CR: Gym membership and marketing campaign

[ale_434]

So I was having a look at the amazing CR guide by GmatPrep Now and came across this question:

To attract members away from other fitness clubs in the city, FitnessTown recently launched a new marketing campaign in which each new member receives a free locker rental, free fitness consultations, and unlimited use of the tanning beds. FitnessTown's marketing team claims that the campaign has been a huge success, since its membership has already increased 20 percent in the first two weeks of the campaign.

Which of the following, if true, would best help to refute the claim of FitnessTown's marketing team?

A. Almost all of FitnessTown's new members had never visited a fitness club before they were enticed by FitnessTown's new campaign.
B. Most of FitnessTown's new members do not intend to use the free services offered in the campaign.
C. FitnessTown's investors hope to increase membership by 50 percent within the first month of the campaign.
D. FitnessTown's new marketing campaign is identical to its previous marketing campaigns.
E. Studies show that people typically cancel their fitness club memberships within the first year.

OA is A

However, and although I see the reasoning for that answer choice to be true, I can't see why C is incorrect. In my view:

P:

- to steal members -> mkt campaign with free stuff
- 20% inc members first 2 weeks

C: mkt campaign to steal members was a success

+A:

- all new members are stolen members.
- 20% percent increase is enough to be considered a success.

Can anyone explain to me what is wrong with C ? Thanks in advance.

[MartyMurray]

This question could be a little tighter in that "huge success" is not clearly defined. Is a 20% increase a huge success or is what the investors hope for the definition of "huge success"?

Still, I guess anyone who knows much about business considers 20% growth to be a pretty good definition of huge success, and in any case the task here is to find the BEST answer choice.

Choice A clearly conflicts with what the marketing team is saying. The idea of the campaign is to take customers from other fitness clubs, and so if the new customers are not coming from other clubs, then the campaign is not succeeding at achieving its stated goal.

On the other hand, while choice C may somehow make one wonder whether the customer growth seen fits the investors' definition of success, it does not clearly conflict with what the marketing team is saying. Regardless of what the investors hope for, the marketing team may be right in considering 20% growth huge "success".

Also, even if you were to decide that the way to define success is by looking at what the investors hope for, it's not clear that the 20% growth in the first two weeks of the campaign would not be followed over the course of the remainder of the month by growth such that the growth for the entire month would be 50%. So really no matter how you look at it, choice C does not clearly conflict with what the marketing team is saying.

So the best answer is A.