justify the efforts of the organizers ?

Even in your scenario, the organizers' "hope of increasing those companies’ sales at the event" could still happen if ppl buy from the 99 instead of the 1. If even a single person decided to not purchase from the 1, or a single person who would not have otherwise purchased decided to buy something, the organizers' efforts worked. On a smaller scale, if 8 designers were advertised and 3 were not, those that were advertised might get a boost in sales. D gives a reason why that advertising would be in vain.

Hi,

I think this even in option D:
D Of the retailers at the event that donate a portion of their profits to charity, most have publicized those donations extensively in their advertising.

You could have a situation in which, though the companies have already publicized their donations, may be some (Atleast one) of the buyers is unaware and thus the distribution of flyers might be useful.
I still find it hard to decide between Options C and D because of the usage of the word "FAR OUTNUMBER".

[tim]

think of it this way: the question is basically asking which situation would make handing out flyers not such a good idea. is it the one where there are a lot of companies giving money to charity (C) or the one where the companies already did their own advertising (D)? you should quickly see that C is totally irrelevant, but D definitely calls into question whether further advertising will help..

[BaranidaranP390]

Hi Tim/MGMAT Team,

I have a query on your reply.

Option C -> If companies are outnumbered, fliers might not have much impact, maybe "some" impact
Option D -> Even if companies have already publicized, it won't hurt to give away fliers capturing the attention of people who don't know about it

Both the options suggest giving away fliers may not be a great idea. In such cases, how do I choose an answer, both in this situation and in future if such a case arises?

Thanks.